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AZ PIANO REVIEWS – The #1 Most Trusted Digital Piano Review & News Blog in the world! LOWER PRICES than Amazon and internet music stores! Free ship, no tax on most items. Don’t order anywhere until you check with Tim & Erik Praskins 1st! Email us at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call 602-571-1864
AZ PIANO REVIEWS – The #1 Most Trusted Digital Piano Review & News Blog in the world! LOWER PRICES than Amazon and internet music stores! Free ship, no tax on most items. Don’t order anywhere until you check with Tim & Erik Praskins 1st! Email us at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call 602-571-1864

Digital Piano repair problems 2023

UPDATED REPORT – Nov 1, 2023 – Digital Piano warranty, repair, and service info for Casio, Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Kawai, and all brands of digital pianos | WARNING REPORT! | What you should know when buying a new (or used) digital piano when it comes to reliability, service, and factory warranty?! A new digital piano comes with a factory warranty. Are those warranties on new digital pianos good, are they long enough, and how do they work? Read my report below to find out.


Purchasing a new digital piano for you and/or your family can be a tremendous investment in your musical future and you hope that the digital piano you choose will last a long time without any service issues.
When purchasing a new digital piano in the US you generally get a manufacturer warranty on it. The length of a warranty is different from one brand to another and also different depending on the model of digital piano within the same brand. Warranty time and coverage can also be different for the parts vs the labor. When buying a digital piano it is always good to know what the warranty time and coverage is and and who is providing the warranty coverage. 

Based on my experience of buying and using many digital pianos and keyboards over the years, the length of warranty should be at least 3 year for both parts and labor and the the longer the warranty time is, the better. There are some digital piano brands that only have a 1 year warranty which is pretty short so I would consider staying away from those brands and looking at pianos with longer warranties.

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano newsHaving a good warranty is fine as long as you can actually get the service your piano needs. It would not matter if you had a huge 100 year warranty if you could not actually get it repaired. Repairing physically or electronically malfunctioning digital pianos requires a good, knowledgeable technician who knows what he/she is doing and who can also get the proper parts from the manufacturer to repair the piano. It is not necessarily easy to repair a digital piano if it becomes defective, and diagnosing the problem does require an experienced technician who has done that kind of work before. 

A digital piano that is having “issues” in operating correctly may or may not need parts depending on the problem because it may just need a wire reconnected or a part reinstalled correctly and that requires a technician’s labor and labor time can be expensive. Generally speaking, the top brands of digital pianos these days work well and generally do not need service, which is obviously a good thing. The top manufacturers really don’t want their products to break because it costs them money and time and also can hurt their reputation. The top name manufacturers don’t want that to happen so they work hard at building reliable products. It’s the “off-brands” that you generally have to worry about but sometimes even the best brands can have internal or external issues with their pianos.

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano news

Digital piano circuit boards & parts, control panels, buttons, keyboard actions, power amps, speakers, LCD displays, wiring, cabinet parts, and installation are complex and require high quality intricate manufacturing. This is no easy thing to do and is what separates the good brands from the bad ones. Buying an attractive nice looking piano will not be of value to you if the piano breaks all the time or does not work properly because of inherent design flaws or manufacturing. I have seen this many times over the years where a piano will look good on the outside but they will use inferior parts and construction and the piano will give you continual problems. Even if that instrument has a longer warranty it will be of little consolation to you if you cannot get it fixed because parts are not available or technicians will not work on it because the piano brand has a bad reputation.

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano newsSome people think that paying an extra premium price to get these “extended warranties” on new digital pianos sold by music & piano stores can be a good thing. I have seen a few piano/music stores sometimes say to people that the piano manufacturer warranty covers less than it really does or is not as long as it really is. In other words, the store salespeople knowingly or unknowingly lie to you about the quality and length of time of the actual manufacturer warranty just to get you to buy their expensive extra so-called extended warranty for virtually the same coverage. 

Be careful of that kind of thing as it does happen in US stores and you could be paying money for something you don’t need. If the piano manufacturer already has at least a 3 year or more factory warranty (which many of them have) and it’s a good brand, in my opinion there is little need to spend extra money on an extended warranty, especially if that warranty costs a lot of money and does not extend the entire warranty time to at least 5 years or more, and that’s a very rare thing. 

Some store extended warranties say that they will cover accidents that could happen to the digital piano such as a spilled drink in or on the piano, or broken part caused by an accident to the piano, or in case of failure they may replace that piano. However in all my years of teaching piano and working around 1000’s of kids and adults over the years, it is rare that I have heard of accidents or failures occurring to good new digital pianos for home use beyond the original manufacturer warranty. Besides that, those so-called “extended warranties” can cost quite a bit of money.
Certainly issues can occur on newer name brand digital pianos, but it does not  happen often. So my advice is to just be sure you have a good top name piano brand with a good US manufacturer warranty because that is what really counts. Those warranties will cover what you really need and they’ll usually provide replacements if the piano is defective beyond repair.
Do Not Purchase from outside the US

Another piece of advice: DO NOT PURCHASE A NEW DIGITAL PIANO FROM OUTSIDE OF THE US. The reason for this is those piano can come with a umber of negative issues. Those issues include the distinct possibility that different parts being used inside and/or outside on the cabinet or control panel of that model. No matter what an ad says, if the item is coming from a supplier outside the US, it may not actually be what is advertised. 

Beyond that issue is the fact that you would not get a US factory warranty. Factory warranties are only good when that purchase is done from a supplier within the United States and technicians only do service on new digital pianos that have a US factory warranty. I have seen a number of repair issues over the years which can cost hundreds of dollars and even the good brands can have issues from time to time. 

It could cost you a lot of money

With popular consumer products from top companies like Apple, Samsung, Toyota, and so many others who make cars, computers, digital tablets, phones, appliances, etc, there can be a service issue from time to time. So no company is immune from repair problems. But unless you purchased that new item in the US with a US warranty, you likely will not get service under a warranty and then you will have to pay for it, assuming you can get the needed parts at all! US parts suppliers for digital pianos do not normally give or sell parts for digital pianos purchased outside the US.

You would also have to pay any fees, import duties, and deal with any international shipping issues such as shipping damage. Those things can cost you time and money as well. So just do yourself a favor; buy here domestically, get a good US factory warranty on that new digital piano you want, and you will have a much better experience.

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano newsIf you should ever need to use the manufacturer warranty then there is a process on how that works. Digital piano warranty work is serviced by factory authorized technicians that are normally self employed and don’t work for piano/music dealers. The technicians do the repair work in the their shop or in your home, church, school, or or venue depending on the location of the piano, the warranty coverage, and the technician. Some new digital piano warranties (usually for portable digital pianos) only allow for carry-in service where you take it (or ship it) to a technician to get the piano serviced. Other digital piano warranties (usually on furniture cabinet style pianos) allow the technician to come to you and service the piano there at no extra charge if the warranty includes “in-home service.”. 

However, if there is not a digital piano technician near where you are located, then you will probably have to pay an extra “travel charge” to the technician to get him/her to come to your home, school, church, etc. i 

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano news

In most medium to larger cities in the US there is usually at least one digital piano technician who can service these new digital pianos. However these technicians are almost always independent techs as I mentioned earlier who do not work for piano or music stores. They are self employed and therefore usually work on most or all of the better brands of digital pianos. Piano or music stores across the US use these independent techs to do their digital piano service and if you buy from a local store, that store simply contacts the local tech to call you and set a service appointment, but you can do that yourself just as well. 

So in reality, when it comes to digital piano service, the local store does not provide anything more than you can do for yourself with a phone call and/or email. Internet on-line stores scan do the same thing for you when buying a new digital piano from them. The authorized service tech actually works directly with the US manufacturer headquarters to get parts and service advice they need, and then they do the warranty work on your piano.

Digital Piano warranty service

It’s also good to know that if you live in an outlying area far away from a major city, you will likely not get quick service coming to you, if you get it at all. Independent techs must travel many miles to get to where if you are in an outlying area. It could be weeks or more until that tech can make time to travel to where you are, if they go there at all. At that point it will also cost you a lot of money to get that service tech to travel that distance as I mentioned before. In reality, you don’t get something for nothing and if you choose to buy a digital piano knowing you live in a remote area, you better be sure you choose a top name brand with a good product reliability track record or you may be in for nightmare getting your piano repaired if you live far away from the service technician. 

In that case you may need to bring the piano to where the service tech is and drop it off for service repair. Depending what the piano needs to be repaired, your piano may need to stay with that tech for a week to two weeks or more before it can be fully repaired assuming the needed parts are available (if parts are required).

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano news
So am I scaring you now about digital piano repairs and buying digital pianos!? I hope not because in reality the top name brands produce well made reliable digital pianos that should last for years without breakdown. If something does go wrong on a new top name digital piano, then it usually occurs within the first 1-3 months and a couple of these top brands will likely replace the piano for you during that time if getting service or parts becomes problematic instead of you needing to find a repair tech for it. 

Out of all the top name brand digital pianos available in the US, overall I hear of very few service issues on these top pianos because they are made well and do stand the test of time…as long as you take care of them and buy them in the US. Also, just because a new digital piano is in a high price range does not make it impervious to defects or needed repairs. 
It’s not the price range that will make the piano more reliable but it’s the quality of the brand and their ability to make good digital pianos that will last a long time. Casio, for instance, has some very reliable digital pianos under $1000 and Kawai has some very reliable pianos over $5000 but those different price ranges are fairly equal in terms of reliability one way or the other. Again, stick with the better brands and you will be overall more satisfied with your purchase.

digital piano warranty repair service - az piano news
Based on my experience with them, the best digital piano brands to buy with a good track for handling any service issues in the US would be Kawai, Roland, Casio, Korg, and Yamaha. They have good experienced service departments at their US service facility, handle service issues pretty quickly, and are generally responsive to the piano owner. However, when it comes to buying used digital pianos with no factory warranty, I recommend you think twice before buying one hoping that you’ll save money doing it that way. Saving money is a relative thing. So even though you may save a few bucks on a used digital piano (or something from another country) in the long term it could easily cost you a lot more money if that digital piano needs repair and requires service. Go to my review on used digital pianos at the following link to find out more about buying used digital pianos. Used Digital Pianos.

Roland HP507 digital piano

*Before you buy any digital piano anywhere, please contact me first because I can give you more important info on the piano and also on any potential service issues that may be connected with that piano, especially the off-brands of digital pianos. You may want to stay away from those off-brands such as Williams, Suzuki, Donner, Adams, Medeli, and a few other brands, based on my experience with them. People want their digital piano to sound good, play good, but they especially want them to work good. So be sure you buy a digital piano that will perform and hold up in the way you want it to. Don’t just buy the piano for its looks or so-called “specs,” or because it has a cheap price. Get a good new name brand piano and you will likely not be disappointed.

If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

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One Response

  1. Really helpful advice and information, thank you so much for writing this review! I’m considering getting a new digital piano myself and luckily saw this when researching about warranty.

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