Can a 5F6A Clone Sound Good w/Digital Piano?

[The New Steve H]

Hey, everyone. LTNS.

Forgive me if I have asked this question before. I have a Roland digital piano, and I would like sound a little better than what comes out of the tiny speakers. I just need it loud enough for practice.

I have read that the best amp for a digital keyboard is a bass amp. As it happens, I have a 5F6A clone I never use. I hooked it up to the piano, and I was not thrilled.

Before I blow money on a cheesy solid state amp from Guitar Center, can someone confirm that the Bassman is not going to work? I'm wondering if the problem is the speaker, which is a single 12" woofer.

[skeezbo]

Try a PA cab. Tweak for clean power. Don't overdrive the input. Should sound fine at practice volume, I would think.
Skeezbo

[The New Steve H]

What if I stick a tweeter in the cabinet with a switch that turns it on and off? I have no idea how to match tweeters to woofers.

[pops]

Most bass amps have more power than your 5f6a and a keyboard needs a fair amount of power to push the lows solidly. Try going into the number 2 input and start with all the tone controls at 10 then bring up the volume and to where you would like to be then roll the tone controls back if you need to. A tweeter would have to be a piezo or you would have to buy or build a crossover so you don't fry your tweeter and the piezo might be a little harsh for the keyboard, or maybe not. You could set one on top of the cabinet and wire it in before you modify anything.

[The New Steve H]

Maybe I'll give the piezo a whack. A small keyboard amp runs $400, so I figure it's worth it to blow a small amount on an experiment.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Kinda depends - on whether you're going for a hi fi concert stage sound, or a rough-n-tumble "electric piano" sound for rock. It will take some really good speakers & powerful amp to go the hi fi route. In fact the piano rig will wind up being a hi fi PA system of its own if that's the aim. The challenges of handling clean low and hi frequencies will reveal the guitar amp for what it is when you get to hi volume. At low volume, there can be some charm to e-piano but that's limited by speaker choice and amp power.

[Structo]

We have a Yamaha upright keyboard piano thingy.

When I want it louder I just plug in to the headphone jack and plug that into my amp of choice.

I know the impedance probably isn't close to matching but it can sound good.

But a full range powered monitor (JBL) would be my gig choice unless you want the piano dirty.

[The New Steve H]

I just want to sound better in a little bitty room.

[pops]

MCM electronice have a piezo array that is inexpensive and in a box that you can set on top of your amp that you could try.

[briane]

ok - as a wurli, phodes, and hammond guy - this I can speak too.

after tryiing say 25 different types of amps over the years -

I use a traynor YB2A or YB2B (both near same circuit).

Their awesome.

why? Its the same amp as a leslie (some of em).

[RWood]

My 5B6 with 15" bass speaker is fantastic with Korg keys, although we play more B3 organ than piano.

5D3 played with both channels using y splitter sounds great with our keys also. Maybe that will work with 5F6A as well. Pretty cheap to try.

[The New Steve H]

Let me see what I can come up with.