Diki, that piano in the photo was a real Steinway - not a phony shell, and my keyboard is positioned on the X stand directly over the piano's key bed cover, where only people to the side of me can actually see it. The output was plugged into the house sound system, which was lousy to say the very least. If I recall, consisted of a pair of 10-inch Peaveys and a 600-watt stereo mixer/amp.

As for being a musician, as have posted on this and other forums, I am not a musician by any stretch of the imagination, but I was a damned good, musical entertainer - and that's why people hired me. However, you are absolutely correct in that your competition is a bunch of "Have Guitar Will Travel" guys and gals, especially in Florida. Some of them are pretty talented muscians, but by and large, most are not. And that's why they work for chump change, and a good arranger keyboard player, especially one that can also provide good to excellent vocals, and produces a wide variety of songs, can get all the work they can handle, and often booked a year or more in advance.

One of my long since deceased friends and his wife worked for 5 decades as a duo - Jerry and Elsa Burns Duo. They began their career rolling in a baby grand piano into the jobs, but when the PSR-5700 came out, he gratefully switched gears and went with the arranger keyboard, which back then only tipped the scales at 52 pounds. By today's standards, a 52 pound arranger keyboard is a real back breaker, but back then, A lot of entertainers had them in our area.

Elsa was probably one of the best Jazz singers I ever heard and Jerry was a Peabody trained pianist who was an incredible player. They strictly worked the nite club circuit, but there were times when they performed with the Zim Zemarel Orchestra, and performed at the White House on at least 3 occasions. Jerry often said, he would never go back to lugging that baby grand around, and after playing an arranger keyboard, he absolutely loved the lighter touch and his hands no longer hurt him after doing a 4 or 5 hour performance. When I once asked him about the special effects of a real piano and his 5700, he said "I don't think the audiences give a tinker's damned, and in reality, they came to where I was performing to be entertained by both Elsa and myself. Without Elsa up front with that old mic in her hands, I would just be another musician, of which there are thousands of them out there looking for work. I have to turn down jobs every week!"

Jerry and Elsa are both deceased, but worked until Elsa passed at age 78.

Good luck,

Gary