hi...i'm looking to get a good low-end arranger for a beginner/intermediate level player in the < $400 range. after looking into a few the GEM GK series has caught my eye and seems to be the frontrunner for me right now. can anyone give some positive or negative feedback on the GK310 as a starter keyboard (basically just to play around with...if i get serious enough about music i'll probably invest in something much better)?

I don't know anything about GEM models, but your topic reminded me of a keyboard I saw recently at Sam's Wholesale Club. It is a 76-note Cascio. Beautiful keyboard, good sound, nice styles, complete with accessory package for around $300.
DonM

The Casio WK1630 is the $299.00 Casio but a good choice would also be the Yamaha PSR350. It is $399.00 and includes a disk drive and XG sounds from Yamaha. The Generalmusic GK310 I had in my store for just a short time (until the two I bought were sold) and I didn't re-order any more. In my opinion, not up to the Yamaha PSR350 or Casio.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George, the Yamaha would probably be a better keyboard to "grow" with, as it would be easy to graduate to more sophisticated Yamahas later on and not have to learn new operating system. The Cascio just caught my eye and I played around with it for maybe 5 minutes.
DonM

thanks for the input so far...any thoughts on the Roland EM-10, 20, etc... ?

Hi,
On ebay there is a lot of PSR-540's
at least three I saw you can buy (with their
buy now program!) for $365.00. And that would make you a great starter. It would also cost you S/H.
Best regards,
Nobby
PS: These are new the seal on the box they claimed to be unbroken!

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thanks for all the advice so far...incidentally does anyone know of a good reason to avoid the GEM GK's? the GK310 is a fair amount less expensive than the Yamaha's that I've looked at and it seems to have as many if not more features.

just to expand on my last post...one of the major advantages of the Yamaha's over the GEM is a disk drive....do you think this will be a useful feature for a begginner like me?

you'll be sorry within a few weeks if you get one without a drive.

Probably much sooner than that !!