Hi Ted, Bill, Steven, and Frank.

What we are seeing in this thread is KN player's diversity of feelings, needs and expectations concerning their instruments. Steven expressed his feelings and mine are similar.

Some of you may have read my post regarding the North of the Gap gathering last Sunday, October 20th, at Wetherby. It was my first opportunity to see, hear, and touch the KN7000. A comprehensive and detailed demonstration of the many features of the keyboard was given by Chris Whitehead and Paul Thirkettle of Technics. As I said in that post, the KN7000 is a marvellous instrument - but I'm not buying one.

The reason I am not buying the new flagship instrument is simple. I am a beginning keyboard player. I have a KN6000/EW65/EW01/EW02 instrument with all of the accessories including the organ pedals, nearly 40 software disks, and all of the tutorial videos. That represents a considerable investment. I still have so much to learn about the various features of my instrument (Music Style Arranger, Sequencer, Composer, Panel Memories, Custom stuff etc.) in addition to learning how to play.

After the gathering last Sunday I sat at my keyboard and played for an hour or more. I said to myself, "Hey, this is a great sounding keyboard with a ton of technology packed into it. It makes no sense (for me) to get rid of it at this point in time."

I have decided to wait for the next generation flagship keyboard. I think it is worth remembering that Technics is listening to and reading the feedback from KN7000 owners. And it is worth remembering that Technics' new flagship keyboard is under development as we write! The KN7000 has some technology advances, an improved speaker/sound amplification system, great voices and styles. And the organ styles/sounds are particularly attractive to me. All of the improvements incorporated in the KN7000 will be included in the next KNXXXX - plus all of the suggested changes put forward by owners of the KN7000, thus the next generation keyboard will be even more powerful and user friendly. That is the one I'll buy! By then (probably two years?) I will have progressed much further as a keyboard player and will have learned how to use the technology built into my present keyboard.

Those are my thoughts on this subject.

Finally - Bill, thanks again for germinating the idea of a North of the Gap gathering and making it such a resounding success. And many thanks to you and Frank Bez for sharing your music creations with me.

My Best Regards to All of You,

Chuck Piper