Casio go for traditional but traditional ain't cheap... (Casio AP-450 Digital Piano hands on)
My first impression was a good one, nice looking bit of kit, would look good in the lounge. I wanted to sit down and be just as impressed by the sound but one thing stopped me in my tracks; the keys. The moment I touched them I pulled a funny face, the kind of face I pull when I realise I’ve put salt in my tea and not sugar. They key tops have a peculiar grainy texture, I can see what Casio are trying to do, they are trying to make it feel like your Grandmother’s dusty old piano, the trouble is it doesn’t feel like any old acoustic piano I’ve ever played! It feels unnatural and weird to me and the key top texture is a little too dry and slippy which meant I was constantly having to adjust my hand position whereas the nice friction you get from most traditional piano key tops allows you to push against them a little and play with better balance.
The second bad point is the hammer mechanism, to me it feels disjointed from the sound that is produced, ok for a beginner you play a key, it makes a noise, great! But this feels to me like where Casio have scrimped on this model, there doesn’t seem to be sufficient levels of ‘light and shade’ ie; playing gently and producing quiet notes and playing hard and producing loud notes. Judged against similarly priced models from other brands (Yamaha’s Arius YDP161 £979) I don’t think the Casio has the quality I would want after stumping up a grand of my hard earned money.
In case you’re wondering, it does all the things a good digital piano should; decent selection of sounds, recording, takes headphones etc. Although transposing the key took a referral to the manual (lost points for making me do that!).
It would be unfair of me write off all Casio pianos without trying them but we’re off to a bad start! This model feels overpriced to me and whatever they are attempting with the weird key tops has failed. My advice is compare with other brands before committing.
I give it a 5/10.