I’m not that happy with a 73… after 30 years of 76 being the standard, I see no reason to drop to 73 other than the few people that want to ape the Rhodes 73, and quite honestly, most of the Rhodes purists prefer the Suitcase 88 anyway.
At least they got the low note right… if you’re covering LH bass, you want that low E for the full 4 string range, and a low C is generally unrealistic unless the original was a 5 string bass.
I just don’t understand the need to ‘fix’ something that wasn’t broke! Especially when the ‘fix’ is to give you less… 🙄🎹
That's very much true. A 76 is perfect when you split the keyboard at C4. The lowest E can be the lowest note as you would have on a bass guitar, and since I played bass my brain can easily picture the whole bass guitar layout in the left section. When I used a 61 key, it was always awkward to have C as the lowest note, and I had only 2 octaves for the left hand which is doable, but not as fluid like on a 76, I wouldn't want to go back to a 61 key that's for sure.
Yamaha made a 73 keys digital piano, the P-121, the short version of the P-125 (88 keys).
I'm surprised that no one came up with a key bed that you could adjust mechanically by disengaging the weights from the keys, and than just have a spring (semi-weight) action key, 'cause it does make a difference when you play synth or piano patches.
It wouldn't be that difficult to build this hybrid key bed, where you would either have a lever that would shift all the weights sideways, disengaging them from the keys, or instead of a lever, you would have an electric (step) motor doing the same thing, plus you could save this in the registration memory if you wanted weights with that patch or not, and with the push of a button you would change things easily. While the keys themselves would have to be designed to have the shape suitable for both scenarios.
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