REVIEW - Williams Rhapsody Digital Piano - Not Recommended!

UPDATED REVIEW - November 1, 2014 - I do not recommend the Williams Rhapsody digital piano ($499 internet and store price), especially if you are taking piano lessons. The Williams digital piano brand is a private label brand made specifically for Guitar Center and its affiliates/subsidiaries including Musicians Friend, Woodwind & Brasswind, Music & Arts, and other Guitar Center companies. In fact, the internationally known company Bain Capital, which was made even more famous during the last presidential election cycle with Mitt Romney being talked about as one of its founders and owners of Bain, is the owner of Guitar Center and its affiliates. In an effort to have their own "house brand," the Williams brand is exclusive to those companies for better or for worse. The Williams brand has nothing to do with the brand being made in the US other than its name being created in the US. The pianos themselves are made by unknown Chinese digital piano manufacturers using what appears to be much lower quality digital technology in a somewhat nicer looking cabinet.

I do not recommend the Williams Rhapsody because it simply sounds and plays bad as a piano in my opinion and it doesn't reach even minimum standards of piano playing and sound reproduction. Although the keys are weighted and certainly feel more like a piano than a keyboard does, the acoustic piano tones themselves sound very bright and more like a guitar than a piano, and the volume sensitivity and dynamic range of these piano tones as you press the keys almost sound as if there isn't any dynamics and volume changes at all when pressing on the keys. In other words, this instrument as far as fundamentals go, including the actual piano sound realism, volume sensitivity (when pressing keys from soft to hard), and dynamic range (mellow to bright when pressing the keys harder) is nothing like a real piano. The foot pedal action is also another important area of piano playing and the 2-pedal unit on this piano seems flimsy and makes squeaky noise, at least on the one I tried out. The pedal sound sustain response should include "half-pedaling" to be more realistic, and this piano does not have that feature but in this price range I did not expect that. If you or a family member is taking piano lessons, getting the "half-pedal" sustain feature can be very important as you progress in your piano playing skills.

What this piano does have that is positive is a fairly attractive dark brown cabinet (no built-in keyboard cover) and a nice front panel layout with easy to use controls and a LED display screen to better navigate the functions. The other instrument sounds including electric pianos, guitars, strings, organ etc, actually sound OK for a piano in this lower price range and are acceptable. Other useful functions include layering and splitting of tones, recording, metronome for timing, and other nice features which can make this piano fun to play. It even has dual audio outputs and a USB to computer output (below left pic) which is pretty cool. But just because it has a USB output does not necessarily mean it will work and connect well to another device.

Overall if you were to just look at this piano visually you might decide that this is a nice instrument and buy it, especially for just $499. However, you can get even more of these fun features with better piano playing results on inexpensive $200 keyboards (though I don't recommend that), so just because something seems to be good on the outside does not mean it's good on the inside. Looks should not be the primary reason you buy a digital piano. In fact, I refer to a piano with decent looks but inferior and downright disappointing piano playability as a PSO or "piano shaped object." Looks good, plays bad, which is true of other digital pianos I have reviewed, so this is not the only one.

A digital piano should be purchased with one main primary goal in mind, and that is to reproduce the acoustic piano playing experience as closely as possible in specific price ranges, especially if you will be taking piano lessons. When you know little or nothing about the way real acoustic pianos play, then you may not realize how deficient some of these "off brand" digital pianos can be. Although the $499 price is very low in comparison with most new digital pianos, especially when it comes to furniture cabinet models, the looks as well as the amount of buttons & functions at a low price should not be the main criteria for choosing one piano over the other. It should always be the piano playing experience realism and on the Williams Rhapsody, this piano falls way short to the point where you probably would be better off with a less expensive name brand small keyboard instead.

Another not-no-pleasant feature of the the Rhapsody is its noisy, clunky key action. On most digital pianos when you are playing the keys a little harder and using more force, when the key touches the keybed below it, the sound the physical key makes should be fairly muted and relatively quiet. However, when the keys are played a bit harder on the Rhapsody, the keys hit bottom and make a clunky noise like the key is hitting wood with little padding in-between. I have heard this on other key actions before and you may not notice this until you get it into your house and start playing it. This kind of "banging sound" can be very distracting especially if you are using headphones for private practice where other people are then subjected to hearing the keys banging while you are listening to music through headphones and not as aware of the clunking sound.

A much better alternative to the Williams Rhapsody would be the new Yamaha P35 or Casio CDP130 both internet priced at $449 each not including stand, pedals, or bench. A bit further up from there would be the Yamaha P105 ($599 internet price) and Casio PX150 ($499 internet price) not including accessories. These instruments are so much better in reproducing a more realistic piano key action and playing experience than the Williams Rhapsody, it's not even close. A bit further up from there would be the new Casio Privia PX750 (above left pic) furniture cabinet model internet priced at $799. Although the Casio PX750 is quite a bit more money than the Williams Rhapsody, it's worth every penny and would make a much better investment into your family's musical future. Go here for my review: Casio PX750 Review

By the way, just for the record, I do not recommend any Williams digital pianos because they all share similar deficiencies in the key action, sound response, touch, tone, pedaling, etc, based on my experience. I would just save your money and go purchase a Yamaha or Casio for slightly more money than see you put it into an instrument that may cause you to develop bad playing habits and/or keep you from enjoying the true beauty of a good piano playing experience that other digital pianos can give you. Do your homework and be careful of off-brands like the Williams, Suzuki, Adagio, Adams, and other brands that don't meet very basic standards. You do get what you pay for so be sure you make the best purchase decision you can. If you want some help, please contact me directly.

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.