I see and read often that the weight of an instrument is nearly the most important quality. How to solve this problem?

The weight is only relevant if you need to move it often - gigging perhaps.
For home users such as myself it is not too relevant.
Keith

Over four years of lugging around one of Yamahas heaviest portable keyboards (PSR 9000) I can safely say it became a very big part of my decision to go out and play. At first you don't care because your so excited to have a new cool state of the art instrument. But later after you have to break it down, setup at your venue and then break it down and set it back up at home....it really does begin to take its toll on you. I got to where I didn't want to take it very often. Only weekend gigs or longer would push me into taking it. I didn't always have a nice concrete sidewalk or driveway to roll my board to the stage. Often it had to be packed a fairly long distance. After awhile the fifty plus pounds took its toll on my hands and my back. I would never say its the most important part of a keyboard, however it is something to really consider. After having a heavy board the Tyros 2 feels much lighter.
Just my 2 cents.

Regards,
Dennis L. Almond
aka...TwoNuts

Extremely important!! And could be a deal breaker.
But it is mostly relevant for gigging musicians. And to some extent home musicians also.

The fact is we are living in a mobile and portable world where things must be easily transportable. A lot of consumer products are becoming smaller, lighter and more portable. If some keyboards are going to be for home use then it could be considered a consumer product and should be made like other consumer products.

And of course, professional gigging musicians want and need light keyboards to move around to the different gigs we have to go to.

So I think that keyboard manufacturers must take the weight of the keyboard in to account when they are doing R and D for new products.

If I fall in love with the quality of voices and styles, I don't care if it weighs 100 lbs.
We should feel fortunate that today's technology gives us this at around 40 lbs.

Mark

How many have light KB's & 2 or 3 speakers that weigh twice as much to transport compare to years agao theres no KB today that even compares to what we lugged around equipment wise ....OUCH!!

solution?....
http://www.rocknrollercart.com/

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 05-14-2006).]

I feel Dennis L. Almond is right on with his opinion. My kn7 falls into -- I love it less evrytime I carry it to a new gig.
It is not just the weight bt the shape, it's uncomfortable to carry, an amplifier of the same weight is not a problem.
If I were 6'3" and 220 pounds, it would not be a problem.

WE should not leave out the weight may be needed for protection. The case on my Kn7 is much stronger than the Tyros 2. Bebop once dropped his Kn7 in his motor home and was surprised to find no damage.

Having said that, I can't wait until I order my Tyros2.

Just my opioino, John C.

It isn't just the weight but how you handle it. I was careless the day I pulled a muscle in my back loading a heavy 88-note Kurzweil in it's flight case into a gig and I'm lucky the damage was temporary, but none the less it was the day I decided to switch to a lighter keyboard. Back injuries are career-threatening, expensive, and painful so no keyboard is worth the risk... yet "portable" keyboards in the 70lb range are not uncommon. It's hard to justify why a portable keyboard would weigh so much nowadays... home units are a different story. Personally I won't have anything for stage use over 50lbs and I'm kinda big and work out regularly.

The physical weight of a keyboard has absolutely nothing to do with it's quality of sound or construction. A good example of this can be readily seen when tape recorders first came on the market, many of which weighed nearly 100 pounds and sported huge reels holding inch-wide audio tape. Even at high speeds the recordings were noisy and required lots of editing and filtration to insure a good quality end product.

Today, tape recorders are essentially a thing of the past. They've been replaced by lightweight digital recorders that provide outstanding recording quality that is noise free. Some weigh less than 10 pounds and include an excellent, multi-channel mixer that's part of the package.

The same is now true with keyboards. I've read posts where individuals touted their keyboards as the best because the housing was made of heavy-guage steel. "Yep, I can drop this off a 10 store building, run over it with a truck and it will still play." You must be kidding! Why in the hell would anyone in their right mind want a keyboard that weighs 50 to 60 pounds? It will not play or sound any better than one that weighs 30 pounds, and if you play for a living, and lug the equipment around 7 days a week, you'll be damned glad your keyboard, amp, mixer, etc.. is made of lightweight material that's easy to transport.

If your keyboard never leaves the house, weight is of no consequence. If you hope to perform for a living, buy something that is lightweight, sounds great and has a user friendly operating system. Keyboards were never made to be dropped, banged around, slammed into walls, run over by a truck or pounded upon with your fist--they were meant to be played.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

If you have an X stand,how about fixing an end plate onto your keyboard stand so that when you have finished your gig, you tilt the board and stand together down onto your trolley,so now your board and stand is nearly verticle,close up the legs and away you go.To set up, have your board verticly on trolley lower legs into position and lever your board into horizontal. easy 8> )

remember the story of a lorry that got stuck under the bridge ,it held up traffic for hours,all the officials was saying if you move the lorry the bridge may collapse,if you put hydrolics under the bridge the lorry won,t be damaged so you can drive it out,but no-one would take the responsiblity of the best choice. A little boy said, WHY DON,T YOU LET THE AIR OUT OF THE TYRES OF THE LORRY and then both will be ok.



[This message has been edited by nardoni2002 (edited 05-14-2006).]