Digital Piano: Roland HP 237RE

I posted a while ago regarding buying an electronic piano for live and recording purposes. I basically wanted something that had a great piano sound, with maybe a few good string samples. It wasn't important how many wacky sounds it had.

So after searching a bit i got distracted, and it was only the other day when my mum told me about an upcoming auction that was selling 3 Roland HP 237RE's.  So i went online and could find barely any unofficial reviews or information about this piano, except for this:

www.rolandus.com/specs_brochures/HP-237FAXback.pdf

The piano looks really good (and really expensive). I guess i just want anybody's advice on how much this thing is worth (roughly) and/or if i should look at any other models.

The key concern for me is that wooden structure the unit seems to be embedded in. I really need the piano to be portable for live performances and don't need the beautiful wood-grain finish   . Is it possible to get a different stand for it and remove the unit from this?

Any feedback at all is muchly appreciated.

Cheers!
Jack

[HEAVY]

I don't own one of those, but I do own a Roland keyboard with their weighted piano action in it - an A80. This is just the keyboard and MIDI sections - it's a master MIDI keyboard.

And it is HEAVY. Like, you only gig this thing if you have a roadie or want to develop some serious muscles. Now, you might be able to split one of those HP237's - and I'm sure that they are nice pianos -  but you would need a hefty stand to put it on for gigging - the base it's presently sitting on doesn't look suitable at all. I think that you'd need a Quik-Loc double-brace stand, at least. Mine's on one of these:

[/list:u]

And if you want to do the split, I'd get somebody who's done this sort of thing before to do it, unless you are very practically-minded - this may not be quite as simple as you think, although I'm sure it's possible.

I have no idea at all what these pianos are worth - not a clue!

I think all weighted keyboards are like that.  The Ensoniq MR76 I bought for my wife is a mutha as well.  I'd rather have to lug around a Fender twin reverb...

[HEAVY]

And it is HEAVY.

The Kawai MP9500 is a fair bit heavier, at 32Kg (71 lb)! I have mine on this stand for complete rigidity.

Going back to the Roland 237RE, one issue could be how the pedals are wired to the top unit - there might be a special plug/socket arrangement for the stand part that could be tricky to use without it.

Paul

The Kawai MP9500 is a fair bit heavier, at 32Kg (71 lb)!

Nice piano. It's not that much heavier though - the A80 is 66 lb. and for all that weight it doesn't even make a sound of its own!

The key concern for me is that wooden structure the unit seems to be embedded in.  . Is it possible to get a different stand for it and remove the unit from this?

I own a Roland HP-1700L looking at the picture in the link it looks like it was worth a few dollars I don't know if its an upline or a down line of the HP-1700L I think an upline due to the features. so with that in mind the HP 1700L when it was new was retailed at $3200.00 Canadian, the piano sound is great and on my unit the keyboard can detach from the base (for shipping I think) the foot controllers plug into the back of the keyboard "but" they are attached to the base so you would have to see if you could get foot controllers that are independant of the base

We just got a Kurzweil SP76 for my mother not too long ago. And I was blown away by the quality of the sounds it has! The grand piano is beautiful, and it does have strings. It's not too expensive either.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_id/43907