I'm sorry, maybe I'm getting a little confused here, but from the lists of barely two or three year old so called 'keepers' that many of you no longer have, perhaps my definition of a 'keeper' differs from many of you!

If you can't get five or more years out of a TOTL arranger (or more than one product cycle), you aren't 'keeping' it at all... You are simply trading as soon as something else comes out (or close to it). The idea that something is a 'keeper' if you don't immediately return it or sell it within a few months is absurd! If you haven't completely exhausted all the potential in a keyboard before you sell it (and I see very few here that claim THAT no matter HOW long they have an arranger for), it never was a 'keeper', IMO.

We have another thread going here about how familiar we get with our gear. How many of us have let things go LONG before we've even scratched the surface of what is under the hood? Given how incremental feature additions and sound improvement is at each roughly 3 year rollout of a new arranger model, for me, it makes no sense whatsoever, especially when you factor in the time it takes to learn a new OS, or reprogram all your registrations and songbooks, to buy a new arranger each year or so (or less, from many of our members!).

As many point out, all that time spent on practicing, playing and learning new tunes instead makes us FAR better musicians than any new piece of kit. Familiarity, and comfort with a well worn in keyboard makes for a far better environment to concentrate on just the MUSIC...

You know, like REAL musicians do... The more you learn how to play, the less you have to rely on your arranger to provide you with the excitement that playing live should be, and hence, the less important it is to alleviate your boredom by seeking out new arrangers (long before your current one ceases to impress your audience!).

Maybe this thread should ask.... Just how long have any of you kept these so-called 'keepers'??