Short version: the GP-6 puts Roland’s flagship sound engine and a serious action into a cabinet that looks, and projects, like a baby grand.
Roland’s GP line is essentially its LX upright technology in a grand case. The GP-6 pairs the Piano Reality Modeling engine with the PHA-50, a wood-and-molded hybrid action on a long pivot that classical players tend to feel at home on. Its five speakers fire from the cabinet as well as toward the player, so the sound surrounds you instead of coming at you from one spot. The tone is the Roland signature: dark, warm through the mid-range and close to the player.
Buy it if you want the presence of a grand in a living room, with headphones, recording and no tuning, and you play enough that the action matters.
Think twice if you’re trying to replicate a true grand foot-print. At just 38 inches deep and 200 lb, the GP-6 may have grand elements, but in a large space, the GP-9 form factor may be more appropriate.
For most homes that want a grand silhouette and an action worth practicing on, this is the GP model we’d start with.
Stu Harrison, pianist and educator · President, Merriam Music
