Nice to see you got a good deal on a Tyros3 Charley. I noticed on the Guitar Center.com site that the price for a T3 was $4,599 so that's what I was going by. Same thing at Sweetwater.com and I would expect others too. The actual list price for the Tyros3 is $5,499 so Yamaha is being generous
by giving you $900 off the list price. Here in California the sales tax is now 8.75% so at retail plus tax I would be looking at $5,001 thank you. And because of that I have to say NO thank you to Yamaha.
Plus it only has 61 keys.
Another case in point. My Roland Fantom G7 was purchased back in May '08 when Roland was offering an introductory price for the Fantom G line. I got my Fantom G7 (76 keys) for an incredible $2,500! And it is FAR MORE of a keyboard than any T3 too! But of course no Style accompaniment or Lyric display. By the way, I do shop around and try to get the best deal(s) whether it's a workstation, arranger, or whatever.
The Big Three, and Ketron, market their high-end arrangers to an older crowd where many have actually accumulated "mucho dinero" over the years (just look at Don Mason and Fran as an example
) and therefore the Big Three (and especially Yammie and Ketron it seems) feel it's okay to "gouge" the older crowd I guess. Retiree's and those in their 40's and 50's can, in many instances, afford the high(er) prices and apparently Yamaha and Ketron's guilt doesn't seem to bother them I reckon. In other words, "screw" their customer base and still feel good about it at the end of the day as they laugh themselves silly all the way to the bank.
Or rather...
Let's hope that's not the case but the prices prove otherwise, so I guess it's really true.
And we.. uh, I mean 'you', the older crowd,
are losing out as a result. Unless you don't mind being "gouged" that is. Because I certainly DO!
What we can hope and pray for is that Yamaha and Ketron will get some fiscal "sense" knocked into them and then reduce their prices in accordance to ethical and reasonable standards. If they're actually 'ethical' and 'reasonable' that is.
So far they've proven otherwise to me and I would guess the vast majority of arranger keyboard players too - except maybe DonM and Fran perhaps.
lol Just kidding you two. [img]
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/smile.gif[/img]
All the best,
Mike