Saturday afternoon my wife and I took a little drive to Grand Rapids Michigan (about 35 miles) to go to Guitar Center and to have dinner with our son.

I immediately went to the room where the arranger keyboards are displayed. There was one Casio 3500 and a couple of Yamaha PSRs in the cheap range. The rest were all digital pianos. The clerk asked me if he could help. I told him I wanted to see the PSR3000. He asked me if that was a beginners keyboard because he was not familiar with it. He told me the Pro stuff was in the next room. Of course the next room was filled with synths.

It's no wonder they can't sell arrangers there when the staff is totally clueless. I'm sure if they did have some high end arrangers in stock no one there would know how to demo or sell them.

Tom, it's unfortunately the same scenario at all three Guitar Center stores, as well as all the other music stores in my area as well. All I can say is: thank goodness for our Synthzone arranger keyboard forum and the arranger keyboard knowledge shared here.

Scott
San Francisco Bay Area

Even at some of the upscale, privately-owned music stores and chains the folks behind the counter know little or nothing about arranger keyboard, including how to turn them on. Guess that's why most are high-school kids working for minimum wages.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

I can only second that. One of my brothers at church has specifically wanted to purchase an arranger keyboard because of the music i produce at church on it. He wanted to know how he could get a model like mine as he had been to many stores in birmingham and none of the store demonstrators seemed to know how to make the keyboard produce great music or how to use the sequencer . I told him that my board was nolonger in production and his face fell. I asked him what keyboards he had tried and i was really surprised when he told me that he had looked at the PSR3000 but thought it was inferior to mine ( i have the PSR 8000) and the Tyros, and the KN7000 !! I told him that these were truly outstanding keyboards and that i would snap any one of them up in a hurry if i had the immediate cash.

It looks like sales people at music shops are neither sales people nor musicians !!

By the way as soon as my Law exams are over by the end of June i will post some of my music as i realise that i talk a lot but have never demonstrated what sort of stuff i do....its coming honest !

A few weeks ago I tried to demo a 3000 I had the similar experience at Guitar Center. Meahwhile at my local privately owned music store they didn't carry the 3000 but could order it. The sales guy told me it was too high end for what they usually deal in. They did however have a CVP 305 which I played. The sales guy commented you really know your way around that board don't you. A little later his boss pretty much offered me a part time job in his digital piano department doing demos on the CVP line. I've got other interests and wasn't interested.

You all need to come to Kaye's Music Scene!!
Take a drive to Southern California some time!
See all the arranger keyboards and me! And I'm no teenage highschool student (a 55 year old "silver hair".



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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

I had a similar experience last week actually check this thread out...
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/010777.html


Im tempted to go and see George myself sometime(50 miles away) altho I kinda hate to cuz I know I don't want to buy a new one at this point, to much $$$ for me , and I would hate to kinda waste his time..

But it can be very tough to even find the keyboards at gc or sam ash just to see if u like em.. and I am pretty confident even if u did find it your on your own figuring anything out.. I am in Los Angeles area I can imagine how hard it is in other areas...

Timo1,

If I had a George Kay 100 miles from me I would be there in a heartbeat. 50 miles is almost around the corner as far as I'm concerned when buying a new keyboard, amp or any other major purchase.

George, my hair turned silver when I turned 30, then it went to snow white, but at 65 it's turned up on my pillow and a few other places other than my head.

Cheers,

Gary

Hi Tom,
same thing here in Australia. We get 2 types of stores. The "PRO" shops that sell guitars , synths , music software, audio equipment and the really low end keyboards, then you have the other type that sells digital piano's and mostly low end keyboards.
I've pretty much bought most of my keyboards sight unseen, had to go off literature, specs etc. The only store that had a full range of models, was my Technics dealer. Unfortunately he's now gone. He at least knew the basics on how they worked, great player, but when it came to the trickier questions, even he floundered.

Tend to think maybe because there's so many manufactures, and each keyboard works differently, the sales staff just don't have the time to learn all the functions, so it's pretty much a case of you want it, you get it, and then work it out for yourself.

best wishes
Rikki