Don,

I only needed a backup keyboard one time, and I was able to get through the night on the laptop. The very next day I bought a backup, used it for a week while the primary board was being repaired, then put it back in service. The problem was a cold solder joint on a tiny board buried beneath the other PC boards. The repair was cheap, about $75 if I recall, and the guy who fixed it is the best repair tech I know of in the entire country.

I bought the backup board from Dan01, it has only been used in the office since the repair job was done on the other board, but when you do this stuff every day backups are a necessity, especially when many of the jobs are booked a year or more in advance, and lots of them are under contract.

Seamaster, Electronic equipment goes bad when you least expect. Imagine that you're setting up to do a big wedding job, or maybe a concert in the park, and there are 500 people in the audience. You hit the on switch and out goes the lights of your keyboard. It really doesn't make a bit of difference if you are playing a Korg, Yamaha, Roland, Gen, etc.., they can all do this, and they will when you least expect. Anyone that has been in this business for more than a couple years has experienced electronic failures, and when they do, those that are prepared have backups. Back up mics, amps, cables, laptops, and yes, keyboards. As they said in the movie "Sh*t Happens!"

Tony, you're right, I can't serenade her with the new driveway. As for the hands, I thought I had rounded the bend and was on the mend, but four days after going off Prednisone the skin sloughed off the ends of three fingers and I was back to square one. A dozen doctors, $5,000 shelled out that insurance did not cover and I'm no better than I was three years ago when this started. Another doctor coming up in two months. Who knows, maybe it's lucky #13 for me.

Now, for the T3, what the hell--I'm not going to leave all this money to the kids anyway.

Cheers,

Gary