Fans of Roland
Roland FP90 here. I really like the PHA50 action. I don't use the internal sounds.
I was in a music shop today tobuy a bass. guitar strap and I popped into the keyboard room for a minute to check out some of the stage pianos. Several or them were on the wall one above the other, close so it was hard t see what the board was without looking down between them. I went through the actions thinking "OK, bad, pretty good, so-so ... hey, this one is pretty darn good, what is it?" It was a Roland, naturally. 
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
As an owner of the RD-2000, I was interested when I heard the RD-2000 EX is out. Turns out it's the same physical board with a software upgrade, including some new V-Pianos. I already bought the German Concert piano upgrade and was pleased to see that entitled me to a coupon for the rest of the upgrade, which one can purchase and download from the Roland Cloud. Doing that now!
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
Boy, these directions are TERRIBLE ... I think I'm figuring it out. Will report back!
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
Thanks for the thoughts! This is on my list of things I want to accomplish when I have the time to sit and do it. I definitely appreciate the coupon from Roland, though.
Hey TC, if you don't mind me asking...
As another RD-2000 owner, maybe you have some thoughts. I love my RD-2000, no question, it's a great keyboard for me. But I am kinda thinking towards another lighter weight keyboard, "throw it in the car and go" kind of thing, maybe even onboard speakers. But having a decent action, light weight, and even speakers is a pretty tall order. Any suggestions?
Have been considering maybe a Kawai ES920. But there might be others more worthy. (?) Lots say get the MP7 instead, more features,... but... no speakers, which means I gotta carry them around in addition. I'm mostly just piano, sometimes adding some strings. I rarely use anything else at all for sounds.
My old Casio (PX-560) is gettin' real tired, plus, it has a crappy keyboard, way light touch, "clickly / noisy". And I keep wondering when it's gonna implode on me at a rehearsal.
Was just curious, especially from another RD-2000 owner. Not wanting to replace it. Only add a little brother to the family. 
OK, downloaded and installed, despite terrible directions with obvious cut and paste errors ... If anyone else (esp. B-Man) does this, feel free to ask for help. I've tested it a bit, so far so good, but will spend more time with it this evening before I comment much.
@Bellyman Ha, I know how you feel. I've had the RD-2000 for maybe 3 years now, and I love it, but it's never left the house. That's about to change! I started teaching a pal to play guitar this year and we have a little trio (him on guitar and most lead vocals, my wife on drums, me on bass or keys) and we're ready to start performing for people, which will really be the first time I've played piano in a live setting (lots of experience in bands on bass but piano has been limited to recording videos). In a couple of weeks we're having a garage party at my house and will provide some live music, then a similar thing at his house over the Labor Day weekend. We'll see how he comes along on guitar, but we might even play real venues at some point!
Anyway, I'm already having the same thoughts. I love the RD-2000 but it's almost 50 pounds! I have a wheel case for it, so that will help some, but I'm still tempted to get something much, much lighter. I'm starting to think that portability might outweigh compromises for action and sound, especially since I'll be playing in a group rather than solo.
The Kawai ES920 is definitely one I've looked at. I suspect the action will be adequate, especially after I get used to it, but there aren't any for sale in my area, so I'm going to have to wait until I travel a bit further to try one out. It's 38 pounds, so a bit more than ten pounds lighter than the RD, which I guess is significant but maybe not enough to make it worth the change.
It does occur to me that a lighter action might be a bonus for longer gigs, and that any clicking and clacking (like my older Casios used to do) wouldn't be heard over the sound of the band anyway. To that end, I'd like to check out a Kawai ES120, and maybe even some of the newer Casios. I know about the latter's short pivot, but we're playing pretty simple rock and blues stuff right now that is very white-key friendly and doesn't require a ton of playing up by the fallboard. The Casio CDP-S360 is only 24 pounds, so that should probably be on my list.
I've also wondered about giving up a weighted keyboard altogether as long as the action feels otherwise substantial. My Roland VR-730 is semi-weighted but really doesn't feel piano-like at all (it's more for organ-style and synth playing). Maybe I should just suck it up and learn to play the piano tunes on it, since I'm already using it for a couple of other songs for organ and EP sounds. Otherwise, I've heard good things about the Roland GO pianos and keyboards, so I might see about testing one of them out.
So yeah. That's all by way of saying: I don't have any good advice! I'm definitely in the same boat. I'll keep you posted if I end up going with something else, and you do the same, please!
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
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Thanks, TC! I appreciate reading your thoughts.
Lots of stuff out there to look at. Some with decent reviews, some not so great. And some that fit certain players better than others.
Had seen the ES120 and the ES520, but I had wondered whether I would be satisfied with that action. The ES920 steps up to the next level of actions, along with a step up in weight and a step up in price. I guess no getting around that.
Dunno, still on the fence. Gonna tear the Casio apart and see what's going on with it if I can, over the next few days. Knowing about the particular keys that tend to wanna "stick", I can somewhat play around that, at least in certain less critical settings. But it still is pretty tired. So I don't HAVE to do anything like NOW. I like shopping from that perspective, way better than the "oh crap, my main board died, I have a gig tonight" kinda thing. I actually took the Casio to rehearsal this afternoon. I got through. (A below middle C... if I play it with pressure towards the bass, it's fine. If I play it with pressure towards the treble, it will sustain indefinitely, just that one note, regardless of pedal. A repeat press usually releases it. I'm guessing that something in there is just close enough to being out of position that it doesn't always get the "off" signal as the key is released.) Have been procrastinating. I really can fix a lotta stuff. Even did some electronics work years ago. But still not exactly lookin' forward to gettin' in there.
Being in a 3 piece band, (piano, bass, drums), I can't get away with holding back or dropping out all that much. I sometimes wonder how piano players get those gigs where they're in like a 30 piece band and can read the Wall Street Journal while waiting for their tiny little part to come up. LOL! In all seriousness, when I started out in playing jazz, it was a 6 piece and for that, the Casio was pretty much everything I needed. Sorta feels like I shifted gears big time, now, though. Way more in the hot seat / spotlight.
Yes, will certainly be online to share the details if I latch on to another gigging keyboard. Either I'll like it or will find someone to commiserate with. LOL!!
Bellyman I have an ES920 and I really like it. But I don't haul it around to gigs.
Supposedly the ES920 has a better action than the ES520 and ES120, but I have read that some people actually like the ES520/ES120 action better. If you have a chance to play them maybe you'll find you like the action in the lighter piano better as well.
I wish I could find some decent keyboards locally to try out. My best hope is probably going to be having someone like Sweetwater send me something to try out. Seems like showroom options are gonna mean a substantial road trip, not so easy for me to do right now. I suppose that's one of the prices I pay for not living in a major city.
Bellyman I hear you! I bought an ES920 when they first came out based on youtube videos. Not a great way to buy an instrument but it worked for me.
I think the ES520 and ES120 have the same action. If a showroom is too hard, maybe order a returnable ES120 since it's the lightest Kawai slab (as far as I know)? I'm not really recommending this, just thinking out loud!
Hopefully you can fix the Casio and then you won't need to buy a new keyboard!
Honestly, I buy most music gear based on online reviews, company reputation, etc. We always tell people to try things out first hand but that's rarely possible for me without multiple trips of a couple of hours each direction ...
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
TC3 Honestly, I buy most music gear based on online reviews, company reputation, etc.
Unfortunately, I find myself in that situation more than I'd like, and not just music gear. We do the best we can.
And... it's one reason I particularly like reading threads that talk about different keyboards, likes/dislikes, how they're used, what went wrong, what people really like, stuff like that. Some gets filtered, such as if someone says a piano action isn't fast enough for their synth work. I don't do synth work so that's not a factor for me. Or if someone mentions how very wonderful the piano action and onboard sounds are but it happens to weigh 80+ pounds (115 with the case, yikes!), and it's something I wanna gig with (NO!). Or sometimes there will be talk of a particular mechanical failure that seems to crop up, something worth paying attention to. Stuff like that.
rogerch Hopefully you can fix the Casio and then you won't need to buy a new keyboard!
Had a chance to tear into the Casio today. Found a bit debris, not exactly sure what, not a lot, around the sensors of the key that was misbehaving. Reassembled and played for a while, seems fine. (Dang, they used a lot of screws.)
Have a 3 hour outdoor gig tomorrow so I'm gonna set it up there and see how it does. I'll have my RD-2000 in the van, just in case I need it. It's not a "concert" type thing, just people coming and going, and I doubt anyone will actually sit and listen for more than a few minutes. (It's a "customer appreciation day" at a liquor store, kind of a big event for them, but it's not about us at all. But hey, it pays well.) Weather is not supposed to be rainy but there is the possibility of a few raindrops showing up, nothing likely substantial. So... we'll see.
I still would kinda like to upgrade a bit but so far, it's not an emergency. Might keep a lookout for a used one or maybe a demo at Sweetwater, or something that I can maybe get a better price. Not being in any kind of hurry increases my chances of that.
Anyway, will report back if the thing fails big time. LOL!!
Bellyman That's great, definitely report back after.
I had a Casio PX-160 a while back, same action as yours if I recall. It got noisy very quickly but it was still pretty fun. Despite the short pivot, the action was fun to play, a bit on the light side but that might be good for long gigs.
Enthusiastic but mediocre amateur.
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Bellyman I’m in Los Angeles and it’s getting harder and harder to find anywhere to try out DP’s. I’ve wanted to try out the Kawai VPC-1 and Kawai MP11SE for years but might as well be unicorns and no way I’m dealing with the nightmare of shipping if I bought based on reviews but ended up not liking it.
It’s a strange business paradigm we are moving into with the death of the brick and mortar stores. Works for some things but not so much for others.
Jazzpunk, yeah, it is definitely hard to find the "showroom" kind of places we used to 20 years ago. I guess having a lot of inventory tied up on a showroom floor can get pretty expensive.
About the only other option I can think of is having someone like Sweetwater send several to try out then return the ones that are the least desirable. I'm sure there is a restocking fee or some such, understandably. It might help me that I've bought quite a lot of stuff from Sweetwater over the years and they know I'm likely to continue buying from them. I also find that when I talk to my sales guy on the phone (there is one in particular), he pretty much always gets me a substantial discount of some kind. And my wife likes it when there is candy in the box when it comes. LOL!! 
Just finished playing through most of tomorrow's set on the old Casio. So far, so good. No issues. Hoping it's fixed for a while anyway.
If I weren't gigging, I think I'd have probably tried to get an MP11SE. It's just too heavy for me to hump around, my ol' back would not like it at all. Even the RD-2000 is pushin' the limits, I had to get a soft bag to carry it instead of the hardshell case. I just have to be extra careful. I have the heavy case if I think I need it. The hardshell case is something like 32 pounds, just the empty case, plus 45 or so for the RD-2000, that's probably 80 pounds if I put the pedal, a cord and some light accessories in there. The soft case is maybe 4 or 5 pounds at most.