New Roland HP704 Digital Piano!!!!

Saturday 16th of August 2025 – New Roland HP704 Digital Piano!!!!

Back in September 2019, just before my granddaughter turned 4 years old, I bought a Casio CTK-6200 61 keys Piano Style Keyboard for £148.54 (useful thing, the Amazon order history…). She started learning some very basic songs and music notation from whatever I could gather for free on the internet. And there was a lot, so much it was overwhelming. It needed direction.

I can’t remember how I found SimplyPiano, but I did find it and before I knew it, I was the one playing on the keyboard a lot, while my granddaughter lost interest completely. She was more interested in doing gymnastics and dancing on the living room floor than sitting down playing the piano.

Soon enough I outgrew that keyboard. So came the next purchase in March 2022. Casio CDP S100 for £279.30. This one had weighted 88 keys and at the time it seemed like luxury, compared to the previous keyboard.

The space where the Casio lived wasn’t exactly great and it was shared with J’s record collection and decks, which he very rarely used…

I had this idea of building a cabinet where the keyboard would go under the decks, maybe as a pull out, and the records would go underneath and/or at the top… Then I started thinking it might be time to upgrade to a proper digital piano. After playing real pianos the Casio was just not giving me that feeling you get from playing a real piano, which is quite an amazing, special feeling. Even more than playing the guitar. The piano has a beautiful presence, it’s a unique feeling.

We got professional bespoke cabinet makers to come around and come up with a design and a quote. I had decided I’d buy a compact digital piano to go underneath the decks and the records would go above the decks – a very strong structure would be needed to support their weight – the designer assured us it would not be an issue. There were around 900 records, weighing 90kgs… J had some other records in cupboards around the house, around 1300. They were even insured for £5000 in our home insurance policy.

We got the concept drawing and quote a week later. It was a bit more than I expected, but I know bespoke units are expensive. J thought it was a lot for something he barely did anymore and so a whole rethinking happened, and change of plan. J was going to see if he could sell the records and we’d shelf the shelves idea (pun intended!). He contacted some record shops. One in Birmingham made him an offer that he accepted. They were going to send him boxes and J would pack them and courier them. Then another company, Reckless Records in Soho also contacted J. After some deliberation, why not let them come around and see if they offer more? Plus they’re in London and could just pick the records up themselves, instead of J having to pack them all up in boxes and risk damage during transportation.

So, Reckless Records guy came on Monday the 11th of August, had a good look at the records and made J a much better offer. Not only that, he took all the records with him on the day. We couldn’t believe it!!! I had gone to Roland on Denmark Street a few days earlier and thought I’d get the very compact Roland DP603-PW Digital Keyboard at around £2300 at some point, once we figured out what would happen to the records.

Once the records sold I started doing more research. ChatGPT was quite useful… And I decided I’d get the bigger Roland HP704 – in white, as we have a small living room, any other colour would be too much. So, on Wednesday 13th of August, I went back to Roland on Denmark Street – with my credit card ready. If they had it in stock and gave me a similar price to what I had found online, I would but it, after trying it. I tried it, and I loved it! I was ready to buy it from the store. But the salesman was, I don’t know, too concerned about his commission, asking me if someone else had given me a quote already, and they didn’t have it in stock anyway, and they couldn’t really offer me a bundle with an adjustable seat and the headphones were way too expensive, plus £50 delivery or £150 if I wanted them to put it together! The salesman said he’d get back to me with a quote and stock details.

I didn’t feel that whole experience was reassuring, so I went ahead and ordered from Fair Deal Music in Birmingham once I got home. They had really good reviews on Trust Pilot and answered my questions promptly, they had it in stock, delivery is inbuilt in the price and they had a bundle for £1849. Which is roughly how much J’s record collection sold for!

I placed the order in the afternoon, they called me a little while later to say they could deliver on Friday!!!! Yay yay yay! And they did indeed deliver on Friday the 15th, in the morning, within the time slot (Dx Delivery). Roland had gotten back to me on Thursday to say it would take 14 days for them to deliver – by that point I had already placed the order with Fair Deal Music anyway. So I tried to buy directly from Roland, but in the end it didn’t make sense to do so, financially or timescale wise