Nick, not everyone wants a semi-weighted keybed. Granted, if you were brought up on a piano, then you are accustomed to those heavy keys. Even though I started with a piano, then transitioned to a guitar before going to an arranger keyboard, I thoroughly enjoy those extremely light keys, especially when I was doing 4 hour jobs in an Italian restaurant in Baltimore's Little Italy. Lots of songs involved piano sounds from the keyboard, and that meant lots of right hand playing, which after four hours, my hands were not cramped.

Several years ago, while my wife and I were vacationing in the Florida Keys, I was asked to fill in for a friend who performed nightly in an upscale restaurant. He played a Clavinova and had a female vocalist who was incredible, both vocally and visually - she was drop dead gorgeous. After two nights playing his Clavinova, which he insisted I use, my hands felt as if they would explode. At the end of each night I had to soak them in hot, salted water for a couple hours to get some relief from the pain. By the end of the week, when he returned, he thanked me and said he had lots of good reports from audience members and the restaurant owner about the performances. Then he asked if I could fill in for him the following month, to which I replied "Only if I can use MY keyboard." He acquiesced and everything went just fine. After that week of performing, my hands felt great, and I went back to fishing and drinking expensive booze and eating food that is bad for your health.

All the best,

Gary