Let's face it, if the G70 WERE a '10', there'd be more than me and Fran still using them.

The G70's shortcomings are WELL documented, both here and at Roland-arranger.com, and enough people have bought them and dropped them for you to be able to infer that they are no Yamaha beater for the general user. The G70 is about SOUND, and pretty much sound alone.

I use as little of the arranger as I possibly can, and play most everything if at all possible. I want to wow my audience with what I'M doing, not the arranger. So the sound is the main thing. But anyone doing an arranger (not SMF) based show that is used to the ease that Yamaha make this is going to have a hard time on a G70.

I believe it is the best keyboard (not just arranger) for general use for a true PLAYER, but not the best choice for the OMB, LH chord, RH solos type of player. Ease of use is that player's mantra. The PLAYER is generally only concerned with the sound... I can play round most OS shortcomings. But when the sound isn't anywhere near as important as MFD's and familiar navigation and the support that all those arranger parts give you, it's just a different set of priorities to me. The sound, the sound, the sound. The rest is just fluff. But that's just me.

But don't say we didn't warn you, Zuki (and you haven't! )...

Look, you rarely see a Yamaha long time user move to Roland. And you rarely see Roland guys do the opposite. Both companies have radically different ideas about what an arranger player needs, what type of sound he'll be happy with, and how to lay out the overall 'flow' of the OS. It's like English and Japanese. One is written with letters, the other with pictograms, one written left to right horizontally, the other right to left vertically, and both have virtually no words in common. But they both do exactly the same thing. Convey information to the reader or speaker.

Well, that's Roland and Yamaha in a nutshell.

I realize that the G70 acquisition was just so that you have something easier to sell than the Ketron, but in all fairness, I'd have held on to it just a little longer, and investigated the OS a little deeper. NOBODY can play something for as little time as you have, and make an INFORMED decision. First impressions are not always the most accurate. That's kind of like me playing the S900 for a half a day, and telling you it is utter rubbish!

YOU know it isn't... but only because you have spent a lot more than a few hours on one. Anyway, no big wup, play what you want to. Familiarity trumps sound for most players.

But I keep asking myself... Is anyone EVER going to learn from this arranger roulette that's been going on lately? DON'T BUY AN ARRANGER SIGHT UNSEEN.

Or maybe you'd be interested in this bridge I have for sale... Great views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. One careful owner. What have you got to lose?