UK Piano Page Piano Forum

Hello,
This is my post and I hope someone can help me with my dilema.
We have recently relocated back to the UK for two years. I know that we will return to the states within 2 or 3 years. My daughter has been playing the piano for a couple of years. We are not allowed to ship a piano back to the states and to be honest, I'm a bit scared of buying a used piano from Gumtree etc..... I'm looking into getting a digital piano but because we will be moving again, I've been trying to find one with dual voltage.

After speaking to local shops, many of the Roland digitals that have external transformers do state the voltage as 100-240, which leads me to believe it will also work in the states. Does anyone know if this is correct? I would hate to spend so much money on one only to find out it doesn't work. I have not been able to find any other brand that shows the same voltage as Roland. The more expensive Rolands with internal transformers do not show 100-240, only 220-240.

Does anyone have any ideas/opinions on this matter?
Thanks so much.

JoannaT wrote: After speaking to local shops, many of the Roland digitals that have external transformers do state the voltage as 100-240, which leads me to believe it will also work in the states. Does anyone know if this is correct?

The best party to speak to would be Roland. Many local retailers have a generic knowledge of the instrument's user interface but little about the hardware of electronics. The only keyboard I have come across so far that has 'dual voltage' is one that I bought last year, namely the Kurzweil PC3X. I'm not sure if this is a feature on all their keyboards, but either way, the Kurzweil could only be used in USA after a change of fuse and power cable so not as simple as it seems.

There may well be an issue like this if in fact Rolands do have a 100-240V compatibility, but again, the manufacturers would be the folks to talk to.

Most digital keyboards tend to fall into one of 3 categories:
1. General export model. These usually have a voltage selector allowing you to change to different setting for different countries (voltages)- not very common in Europe nowadays.

2. Specific voltage. The power supply can only handle one specific voltage. This is the most common case for items sold in Europe (inc. UK) and is nominally for 230Vac. (or whatever the voltage is in the country it is sold).

3. More recent products, using a switch mode power supply, can handle anything from 100Vac to 240Vac.

You need to either check the label on the product, which usually contains the model number, serial number, information regarding standards it complies with (such as the CE mark), power consumption and mains supply voltage, or contact the manufacturer for details.

If your instrument has a fixed voltage input, get a step-up or step-down transformer for use in another country. This should be rated to handle at least 20% more power than the rated power consumption of whatever you're plugging into it.

If your keyboard uses an external power adapter, i.e. it has a DC input (usually 9-15Vdc), just get the equivalent adapter in the country you're going to. The internals of these keyboards should be the same from country to country (disregarding EU niceties such as the RoHS regulations)