First things first...

I believe there's a HUGE difference between a manufacturer's DEALER coming here to promote a product (or the manufacturer himself, as in Dom's case), who will personally gain from doing the said promotion, and someone who's position in the industry is tangential at best (no offense, Ian!) who will not profit from his words...

Ian is a part time clinician for Yamaha in an obscure part of Nova Scotia (no offense again!). This is hardly what you think Yamaha WOULD send here to shill for them, were they the slightest bit interested in subverting our opinions (for all the good it's done!). I'm sorry squeak, but you know that Ian and I often have very different views about things Yamaha, but the one thing I am utterly convinced about is that his views and opinions about Yamaha have absolutely nothing to do with his occasional employment by a branch of the company up in Canada

He is no more, and no less than simply another of the interminable 'fans' that populate this forum, one of those that rarely see past the plusses of their choice of arranger, don't like to discuss it's negatives, and prefer to dwell on the negatives of other arrangers to keep the topic away from any discussion of it's own negatives.

I, at least, am utterly convinced that were he to lose his employment with Yamaha, his opinion about them wouldn't change in the slightest. Let's face it, how many of us could say that? Be honest.

In the meantime, guys like zuki evangelize other brands just as rabidly without any connection to the company. Given a choice between looking at the facts and deciding that either Ian is, or is NOT a shill for Yamaha, why not look at the company he keeps, and simply give him the benefit of the doubt. Once again, I say, if he were the ONLY one acting this way, you might be in a position to say without much doubt that his employment was the main factor. But given that, to be honest, quite a large percentage of the membership has little objectivity about their choice of manufacturer, Occam's Razor decides to simply place him in with all the other zealots merely voicing their personal opinion.

Why make it more complicated than it needs to be? It's not like he's George or Frank, actually marketing any of Yamaha's products.