Originally posted by Diki:
[B]All of those names will happily be playing the NEXT whiz-bang keyboard that they get for free (or heavily discounted) and someone else will be touting their using it as justification for how good it is.
I agree: it's reasonable to maintain some level of skepticism regarding endorsements.
On the other hand, to my knowledge, almost no-one has received an OASYS for free. Jordan Rudess, for instance, is on record as having sold a good amount of gear to afford his several OASYS keyboards. Even at an endorsee discount (which may not be as heavy as you'd imagine), the OASYS is not a casual purchase...and that's about the best real endorsement that a piece of gear can have.