Impatient waiting for my fractured wrist to heal and advised to avoid gripping with my left hand I am looking for something productive to do. My guitars will be gathering dust for a while. So which electric piano/keyboard should I buy?

I am a complete beginner. Would like something light, portable with a reasonable sound and a line out so I could plug it in and play it at an open mic night once I master a couple of songs. Any recommendations? Budget is nothing too professional/expensive as I’m a beginner but needs to be something I can plug into an amp with a sound good enough for the pub.

I have bought my duaghter a Yamaha EZ-220 for Xmas – £150 from Argos.

Gets pretty good reviews and seems to have some good features for a learner.

I am looking forward to using it to channel my inner Frank Sidebottom.

It’s going to depend if you want something that sounds and plays like a real piano or if you just want some accompaniment.  You also want light which is the enemy of a good ‘feel’.   It’s even tougher as you are a beginner so won’t really be able to tell the difference between how they play so much although you will probably be able to hear it

In this case I would take a pair of headphones with you down to a keyboard shop and listen to how they sound, even if you have to get someone in the shop to play them for you (why not).  When I was looking for one for my daughter she could hear and feel the differences up to a couple of grand so it will just be a case of stopping at the point that is good enough and not too painful on price.  Take the headphones as the built in speakers won’t be great until you go up in price a bit.

Normal go-to brands that are vfm would be Yamaha and Roland for piano type noises but shops will often also have their own favourites that are less marketed but equally good.  Trust your ears rather than reviews.

We got my daughter a Yamaha PSR e363 this year and it’s very impressive.

Might be just the ticket for you?

A budgets would probly be good idea. The range goes from £10 to £10,000.

Also just got a Yamaha PSR e363. On recommendation from my daughter’s music teacher. Got a good deal on Amazon. They seem to hold their price second hand.

Have a look at the Casio CTK-6200. Full size 61 key keyboard, huge high quality voice range, percussion and huge recording memory.
About £180.

The other question is do you want some thing that feels like a piano. (entry level there is about minimum 300 quid new, less 2nd hand obv.)

Light as means not back breaking for proper weighed keys btw, to describe them is light is a bit of a stretch. Would be a pain carting arround my FP30 all over the place, not to mentioned you’d need to take a stand with you as well.

Suppose no different from a guitar, amp and all the gubbings mind.

You’ll probably want an amp for gigging too.

Andertons on YouTube have lots of good electric piano reviews and comparisons – they’ve done a couple of blind tests and some of the cheaper ones come out surprisingly well. There’s a recent budget (£300ish) Casio that’s light enough to gig with, runs on batteries and meant to play very nicely too.

Thanks for the advice folks. Been looking online at reviews and the Anderson’s videos have been useful. Think I’ve got a front runner the Casio PX-S1000. Has a line out for an amp and is light for carrying to the pub if I’m feeling brave.

My wife got a Yamaha Clavinova for silly money second hand because it has a busted key (easily replaced). From her investigations they seem to be the best for the price point.

Not particularly portable though as you need the stand and pedals.