It's not the weight of the keys, Ian, but the number of them that makes me lug the G70 around. With my 'one keyboard only' approach, when I am called to play piano parts (remember, I do at least as much full band work as I do solo or duo), organ parts, Rhodes piano parts, basically anything. I find it impossible to play piano parts on a 61 because, unlike arranger only gigs, I need the full range, or at least, more than 61.

The fact that you didn't find the G70's best piano sound while you had it may have clouded your opinion of the whole thing. No, the semi-weighted action does not feel like a piano. If it did, you wouldn't be able to play organ on it. But it feels infinitely superior to the S900's action, which even Yamaha themselves, in all their unarguable wisdom do not feel worthy of a TOTL arranger. Let's be honest here, Ian. If Yamaha put the PSR keybed into the T3, you would hear the howls of protest all the way up in the Arctic Circle (you live up there, don't you? ). You are in a minority opinion there, old chum.

Not that that has ever mattered to you. Except, of course, when you are mentioning sales figures. So what is it? Does the majority opinion matter or not...?

I am sure Yamaha would save a fortune using the S900 action on it's TOTL arrangers (and WS's, for that matter). Would you like to assure me that sales wouldn't go down if they actually went ahead and did it?

Didn't think so...

In the meantime, rumor control here... While the G70 is discontinued, the rest of the line is still in production. It is only North America that fails to support them any more, I guess due to RolandUS's disinterest in them. Mind you, given how Roland Europe still voices and styles them with a definite bias towards European styles, it may be unsurprising. We old farts are but a tiny fraction of the keyboard market. For arrangers in general to become as popular over here as they are in Europe, they might have to bring out an arranger specifically for our market. You know, like they do for Latin and Asian markets.

While they are still primarily used as toys for tots or OMB tools for NH and OMB gigs (and often the same keybed for both uses!) because of the styling priorities, arrangers will continue to become marginalized in the US. Only when they start to sound as contemporary as they WS siblings will we see a resurgence over here. Let's be honest. Arranger sales are a tiny, tiny fraction of WS sales. At least, anything $1000+ and capable of pro usage. Every store in the country has maybe three or four WS models on it's shelves, probably as many as a dozen. And most of them don't have ONE $1000+ arranger.

You can't argue with figures like that. Most of us have to drive half a continent to be able to play ALL the different arranger models for comparison. Most small TOWNS have all the different WS's for tryout. We are tiny, tiny fish, in a huge pond.

And NONE of the other , bigger fish on our pond use shitty toy keybeds on their other products in the $1000+ range. Including Yamaha. I guess Yamaha are wrong, and you are right.

Welcome to the club!