Yamaha P-145BT Review: 88 Weighted Keys for $799.99, with the Stand and Three-Pedal Unit Sold Separately

Eighty-eight keys, and what the action actually is

Yamaha Canada's spec table calls the keyboard a GHC, short for Graded Hammer Compact, with matte black keytops; the overview page describes it as a much shorter and thinner body than the earlier GHS models. Four touch settings (Hard, Medium, Soft, Fixed) decide how much the player, not the piano, shapes a note. The case is 1,326 mm wide, 129 mm tall and 268 mm deep at 11.1 kg; with the music rest fitted it stands 307 mm tall and 320 mm deep.

The sound side is deliberately narrow. A CFIIIS concert grand sample, a damper resonance effect, 64-note polyphony and ten voices; key-off samples and virtual resonance modelling appear only in the P-225 column of the same table. The manual's Duo function lets two players share the board in the same octave range, one on each side of the E3 key, which suits a teacher and a student working through the same passage.

When 61 organ-style keys is the better buy

Yamaha's PSR-E383 draws the comparison sharply: $289.99 at Long & McQuade, 61 organ-style keys with adjustable touch response, 650 voices, 48-note polyphony, 941 mm across and 4.4 kg. It carries far more sounds than the piano's ten. What its spec table does not show is a hammer action, and it has 27 keys fewer than the 88 the P-145BT spans.

So the choice is which constraint to accept. An instrument that has to leave for a band room or a shared desk every week is the 4.4 kg keyboard, $510 cheaper. A student working toward piano repertoire written for the full 88 keys is buying the 1,326 mm, 11.1 kg board, and the extra money pays for the 27 keys and the weighted action.

The P-45 below it and the P-225 above it

Long & McQuade sells the P-45 at $599.99, $200 under the P-145BT. Yamaha Canada's table gives it AMW Stereo Sampling rather than the CFIIIS voice, 2 x 6 W amplifiers rather than 2 x 7 W, a case 154 mm tall, and a pedal unit input listed as No. The $200 buys the newer compact action in a thinner case, the grand sample with damper resonance, Bluetooth audio in and a jack that accepts a pedal unit at all.

The P-225 at $999.99 is the other boundary, and Yamaha sets the differences out in the same table: a CFX sample with key-off data and VRM Lite, 192-note polyphony, 24 voices, split mode, two headphone jacks rather than one, an AUX output and 24-bit USB audio rather than 16-bit. Both boards use the same GHC action, so the extra $200 goes to how the instrument sounds and where it plugs in, not to how the keys feel.

The pedal route stays open on the P-145BT. Yamaha Canada's accessory list carries the LP-5A, and its own LP-5A page names the P-145BT; Long & McQuade lists it at $109.99 under a title that names older P-series models. With the L-100 stand at $179.99, piano, stand and pedal unit come to $1,089.97 by our own sum.

The BT in the name is an audio input, not app control

The manual heads its radio block Bluetooth (Audio only): class 2, roughly 10 metres. That is one direction. It plays a phone or tablet through the piano's speakers so a student can follow a recording, and the same page states that Smart device apps such as Smart Pianist cannot be used over this function. One device connects at a time, with pairing memory for eight.

App control runs over USB TO HOST instead, which carries both MIDI and audio at 44.1 kHz/16 bit, with a cable under three metres (USB 3.0 cables are excluded) plus whatever adapter the tablet's own port needs. Going wireless means the $89.99 UD-BT01 at Long & McQuade, a Bluetooth MIDI adapter; Yamaha Canada's P-145BT page limits that wireless route to iOS devices, and its accessory page adds Mac, so an Android tablet or a Windows computer needs the cable.

In the box, and what it takes to reach playing height

Yamaha Canada's included-accessories line names the music rest, a footswitch and an AC adaptor marked as varying by area; Long & McQuade's spec block gives the adaptor as PA-150B, 12 V at 1.5 A, 6 W in use. Auto power off trips after about 15 idle minutes. The footswitch is a plain sustain switch. For half-pedalling the manual points to the LP-5A, which adds sostenuto and soft pedals but has to be assembled on the L-100 stand; Long & McQuade also lists the FC3A piano-style pedal at $64.99 and the FC5 footswitch at $22.99.

The line item that makes it a practice station is the L-100 stand at $179.99, which lifts the keys to 744 mm, with the raised music rest reaching 922 mm. That is $799.99 + $179.99 = $979.98, or $1,089.97 with the LP-5A; a bench is separate and its price was not read. Long & McQuade ships most orders over $99 free, with exceptions for size, weight or destination, and allows returns within 30 days in original condition with all accessories and packaging. Amazon.ca's $799.98 listing shows free delivery and a $0.55 eco fee that might apply.

Yamaha Canada lists a two-year warranty for P Series instruments, but only for new products sold by its authorized dealers in Canada; units from other retailers, including internet sellers, are not covered. Confirm the seller is on Yamaha's dealer list before paying, and keep the invoice.

Skip it in these four situations

Skip it if two people need to listen on headphones at once, because there is one headphone jack and no AUX output; the P-225 has two jacks and an AUX output. If the instrument has to move weekly, 11.1 kg over 1,326 mm is a lot to carry, and the 4.4 kg, 941 mm PSR-E383 is the better tool for that round trip.

If the plan is a tablet on the music rest running Smart Pianist with no cable crossing the desk, price the $89.99 UD-BT01 first rather than assuming the wireless in the model name covers it. And if the budget stops near $600 with no stand or pedal unit planned, the P-45 gives 88 weighted keys for $200 less.