Kawai MP9000 (1999)
Eighty-eight real wooden keys under a brushed-aluminum hood. This was the stage piano that gave gigging keyboardists a new idea of what "portable" could mean.
Overview
Start with the top panel. It's brushed aluminum and slanted, with the LCD and controls set into it, and the key/hammer mechanism sits underneath. Sound on Sound described the MP9000's 88-note weighted keyboard as sporting "a very sleek, rather retro-styled, brushed-aluminium top" - and the housing isn't just cosmetic. It's the frame for an action that Kawai built around genuine wood. Dave's Pianos Showroom puts it plainly: "The world had never seen a portable professional stage piano with real wooden keys until the arrival of the MP9000 in 1999." That's a dealer's claim.
The MP9000 is a professional stage piano. Kawai's own archive page calls it "a digital piano," while Sound on Sound and eBay listings settle on "professional stage piano," which is closer to how owners actually used it. It's the ancestor of the MP9500, which Sound on Sound calls "the successor to Kawai's popular MP9000 professional stage piano." Equipboard now files the MP9000 under "Vintage or Discontinued," so the used market is the only market.
The action is the headline. Kawai's spec sheet calls it an "advanced AWA Grand Hammer Action," and Guitar Center's used listings describe "88 wooden keys with advanced AWA Grand Hammer Action." A YouTube teardown describes the mechanism as "real wooden keys linked to pivoted hammers that hit sensor contacts on a top-mounted hammer rail, accurately replicating acoustic grand piano escapement physics." Audiofanzine's user reviewer put it with more poetry than precision: "real hammers that strike a sensor ... and alas! no strings." This isn't a weighted plastic keybed with a hammer-shaped counterweight. The keys themselves are wood, and the hammers pivot and strike a rail the way they would in a grand.
The sound engine runs on Kawai's Harmonic Imaging technology, per Guitar Center's listings. Kawai's own MP9000 brochure ends its copy with "simply the finest digital piano available," which deserves a grain of salt. The architecture underneath, sampled from a Kawai EX concert grand per the brochure text, put the MP9000's piano voice in a class that other players noticed. A Coldplaying forum poster recalls trying to make an "Ex Pro" patch imitate the MP9000's sound. When other instruments are being programmed to sound like yours, you're a reference point.
Polyphony, per a Harmony Central forum claim, sits at 64 notes. That's a forum figure, not an official spec, so treat it as approximate. 64 voices was respectable for a 1999 stage piano, but it's the kind of number that makes modern players wince when they hold a sustain pedal through a dense chord.
Key Features
88 Wooden Keys with AWA Grand Hammer Action
The wooden keybed is the reason people still seek this instrument out. Kawai's AWA Grand Hammer Action uses real wooden keys, not wood-look plastic, driving pivoted hammers that strike sensor contacts on a top-mounted rail. The result is a key return and escapement feel that plastic-keybed stage pianos of the era couldn't replicate. Owners are honest about the trade-off: a MusicPlayer forum player "liked it a lot" but "wish[ed] the action were a bit heavier." The Audiofanzine reviewer called it "a light touch but good." So the action is on the lighter side of acoustic-grand feel, closer to a well-regulated grand than a stiff upright, and not the heaviest keybed in its class.
Harmonic Imaging Piano Voice
Guitar Center's listings cite Kawai's Harmonic Imaging technology as the sound engine, and the Kawai brochure describes the sampling as an "accurate map of the rich, vibrant tone of the Kawai EX Concert Piano," reproducing "all of these tonal characteristics and shadings from delicate pianíssimos to thunderous fortissimos." That's marketing, but the claim underneath, multi-velocity sampling of a concert grand with attention to dynamic shading, matches what the Harmonic Imaging name implies. The MP9500's primary soundset (pianos, clav, EPs) is "supposedly inherited from the 9000," per Harmony Central.
Fixed-Level XLR Outputs
This detail separates the MP9000 from most stage pianos of its era. Kawai's own documentation specifies "Fixed level XLR outputs for direct connection to a Studio Console or Live Sound System," alongside "two assignable pedal inputs" and "the usual complement of MIDI, Headphone and standard outputs." Balanced XLR outs on a stage piano in 1999 were a pro-audio move. You plug straight into a console or a house PA without a DI box, and the level is fixed and predictable.
Brushed-Aluminium Chassis and Slanted Control Panel
Sound on Sound noted the brushed-aluminium top "hous[es] the key/hammer mechanism and provid[es] a slanted panel for the LCD display and controls," with "pitch and modulation wheels" to the left of the keyboard. The slanted panel is an ergonomic choice that puts the display and controls in the player's sightline whether seated or standing — a small thing that matters on a dark stage. The aluminium top also serves as the mechanical backbone for the wooden action, which is why the instrument is as heavy as it is.
Weight — and the Conflict Around It
Here the record gets murky. A Tech Busy review states "the piano is a bit heavy and weighs about 100 pounds." A Harmony Central forum post implies something very different: "the MP9500 is a full pound lighter (72 lbs, woohooo)" - which, if the comparison is direct, puts the MP9000 at 73 lbs. Those two figures don't reconcile. The 100-pound figure may include a case or stand, and the 73-pound figure may be the bare instrument. The archive flags the conflict and doesn't pick a winner. Anyone buying one should confirm weight with the seller before arranging shipping.
Historical Context
The MP9000 arrived in 1999, per Dave's Pianos Showroom, and was reviewed by Nick Magnus in Sound on Sound in January 2000. It was priced at approximately $1,500 originally, according to a Gearspace forum recollection. By the time the MP9500 successor was on the way, dealers were closing out the 9000s at $1,495 while the new model came in at $1,995, per a MusicPlayer Keyboard Corner post. That suggests a relatively short run at the top of Kawai's stage-piano line. Sound on Sound describes the MP9500 as launching "around five years" after the MP9000, which puts the successor around 2004.
Kawai's own brochure framed the MP9000 as the company's statement piece: "The culmination of breathtaking sound, superlative touch, intuitive performance design and many new technologies, the MP9000 is simply the finest digital piano available." That's advertising, not a verdict. The wooden-key claim was genuinely novel for a portable stage piano, though, and a Gearspace poster says "Although often overlooked, the Kawai MP9000 ... is a great piano."
Collectibility & Value
The MP9000 is a working instrument, and the market treats it that way. Guitar Center carries multiple "Used Kawai MP9000 Stage Piano" listings, and eBay searches turn up results, though the research captured no sale prices. A Gearspace poster's opinion - "probably around used for much less and I am almost certain for under 1k" - is the only price guidance available, and it's an opinion, not a listing. Treat sub-$1,000 as the plausible range for a working example, with condition and the washer issue driving the spread.
The known failure mode is the key/hammer washers. A Piano World owner explains: "They're soft washers that surround the pins holding the keys of a Kawai MP9000 in place... Mine have eroded, which is causing the keys and hammers to sink too low." Eroded washers change the key height and hammer travel. The same owner was asking "where I could order a similar set of washers," which implies OEM parts sourcing is not straightforward. Anyone buying should check key height consistency across the keyboard and look for sagging keys, especially in the middle octaves where wear concentrates. The main CPU is listed by parts seller W D Greenhill & Co as "Part # 237113 KEP-016." A 73-page manual exists (manual.nz).
YouTube titles bill the MP9000 as "The secret behind Chris Martin's Piano Sound," and a rack-modified unit called "Mp9000 rac" has been used by Martin live. That kind of association doesn't move prices the way a vintage synth pedigree does.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.