Kawai PH-50
A 49-key preset keyboard that borrowed the K-1's sound engine and sold for $449 - the cheapest way into Kawai's digital voicing in the late '80s.
Overview
Forty-nine keys. Two hundred preset tones. Thirty rhythm patterns. A retail price of $449. That was the Kawai PH-50, and it sat at the edge of serious studios rather than the center. It was a preset instrument, a keyboard built around a fixed library of sounds rather than around programming. Kawai's own pitch, as reported in the trade press of the day, was that it carried the same sound source as the more expensive K-1 Digital Synthesizer. K-1 voicing, entry-level money.
The hardware is modest. The keybed runs 49 keys. There's a stereo output, so the internal sounds keep their stereo image instead of collapsing to mono at the jack. MIDI in and out are both present, so the PH-50 can work as a controller feeding a module or a sequencer, or as a sound source driven from a master keyboard. It also runs on batteries, which says who Kawai thought was buying it: someone who wanted a keyboard that could leave the house.
The tone set is 200 presets drawn from the K-1 sound source. Period coverage in Sound on Sound (May 1995, p.144) described a 512-preset, 32-voice polyphonic instrument with built-in effects. The 30 rhythm patterns were prepared by professional musicians, according to the period coverage. Manufacturers love that kind of line and reviewers tend to ignore it, so treat the patterns as a convenience feature, not a reason to buy. The instrument is not editable in any deep sense. It's a preset board.
In a studio profile in EQ magazine, Billy Barber's Greenwich, Connecticut project room listed a Kawai PH50 alongside a Prophet 5, a Prophet VS, a Kurzweil 250, a Roland D50, an Akai 900 and a stack of other far more expensive instruments. That's the corner of a working studio where a cheap, MIDI-capable keyboard earns its place by being available.
The PH-50 retailed at $449 according to the period trade coverage, and dealer advertising of the era listed the same figure. One music retailer's flyer ran the PH-50 at a $449 list and blew it out at $99.99 in a half-off-Kawai promotion. That points to the instrument being cleared aggressively by the early '90s, with the street price collapsing fast. Collectors should not expect the PH-50 to command serious money today. It's a utility keyboard, priced accordingly.
The MIDI implementation is the reason to keep one. A 49-key board with in and out, stereo out, battery operation and 200 presets is useful in a rack as a controller for a module, a scratch keyboard for a writing session, or a sound source for a sequencer that needs something cheap and immediate. The K-1-derived voicing gives it a family resemblance to Kawai's more serious digital instruments of the period, and the build is straightforward enough that battery operation is a real option.
The PH-50 is not a synthesizer in the sense most people mean. There's no meaningful editing and no filter section to explore. It's a preset instrument with a MIDI port. Buyers who want to program should look elsewhere in the Kawai line. Buyers who want a compact, battery-capable, stereo-out preset keyboard with K-1 voicing and MIDI will find it does what it says.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.