5 Best 73 Key Keyboards – Pro Picks

73 Key Digital Pianos

73 key stage pianos are a super interesting instrument to me. They can have quality sounds, great key-beds, and action, yet they have 73 keys rather than 88.

Some prefer this as 73 key keyboards are a little bit more portable and they can also weigh a little bit less than an 88 key digital piano. The best 73 key stage pianos are also sometimes made in 88 key versions for pianists who desire the full 88 keys.

In this article, we are going to breakdown the best 73 key stage pianos currently available.

The 73 key keyboard is a bit of the black sheep in keyboards in my opinion. They’re not incredibly popular, but those who play them, swear by them for gigging keyboards.

Quick Glance At My Top Picks

IMAGE PRODUCT DETAILS Check Price 
Editors PickKorg-SV-2-Digital-Piano Korg SV-2
  • Circuit Modeling
  • Incredible Electric Piano Sounds
  • Great Built-In Effects
BudgetKorg Krome EX88 Korg Krome EX73
  • 896 Pre-Set Sounds
  • Light-Weight
Runner UpYamaha-CP88 Yamaha CP88
  • Incredible Pianos
  • AWM2 tone generator

Most of the options in this list are more so for professionals as stage pianos are typically a little bit higher end. If you’re looking for something a little bit cheaper, check out the best digital pianos for under $300.

Note:

How I Picked The Best 73 Key Stage Pianos

Best 73 key Stage Pianos

Key Quality: The quality of the keys in a stage piano is extremely important for gigging and or touring. Key action is going to be something you can’t change with your instrument. For the sounds, you always use external VSTs if you don’t love all the internals.

Quality Of Sounds: Having high-quality sounds whether it be or pianos, electric pianos or organ sounds, is important to some degree. If you’re not one who wants to use your stage piano as a MIDI controller, you will want some great sounding internal sounds.

Effects: Most stage pianos have some really good effects built-in. As a musician, you’re going to want to get your hands dirty and tweak sounds to your liking.

Price: Sometimes you can find keyboards that you give you a lot more for your money. The following options were picked based on what they offer you more so than what their price is.

Needs: Deciding exactly what you’re looking for in a keyboard is very important. If you are looking for great internal sounds and a keyboard for gigging, they might be a little different than a keyboard you use for the studio.

Best 73 Key Stage Pianos

Korg SV-2 – Overall Best

Best Stage Piano For Worship
Korg SV-2
4.5

The Korg SV-2 boasts impressive pianos, towering organs, and beautiful electric pianos, making it my top choice for playing in church.

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The Korg SV-2 has some of the absolute best sounding electric pianos that I have heard in a stage piano. The realism is seriously out of this world and hard to believe.

Korg used sampling in order to produce the sounds that come out of this beast of an instrument. By doing this, they truly captured the dynamics of most of the sounds in the instrument.

I believe that the SV-2 works as a great keyboard for worship and or for church. It has some great organs and electric pianos that allow you to really showcase some great sounds.

Studio-Grade FX

There is a valve reactor circuit that packs some great warmth to the low-end as well as some incredible effects featuring the following:

  • Red compressor
  • treble boost
  • U-vibe
  • Vibrato
  • Tremolo
  • Vox Wah
  • Noise reduction
  • Modulation
  • Reverb/Delay (stereo)
  • Stereo limiter

As far as effects and tweaking sound on the SV-2, it is second to none currently. This is currently my favorite Korg digital piano available.

Pros

  • Incredible Effects
  • Circuit modeling
  • Great key-bed
  • Key-action that emulates an acoustic piano
  • 128 note polyphony
  • Electric pianos and Piano sounds are amazing

Cons

  • Very expensive

Yamaha CP73

Yamaha CP73 Stage Piano

The Yamaha CP73 is another keyboard that I really don’t have much against. This thing rocks in pretty much every aspect that I’ve found while playing it.

If you’re a fan of electric pianos, you will be blown away by the CP73. When I first sat down to play this keyboard, I played on the electric pianos for a good hour straight.

While there are other stage pianos with really good electric pianos, some lack in the acoustic piano sounds. The CP73 doesn’t lack in this department in any way.

When comparing the CP73 to the Nord stage pianos, I honestly would pick the CP73 due to my own preference. I’ve never been able to truly fall for Nord’s even though I’ve played them for years.

Note: Some musicians have noted that the black keys aren’t working properly. With this being said, I didn’t notice this at all when I played the CP73.

Pros

  • Weighted hammer-action keys
  • 128 note polyphony
  • AWM2 tone generator
  • Soundmondo social sharing
  • Great effects
  • LCD screen

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Some musicians have said the black keys weren’t working properly

Korg Grandstage 73

Korg Grandstage 73

The Korg Grandstage 73 is a mix of metal, plastic, and wood and it comes together perfectly. This keyboard is very durable and it also has a really cool look to it.

When it comes to the piano sounds, the Grandstage can challenge and beat most of the other stage pianos.

Two of my personal favorite sounds on the Grandstage 73 are the Italian and the Upright pianos. These emulate a real piano to a tee and each time I play them I am blown away.

I would take these samples up against some of the best piano VSTs that I have played and I am a huge piano VST fan.

Pros

  • RH3 key-bed
  • Onboard Effects: Delay, Reverb, EQ
  • Headphones jack
  • MIDI I/O
  • Pitch-bend/modulation wheel
  • 128 note polyphony
  • 7 Sound Engines
  • Easy to split keys
  • Over 500 sounds

Cons

  • A little on the heavier side for 73 keys

Korg Krome EX 73 Workstation – Best Value

Korg Krome EX 73 keyboard

The Korg Krom EX73 is not technically a stage piano, as it comes with a ton of different sounds, however, I love the piano sounds that it packs.

The main problem with this option is that the key-bed is not weighted. If you’re looking for a key-bed that is weighted, this is not your choice.

Since the price is on the lower end of keyboard workstations, I thought this would be perfect to include. I recently played one for the last few months and I have nothing but goods things to say about it mostly.

To dive deep, you can check out my full review on the best keyboard workstations.

The key-action plays very similarly to a piano and one thing I want to note is that the keys do have a very synthetic feel to them.

Note: The Krome EX does not have any speakers, so if you don’t have an amp or monitors, this would be an issue.

You can read my full review of the Korg Krome EX here.

When it comes to the piano sounds on the Krome EX, they were designed by Seigen Ono and they are truly some beautiful sounds. I think that the pianos, the electric pianos, and the organs all have some great sounds that I would use in modern productions.

Keep in mind, because this is a workstation, it can also be used to record with. You can do full productions on this keyboard if you chose to.

Pros

  • 896 pre set sounds
  • Arpeggiators
  • Light-weight
  • 193 effect types
  • 16-track sequencer

Cons

  • Semi-weighted keys

Dexibell VIVO S3 Pro

Dexibell S3 Pro Stage Piano

The Dexibell VIVO S3 Pro packs some incredible sounding instruments into it, delivering an amazing keyboard.

What I like about the S3 Pro is that it is built for professional musicians for touring and for studio purposes. This doesn’t just have really great sounds internally, it also built to be a MIDI controller.

A cool feature with this is that it also a Bluetooth digital piano, meaning that it can stream audio through itself.

Pros

  • Triple Contact Weighted key-bed
  • 4 MIDI zones
  • 113 preset sounds
  • 7 rotary encoders
  • Hybrid sampling/modeling sound engine
  • Pitch-bend and modulation wheels
  • Bluetooth(audio streaming)
  • Unlimited polyphony

Cons

  • Expensive

Conclusion

If you’re in the market for a 73 key keyboard, I believe that these are the best current options. Most of the options that I have listed are geared more towards professionals.

I personally believe that the best option is the SV-2, going off of the sounds and the key-action alone.

What are your personal favorites? Let me know below!

3 comments
  1. Is there any indication that Kawai will offer a 73 key version of their MP7SE? I found 8 major brands which currently offer a 73 key digital or stage piano. Thanks.

    1. This is exactly what I also want, MP7SE is a very nice keyboard and would be so great for gigs. Please write to them with your question so they hear what gigging musicians want. I wrote to them myself a year ago and what they answered was:
      “It has been something we’ve thought about but as a piano company we have been focused on 88 key instruments but it’s not impossible we might see a 73 or 76 key model sometime in the future.”

  2. Hey Chris, wondering if you have played the Vox Continental 73 and if so how its key action and EP & acoustic sounds compare to the Korgs on your list? Thanks

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