Where are you looking, Donny? I know several arranger keyboard players that are in other states, performing at nursing homes, assisted living centers and retirement communities. And, for the most part, they are better paid than someone with an I-Phone, a mixer, a mic and amp.
When I was performing in the Florida Keys, I was one of only three arranger keyboard players between Marathon and Key West. Nearly all the other performers were guitar players that sang country and Jimmy Buffett songs. Because have guitar will travel entertainers are a dime a dozen everywhere you look, they never seem to command the higher pay scales. I know that the ADs here don't pay the KJs more than $35 to $50 for a one hour job. And, when those special parties needed an entertainer, the arranger keyboard players that could sing were the first people they would call. Same went for the corporate parties.
Now, I know that some of the I-phone KJs are darned good singers and have seen many of them perform. However, 99 percent of them had full-time day jobs which precluded them from doing the NH jobs because those jobs, as you well know, are in the middle of the day and mostly weekdays - not weekends. Consequently, this put them out of the loop, leaving those job slots wide open for those of us that were full time, arranger keyboard entertainers.
Many years ago, I played a 12-sting Yamaha guitar, sat on a bar stool with a Shure SM58 mic on a stand and a music stand with a 3-inch looseleaf binder loaded with lyrics. I was paid $50 a night, was booked pretty much every Friday and Saturday night and thought I was making good money. Then my loving wife pointed out that I was barely breaking even most of the time. She was right.
When I switched to an arranger keyboard, things improved drastically. I had variety at my fingertips, I was not constrained to a single instrument, but instead had a full band at my command and the audiences increased in size right along with my paycheck. Additionally, I was not restricted to the the constraints of pre-recorded backing tracks, which many of the DJs and KJs must contend with.
Finally, I was playing the instrument of my choice, which was no longer a guitar or mandolin. I was first and foremost an entertainer, and secondly a musician that could be creative, which was appreciated by my audiences as well as myself. I have many friends in the UK and Northern Europe that also perform the senior circuit, and they all use an arranger keyboard. Now, Don Mason got lazy, which is not a bad thing, Don, and decided he wanted to perform the nite club circuit, performing every night in the same location, which permits him to leave his gear on stage and not set up or tear down after each job. But, I clearly remember when he and his friend were out doing just when the rest of us did on the NH circuit and making a pretty good living at it, using of all things, an arranger keyboard.
Remember Bill Corfield (Bill in Dayton)? Bill was doing more than 400 jobs a year in the NH circuit using his arranger keyboard, and I assume that he still is.
Eddie Shoemaker is down there in Sunny Florida playing the NH circuit and the animal clubs and VFWs and American Legions using his arranger keyboard. On nights when he's not there, they usually have another keyboard player pumping up the crowds on the dance floor.
I don't know Donny, but it sounds like you are looking for some justification to sell your keyboard, but you won't get it from me - that's for sure. To me, it makes absolutely no sense at all. You know the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Works for me,
Gary
.......... makes me feel ill.