Product Review: Yamaha P-45 – Portable Piano

Yamaha’s P Series portable pianos have been popular with band musicians for years due to their convincing concept: good grand piano sound and a solid keyboard in an affordable instrument. More than any other model, the Yamaha P-45 is the entry-level piano par excellence. Further, it made such a Yamaha piano available for less than 400 Euros. Is that still possible?

With a weight of 11.5 kilos and very compact dimensions, the Yamaha P-45 is easy to store and take with you. The manufacturer optionally offers a stand for the black entry-level piano, making it suitable for living rooms. While a triple pedal is not available, the instrument comes with a power supply, a simple foot switch for sustain, and music holder. The 88-note “Graded Hammer Standard” keyboard is known from several other Yamaha pianos. The ‘bigger brother’ Yamaha P-125, for example, features the GHS – an interesting digital piano itself.

The successor: Yamaha P-145!

The Yamaha P-45 is a success story: it has been the entry-level mega-seller for eight years. From July 2023, the P-45 will have a successor: with its improved piano sound and contemporary features, the Yamaha P-145 has what it takes to become a new bestseller.

Yamaha P-45 – Reduced to the essentials

The P-45 offers ten sounds, including two acoustic grand pianos as the main sounds. The first sound, “Grand Piano”, suits all occasions: A well-balanced sampled concert grand piano with the typical aesthetic Yamaha sound, but with a relatively natural tonality. “Grand Piano 2” is the brighter version with more emphasis on the mid-range. The 64-note polyphony is within the normal range for this price category. However, if you are looking for a digital piano for beginners, you will certainly find instruments with more power in this regard.

Good sound, good keyboard

The weighted 88-note hammer action keyboard offers a decent amount of weight when playing. Meanwhile, the piano sounds are pleasantly dynamic and expressive. There are three dynamic curves to adjust the keystroke dynamics – and even a slight “ebony feel” to the matte black keys.

While the two built-in 12 cm speakers work well and are mostly noise-free, a power of 2 x 6 watts limits what they get out of the grand piano sounds. External amplification is only possible via the headphone jack. Otherwise, there is only a USB-to-host port for connecting to a computer or iPad.

And what else?

The control panel of the P-45 is limited to the on/off button, the volume control, and the grand piano/function button. You can only select the grand piano sound number one directly, all other operations include the keyboard and the “Function” button. This also applies to selecting the other nine sounds.

A Fender Rhodes and an FM electric piano sound, two church organs, two harpsichord variants, a vibraphone, and a synthetic string sound complete the selection. The sound quality is satisfactory. In “Dual” mode, you can layer two sounds and adjust the volume. Further is a reverb effect with 4 types available, which in dual mode can be assigned to one of the two sounds. In “Duo” mode, “Grand Piano 1” becomes available in two independent keyboard halves in the same octave range – for four-handed playing. An integrated metronome is also included, but the P-45 does not offer a recorder.

Instead of a sustain pedal, the P-45 comes with a simple foot switch. You can play with it, but that is not exactly pleasant. If you want something better, you’ll have to buy the appropriate accessories (e.g. Yamaha FC3A).

Conclusion: Entry-level mega-seller

The Yamaha P-45 offers the company’s proven digital piano qualities at a low price, which is certainly not least due to the amount of Chinese-produced low-budget instruments on the German market. If you are watching the price when looking for a digital piano for under 500 Euros, you can’t go wrong with the smallest P, as the sound and keyboard quality are just right.

Yamaha P-45 – Overview

Availablee since: 04.2015
Keyboard: 88 keys, Graded Hammer Standard
Polyphony: 64 voices
Sound generation: Sampling
Included accessoires: power supply, msuic stand, simple sustain pedal (foot switch)
Special features: –