Casio AP420 Celviano Digital Piano with Bench Review

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(More customer reviews)After years of playing my Yamaha DGX-500, I was looking to upgrade my digital piano to something that had graded hammer action, that would look nice in my living room, and that sounded as close to an acoustic piano as possible. I also wanted to spend around a thousand bucks. The Casio AP420, seemed to fit the bill, and having played other Casio digital pianos in my local music store (PX800, PX330, AP200), I was fairly confident in making this purchase from Amazon, sight-unseen.
The mangled box arrived in less than a week, looking like it had fallen off the truck or had been used for target practice. I was almost afraid to look inside. Fortunately, the engineers who designed the packaging did a marvelous job. Every piece was removed from the box in perfect condition. Assembly of the piano was not difficult, took less than an hour, and really did require two people.
The cabinet of the AP420 is quite attractive. I like the sliding keyboard cover, and the faux front legs of the piano, which really make it look less like a keyboard and more like an actual piece of furniture. The pedal board is quite solid, and the action of the brass pedals is firm. The included bench is built like a tank. I'm a rather big guy, and the bench easily supports my weight. The bench is height-adjustable, which is nice, but there is no way to store music inside it. The modesty panel (the back of the piano) covers all but about a 1 inch gap across the top. The gap is visible only when looking at the rear of the piano, or bending over and looking under the keyboard. Having no visible gaps in the back panel where you can see through the piano, helps give the illusion that the piano is deeper than it really is, making it look more like it's in an actual cabinet. One negative point, the music stand is not hinged. Rather, it has two pins that are inserted into holes in the top of the piano. The music stand feels sturdy enough, but the way it attaches seems kind of cheap.
The action on the AP-420 is very nice. The key surfaces (texture) have an ivory feel to them, rather than a cheap plastic feel like most other digital pianos (including some that are WAY more expensive). The action is solid, the keys don't wiggle, and the overall feel is as authentically 'mechanical' as I have encountered in a digital piano. Now, there is a slight 'thump' sound when the keys are fully depressed (seems to be a Casio DP trait), even when the keys are played with just moderate force. This is slightly annoying, but is not really noticeable when wearing headphones, or when the volume is turned up.
The sound quality of the piano samples is probably my chief complaint. The 2x20W built in speakers/amplifier provide ample sound, which is clear, and undistorted. But the piano samples sound slightly muffled to me. This could be because the speakers point downward out of the keyboard sending sound waves directly into my carpeting. There are some attractive fabric-covered 'ports' on the left and right sides above the keyboard that I assume are there to allow some passive speaker sound emanate from the top side of the keyboard. But from what I can hear, 95 percent of the sound comes from the bottom. When playing through headphones, the piano samples sound quite a bit better. The brightness/timbre of the tones is adjustable, but the piano samples seem to take on a 'tinny' sound if adjusted from their default setting. Overall, the piano sounds are not bad; they're just not quite as good as I was hoping for.
One other nitpicky thing: There are only 7 buttons to control all of the the piano settings. For most options, you have to hold down the function button, and then locate the appropriate key on the piano keyboard to set/change the option. Some options are lightly labeled above the keys. Others (like reverb, chorus, tuning) are unmarked, and so you have to look in the manual to find out which keys to press. Fortunately, once you have configured the piano the way you want (pitch, reverb, touch, brightness) you can save your settings, so that it will remember them the next time you turn it on. (Unfortunately, the 'save' key isn't marked either, so you'll have to look that one up in the manual.)
Some other nifty things I like:
- SD card slot for saving midi recordings, or loading midi files.
- Adjustable reverb
- Three level adjustable touch response
- USB port (note that this piano does not have an actual MIDI port. If you need to interface with a MIDI device, you'll need to get a USB to MIDI adapter.)
- Layering of sounds (play strings and piano at the same time)
- Split keyboard (i.e. play string bass with left hand, vibra-phone with right.)
- Duet Mode (splits the keyboard into two equal pitch ranges for playing duets that might otherwise require two pianos.)
- The pedals support 'half-pedaling'
- It has a true sostenuto pedal (only dampens notes that are pressed prior to pressing the sos. pedal.)
- Two 1/4" stereo headphone jacks.
- Two 1/4" mono right/left line out jacks
I've rated it 5 stars since fractional stars aren't allowed. My personal rating is more like 4.5 stars, so I just rounded up. When looking at the features and quality, I don't think there's anything else on the market in this price range that even comes close to this instrument. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I like mine.
UPDATE - ONE YEAR LATER... (2-June-2011)
Well, it has been about a year since my initial review of the Casio AP-420. Having spent more time with the instrument, I wanted to update my review with my latest thoughts.
Just for kicks, I went to my basement, plugged in my old Yamaha DGX-500, and played a couple tunes. I was surprised at how tinny and anemic sounding the Yamaha was. And that one had the piano sound that used to please me. By contrast, the "muffled" sound that I initially reported on the Casio now seems more 'full', and rich. Obviously the piano's samples haven't changed. I guess my ear was just used to that bright, wimpy piano sound of my old Yamaha. Now, when I use the Casio to play Soundfonts of various Steinway pianos (via MIDI), it is obvious that the Casio sound is still lacking depth and color. But, for everyday use, my ears are much happier with the sound of the Casio than they initially were a year ago.
The keyboard still has the same authentic 'mechanical' feel to it. The keys seem to be ever so slightly more loose - but still no wiggling or floating of keys. After a year of regular use, the keyboard still feels great.
My annoyances list is still the same: the single function button combined with certain keys on the keyboard is kind of a pain, and the thump sound (when playing with even moderately 'heavy hands') is still bothersome.
But all-in-all, one year later, I'm as happy as ever with my purchase.

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