Ensoniq Piano (early 1990s)
The Ensoniq Piano — sometimes listed as the EP-1 — was the company's straightforward entry into the dedicated stage-piano market, a direct competitor to the Roland RD-series and Yamaha P-series instruments of the early 1990s. Where Ensoniq's workstations like the SD-1 and KS-32 bundled sequencing and synthesis into one box, the Piano was deliberately no-frills: 88 weighted keys, 32-voice sample-based polyphony, a handful of effects, and no sequencer. It was a gigging instrument, plain and simple.
The sound set covered the essentials — grand piano, electric piano, strings, organ, bass — and the action was hammer-weighted to mimic an acoustic feel. It shared the same custom voice-chip family as the VFX/SD-1 synths, and the angled top panel held a simple L-shaped LED display for calling up one of its 32 internal programs. Split and layer functions were on board, as were MIDI In/Out/Thru and dual 1/4" line outs. It also had a headphone jack, and at roughly 45 lbs, it was a practical haul for weekend players.
What the record doesn't show is just as notable. No production years, no original retail price, and no manufacturer spec sheet have surfaced in the research — most of what's known comes from used listings, forum posts, and vintagesynth.com. The 88-key weighted action is confirmed by the majority of those sources, though one forum post claims 76 keys; the weight of evidence favors 88.
Players who used these pianos tend to praise the acoustic grand sound as surprisingly good for the era and the action as heavy but solid — better than most digital pianos of the same vintage. The electric piano sounds, by contrast, get called dated, closer to mid-80s DX7-era samples than a real Rhodes. Common failure points on surviving units include a dead internal battery, worn key sensors in the C3–B4 range, and leaking electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. Ensoniq has been defunct since 1998, so parts come from parted-out units and repair guidance from service manuals floating around sites like Elektrotanya.
Working units typically list between $250 and $500 on the used market, which makes the Ensoniq Piano an affordable, honest-feeling stage piano for anyone who doesn't mind a bit of weight and a very 90s electric piano patch. Period advertisements in Mix Magazine (December 1987, p.95) touted Ensoniq's MIDI breakthroughs for shedding pounds from a gigging setup.
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