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Hi.

I've bought a brand new Yamaha P95 digital piano, and after playing a while I've noticed that all the black keys and some of the white keys bounce a bit when pressed. The bounce isn't bad enough to affect the sound and doesn't affect the playing speed, it just feels slightly "bouncy" for the fingers.

What I'd like to know is if this is normal, or if I should get the piano replaced? I didn't experience this when trying out another P95 in the store, but maybe I wasn't paying that much attention.

Thanks.

It depends on what you mean by "bounce". With stage pianos, I usually find the keys to be slightly stiff when brand new, particularly when dealing with the higher quality brands. As the instrument keys get more playing, the action relaxes and more "bounce" or response from the keys should be noted.

Is this a brand new model (as in unboxed) or was it an ex-display model? If it was the latter, all the demos and try-outs from interested customers may have helped break it in.

It was not an ex-display model to my knowledge. Box and piano looked new.

What I mean with bounce is that when I press a key down (especially a black key) and hold it down, I can feel a short series of upward bounces, or pushes if you so will, immediately after having pushed down the key.

Also when I release a key, there is a DOWNWARD bounce from the key. So it goes both ways.


I've heard that this is to be expected from digital pianos, since their keyboards and mechanism simply aren't as good as acoustic ones.

haecceitas wrote:What I mean with bounce is that when I press a key down (especially a black key) and hold it down, I can feel a short series of upward bounces, or pushes if you so will, immediately after having pushed down the key.

Yes, this varies from brand to brand - I notice it more on Rolands for some reason - but this is a normal feature of the key counter-weighting on some and possibly most stage pianos and digital pianos.

What you are feeling is the hammer action coming into play. This is quite normal on the P95. Similarly, there is a slight rebound when you press a key and let go quickly - I've just tried one we have in the workshop here.

Thanks for your answers.
I'm very glad to hear that my particular piano doesn't have some production fault, and that the bounce is completely normal.

If I upgrade sometime in the future, is there any digital piano that doesn't have this "bounce" and has a keyboard that feels identical to a good acoustic piano? Or will digitals always be a compromise rather than a substitute?

This may be my imagination but I have always felt that the lighter case bodies of the smaller stage pianos (such as the P range) tend to be more susceptive to this key bounce. I currently own a CP33 and CP300 both with the same keyboard action and yet, I noticed key bounce more on the lighter and smaller CP33.

Digital Piano keyboard actions are undoubtedly more positive feeling than acoustics; the latter tends to have more control and you are more conscious of the hammers and consequent counterweight. As is mentioned on this forum from time to time, a digital piano is usually an alternative but, as yet, is not an successful copy of what you will experience when playing an acoustic.

Technology is always improving and perhaps some day we will be able to say differently. I would recommend you have a look at Yamaha's Clavinova range, particularly the CLP340 and CLP370 to compare keyboard actions. The former has the GH3 keyboard action and the CLP370 has the NW (Natural Wood Action) which often receives high praise - I would have to check but I think that both these actions would be higher spec than the action of the P-95.