Fran, you know I have been saying exactly the same thing for over three years since they moved the G-series from MI stores to the CK dealerships. The demise of the line since then proves us right... Strangely enough, I talked to a Roland rep just about the time this all went down, and he told me that the reason for it was that the marketing divisions were offered either the new V-Accordions OR the arranger lines, but they couldn't have both. The MI guys wanted the V-Accordions, so off to the gulag of the CK dealers went the arranger line!

Whether this was bullsh*t or not, I don't know, but it has a ring to it... So, firstly, I doubt that gross sales of the V-Accordions has even come CLOSE to the gross on the arranger line (at least when it WAS marketed well), so a bad decision for MI, and the CK dealers' neglect and indifference has rapidly pulled Roland down. Add to that the problems with the initial G70 OS, slowly and incompletely fixed (I think that the MI dealers were FAR more proactive in insisting that operational defects be corrected than the CK's, who rarely even KNEW of any problems - got to PLAY 'em to know what's wrong ), and you have a recipe for disaster.

What is saddest is this is, and has always been, a snap for Roland to fix. But no-one has the cojones to admit the mistake and correct it. It may well, now, be too late. The GW-8 IS an arranger, but lacks a few essential operational things, IS marketed to the MI division, and may cloud the issue so much that the TRUE arrangers simply get dropped. Sad times are ahead, amply displayed by Roland's dropping a large percentage of their Italian workforce (who make the E and G series)...