Help!! Torn between Yamaha CLP-320 and CLP-330!

[tanabata07]

Hi! I'm a total beginner on piano and am really glad to have discovered this forum!!

I have started taking lessons in pop piano just last Sunday and I don't have a piano at home yet. I'm planning to get a digital piano asap and have narrowed my choices to Yamaha Clavinova CLP-320 and CLP-330.

The price difference between the 2 models in my country is SGD 372 (which is about 210 Euro or USD 273). I'm wondering if it is worth the price difference to upgrade to a CLP-330 over the CLP-320?

If i get the 330, it would be mainly for the GH3 as I am not very concerned about the 4 additional voices (perhaps except the guitar voice which i find not too bad for playing around.) The better display layout and USB functions would also be good to have but not absolutely necessary for me.

I can't play the piano yet so the GH keyboard on the 320 and the GH3 keyboard on the 330 do not feel different to me now. The Yamaha salesman said that GH keyboard is similar to that of an Upright piano while the GH3 imitates that of Grand piano. However, since I never played both upright or grand pianos before, I also do not know how true this is.

Is there realli alot of noticeable difference between GH and GH3 keyboards on the hands of an experienced player? The salesman also said that it would be harder to play fast and repetitive notes on the GH. Thus, I'm worried that if I get 320 with GH, in the future if I want to play very fast songs it may not sound good or the 320 may have some limitations in doing so.

I'm hoping to keep this piano for long term and may even start learning classical pieces after i finish my pop course. So I hope to make a decision I won't regret a few years down the road. So i decided to seek advice!

Has anyone here played on both a GH and GH3 keyboard before and felt alot of differences? If i use a GH keyboard to learn piano now, will it be harder to switch to a acoustic piano in the future than if i use GH3?

Will appreciate any help. THANKS!!!

[markymark]

The point is that you don't feel any difference between the keyboard actions is more important than what anyone else thinks. The dealer has perhaps over-stated things slightly because the GH action is definitely lighter than an upright keyboard action; the GH3 would be closer to an upright.

One thing I also noticed is that you didn't talk about the sound - did you listen to the piano samples on both pianos or did you just fiddle around with the keys? The CLP330 has a better keyboard action but is also has a better piano sample.

Whichever action you use, you will have to make some adjustment to the keyboard action on a real acoustic. I find that I have to do this going from one acoustic piano to another anyway but you will notice a change in the response and expressive tone of the acoustic when you come to it. Personally I generally advocate learning on an acoustic and then move to a digital because there are skills that can really only be perfected when using an acoustic. However, as a beginner pianist, this may not be a major issue yet.

[tanabata07]

Hi markymark, just wanna say thanks to you for your reply! In the end i decided to buy a clp-330, but unfortunately its out of stock in my country! then i decided perhaps to upgrade to a 340, and yet that is out of stock as well. I guess i would have to wait for some time before i can lay my hands on one. but anyway thanks for the advice!!!