As a tactile experience, I think the G70 was as good as it ever got, by any arranger manufacturer.

Firstly, the best semi-weighted action ever made… 76 keys with full length keys (especially the blacks) that felt normal for piano players, who spend a lifetime developing muscle memory for position and force for dynamics and speed and accuracy. But not tied to a full weighted keyboard. While piano and Rhodes certainly benefit from full weight keys, nearly everything else in the keyboard world uses lighter (sometimes MUCH lighter!) actions, and that lightness influences the typical music played on them.

In my personal opinion, the action used in the G70 (also the G1000 and A70 controller) was the perfect weight to provide acceptable resistance for piano parts but light enough for clavinet and synth stuff. Not even my Kurzweil K2500 came close (too heavy for clavinet). Add to that the rounded key ends, which made organ palm smears and glissandos comfortable (full weight and shape puano keys, with sharp badges and an overhang are deadly if you smear a lot!).

Maybe if there was one slight niggle with the keybed, it was that the aftertouch wasn’t very editable, mind you, that was more a software weakness than the actual mechanism.

Next was the touchscreen. While most other keyboards hadn’t even gone there yet, and those that had (Korg particularly) had a somewhat sluggish response, the G70’s high resolution (for its time) color display was snappy and well designed. Not too much eye candy (the SX900 wastes vast amounts of screen real estate on graphics and cramps vital information as a result).

Then the buttons and knobs and sliders were crisp, precise, mostly well placed.

I can honestly say that yes, the feature set and sounds in a BK9 are considerably improved over the G70, but the tactile experience took a big step backwards. I miss actually PLAYING on my G70. What I don’t miss is lugging it around in its 35lbs case! Close to 80lbs once cased up, it was a young man’s game (by young man, I mean up to your 50’s!). My BK9 in its SKB hard plastic case weighs less than the G70 did alone!

But, in certain ways, the G70 was the zenith of Roland arranger design. The most comfortable keyboard to actually play I ever had!

Enjoy it, enjoywater. I have a feeling it will never be surpassed… 🎹