Hello Folks,
I have been reading all the sites I can find about the PSR series arrangers and have not found alot of info on the following topics.

1. How many problems have people had with the LCD screens in the 640/740, 1000/2000, 1100/2100 series, if any?

2. The same for the buttons, floppys, and jacks.

I have seen some of the stories about yam service, the "butter knife" trick, etc. but nothing about how reliable the screens, buttons, and jacks are, esp. after countless times pluging and unpluging.

Had a 550, had to sell for bills, and am now saving for another, bigger one. I decided to stay with a PSR Arranger after finding a much bigger user base that just loves the instrument, shares their programs and conversions they have spent HOURS of their time doing, the knowledge of HOW they did it, and are very helpfull to give out advice and info to people who ask. (The PSR Tutorial Site is the BOMB! )
I would like to Thank you in advance for any and all info you may have, and have a great weekend!

While there have been a few PSR users that experienced screen problems, the number has been quite small. Same holds true with jacks and disk drives. However, disk drives are now becoming past history and have been replaced by more convenient and better storage devices such as the Smart Media Cards and USB storage devices.

I have replaced some keypad strips and floppy drives for individuals, and I was able to repair a couple power supply jacks that were not soldered correctly to the board. Other than those few repairs for others, I have never experienced any problems in two decades of using Yamaha keyboards. I believe the same is true for most other users.

Gary

Hello Gary,
Thanks for the reply. And I have a question for you, what IS Kickapoo Joy Juice? I have seen it mentioned many, many times in the forums. It has to be a health drink, huh? ;-)

Again, thanks for the reply, hope to hear from others experiances, good or bad. Smurf

Kickapoo Joy Juice is homemade Kahlua that is easy to make and only costs about $3 a bottle. You'll find the recipe at http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/009022.html

Enjoy,

Gary

IM with travlin'easy on this. Heck his post near mirrors some of the stuff I was gonna post ( that I dint ":P )

LCD...only issue here is after XX amount of years, backlight could go out. Any other problems would be related to direct damage to the board.

Disc drives, I agree no reason to go with a floppy drive. Unless you want a retro something, or if the floppy drive is only the back up for a memory card. Floppy drives are not total horror, even with the drive on your PSR550 being an exact example of how not to implement one. I happen to like the 550 ( past its silly dependence of the floppy and crap headphone jack ), so IM guessing some of your fears of floppy drives is a direct result of your time with the 550.

Jacks...Yamaha jacks are workable when they give you enough of them. This being my only real gripe, you have to spend near ( speaking in generals ) a grand just to get left/right 1/4 inch independent outputs with new Yamaha boards. Get past that your dealing with jacks that could be mounted better, could be balanced better, and could offer lower noise...but still do their fundamental job. This is the weakest link of Yamaha boards for me, as is a general lacking of effect options when contrasted to what Yamaha offered a decade ago ( on some boards/series ).

Buttons...what of them, they do their job " Only thing button related I happen to dislike on the new Yamaha's, the jog wheels feel like complete cheep crap. They work...just subjectively speaking BAH.

If you don't need the arranger features of the current Yamaha's, I would hint big time that you open up some other options. If you do NEED the arranger features...well then......Yamaha "

Oh goody .... another expert!

Hello Folks,
Again, thanks for the replys, but I think I need to try this again. I had no problems what so ever with the 550,the floppy did not bother me, had it around a year and did around 30 jobs with it. It did fine. My question is for all you people who have set up, moved, pluged & unpluged, went from 90 degrees to AC, etc. on any type of a regular basis. My goal is no less than the 2100 because of the mic input, but because of a lack of jobs in my area for full bands anymore (besides the drunks - drugs both on and off stage, 30 year semi-pro drummer here) my funds dictate that I will be looking to buy used. That is why I was asking about all the "mechanical" parts.
Again, thanks for the replys, please keep them comming! Smurf

Smurf,

Don Mason used his PSR-2000 nightly for two years, it never blinked or had a single problem. I experienced the same with my PSR-500, 5700, 630, 740 and 2000. They all performed flawlessly, night after night, year after year, in smoke-filled bars, wedding receptions, nite clubs, private parties, indoors and outdoors. I even did a job in a snowstorm once, something I'll never do again. The bottom line is the keyboard will hold up just fine--you just have to be a good entertainer to make a living in this business.

Additionally, I am a strong advocate of pre-planning and programming the system so every aspect can be utilized to eliminate dead time between songs. Additionally, it's important to be able to look at our audience and instantly pick out the correct music and songs to keep the entertained all night long. So whether your keyboard uses a floppy disk, hard drive or USB device is irrelevent. In the end, it's you, the person playing the board and singing the songs that really counts.

Gary

As Gary said, I used the 2000 to the extreme, MUCH longer than I normally keep a keyboard. And after that it found a new home in California and is performing to this day, some four years after it's "birth".
Hank The Lurker abused his 2000 in ways almost unimaginable. It had at least two full drinks poured into it, cigarette burns, bounced around, left uncovered. It looks so bad that he didn't even try to sell it after getting the 3000. But it still works just as it did when new.
The 2100, which I had for several months after selling the 2000, seems to be essentially the same unit with some software upgrades.
The Tyros that I have now has performed flawlessly since I rescued it from Uncle Dave's forceful fingers.
I had a PSR8000 for several years, sold it, rebought it as a backup, and finally took it to the Mexican border where it was transported deep into Mexico to a new home with a full time musician there. It's still working fine last I heard, it must be close to 10 years old now.
DonM

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 10-10-2004).]

Hello Folks,
Thanks for the replys! That was the info I was looking for. Since I will have to buy used I was just wondering how well they held up. Again, thanks for the info! Smurf