Steve,

While the light weight of the Tyros is definitely an attraction, a number of people (myself included) have a nagging concern about the build quality of Tyros.

I, for one, would buy a 40-lb Tyros in a heartbeat, if it had 76 keys (even though some of the high-end competitors, like Ketron, manage to fit a 76 key bed into a more compact and lighter box).

A question to everyone:

how many of you use joystick/mod wheel while playing an arranger keyboard? How detrimental is it to have it to the left of the keyboard, rather than above the keys?

I believe the Joystick/mod wheel is a holdover from the non-touch-sensitive synthesizer days, when players had to add expression using some analog means. I, for one, almost never use joystick on my Roland - when I am playing with the accompaniment going, I am too busy pressing the black and white keys (and occasionally buttons to change the settings). I can not take my hand off the keyboard to keep on the joystick. If I did, though, I would have found it easier to reach slightly above the keys than all the way to the left of the keyboard.

Regards,
Alex