Don't be Fooled by Yamaha's Expensive Clavinovas with "Wooden Keys"

It is so frustrating to see the amount of deception and manipulative marketing tactics employed by some of the more famous piano companies making digital instruments today. Yamaha manufactures so many expensive Clavinova digital pianos using what they consider "wooden key actions." Or NW-GH. The only problem is...these are not wooden keys. Check out the picture below.

As you can see, this is nothing more than a sticker of wood veneer slapped on the sides of plastic keys. This is the same dated technology found in portable weighted keyboards, definitely not a true piano key. Not even Kawai goes this low! Their non-hybrids feature at least real grand-piano length keys. But for some reason, Yamaha believes that they are special and famous enough to use the same compomising technology in their top-of-the-line "furniture" home pianos as synthesizer companies, such as Nord, Roland, and Korg---and then charge significantly more than these companies who are producing the best weighted keyboards for live musicians today! This has to be one of the cheapest and most disgraceful things I have witnessed in a hotly competitive industry. It makes sense for companies like Nord to use a key-mechanism like the one pictured above, because a Nord piano weighs less than 25 pounds and can easily fit into a Toyota Prius. Yamaha does not need to save weight by using the same technology in their premium line of home pianos, yet they do because they can. 

Be assured that our Casio Grand Hybrids feature the same 100% Apline solid-spruce grand piano keys as C. Bechstein's hand-crafted grand pianos, and feature a simplified whippen and hammer assembly designed by Bechstein that features the same key dip and blow distance as a real grand piano action. This results in an authentic grand piano touch. Look at the picture above. It looks like a grand piano action because it is nearly the same! Keep in mind, this technology costs significantly less--hundreds of dollars less--than our Yamaha "Natural Wood-Graded Hammer" Clavinova competition. Next time a Yamaha salesman tries to convince you to spend more than $3,500 of your hard-earned cash on a Clavinova because of having "real wood keys" ask them to show you what the keys really look like.