I have had my G70 over 2 years now and still wouldn't change it . (have owned Technics Kn6000/6500/7000 Yamaha EL70 , Technics GA1 , Yamaha PR702 and a few others) and this is the best . I have now saved several hundred tune sets up (by tune name) the music assistant is great - being flash memory it's fast to store and retrieve than say a hard drive - i have managed to store all tune setup s for all my music books - probaly a couple of hundred now . I usually create a first draft sound set up save it , then when i play again several weeks later i tweak it and resave - that way the sound presets get better in stages. Have found a few things worth doing - like adding reverb/ effects occasionally to presets makes all the difference , especially to the guitars and saxs . Also setting all sound channels - including style volume to 0 when volume pedal is at zero - that way you can use the keyboard like an ordgan ie: with "ecpresion pedal" at zero no volume then raise for all channels to increase in volume . This prevents drown out by the rythm. Also Roland guarantees are longer than other manufacturers. FOr every tune setting the right balance on all channels is a must , and the drawbars make this so easy , then once it all sounds right save to music assistant takes a few secs . The only thing is the styles are fewer than the other flagship keyboards , and are not that easy to find the rightr one to match a particular song , but they are all very good , and once mixed correctly (which is easy to do once you get into it) be controlled to create realistic backings for any music genre.

That all said i'm pretty sure the Tyros PA800 etc. are all probably just as good , it's just these latest keyboards are just better than the predecessors , now just about ready for the next G80 or Tyros 3 rollout , which i have read on this and other forums is not for another year - is that right ? If so i'll put the money in a high interest account

[This message has been edited by tony harbour (edited 05-15-2007).]