Hi guys,
Just a note on the 9000PRO. I use it nightly and often, daily. I am a SOLO ACT (although I love to play in a group on the odd occation) I play for both small and large gatherings. I actually decided to choose the 9kPRO over other offerings after much "playing around" the various offering AND (let me repeat this, here comes the clincher)AND a "close the doors" praiseful recommendation of its supurb qualities from our own UD!!! Sure its not the lightest and sure I use stereo amps. But boy WHAT A GREAT INSTRUMENT for the SOLO ACT!!!! Bless you UD for your praiseful rec. Oh yes and one other thing - I have often been told that I exhibit a lot of energy while playing. (my PSR640 used to pop out its music stand regularly on a good night- veeeery )The 9KPRO has not missed a beat - its built to take the energy.

Uncle Dave said: "The 9kpro had EVERYthing you'd need to work as a soloist ...... but the size made it just too cumbersome to deal with, and the lack of speakers just put it out of range for the smaller jobs. The PSR9k was not a suitable substitute, because of the awkward size and same horrible weight factor..."

I'm a pro soloact and I anticipate my Yamaha 9000 Pro to arrive this week. However I can already tell you that I've been using a Kurzweil PC88 at small-to-medium gigs for some time, which weighs in at 55 lbs without internal speakers and the flight case I carry it in weighs another 30 lbs, and I've been using a Roland EM-2000 with it as an arranger and midi file player (I forget the weight on that but guess it's around 35 lbs). Plus I carried a vocal harmonizer/reverb unit and a mixer. It seems to me that the 9000 Pro has the potential to replace both of these keyboards, the harmonizer, mixer and the cords and power supplies I used to need to hook them all together, so I'll take that "horrible weight factor" of 45 lbs in a heartbeat. Also, I use a pair of JBL EON G2 10's which weigh all of 24 lbs each, and I bought the carry bags JBL makes for them. They are small, pack 175 watts of digital power each, sound wonderful and my wife can even carry them. I expect them to last quite a while. Yamaha knew full well it could never pack anything like a JBL EON into a keyboard and did the right thing not trying with the 9000 Pro. Maybe you don't come from the days when keyboardists had to carry full PA systems to gigs, even small ones, but I do and I marvel at how much lighter and better everything is today. I see the ideal small-medium gig setup as a Yamaha 9000 Pro and a pair of JBL EON 10's, even if it means I have to make slightly more than one trip to and from my car to do the gig.

God bless you - make the extra trips to the car .... in the rain...... with a far-a-way parking spot ...... in a bad neighborhood

I still stand by my original statements that the 9kpro is the most complete arranger/workhorse I've ever seen, but I just do too many jobs where size is a HUGE issue. The weight factor would not be so bad if I was always on stages, with room to wheel in a dolly etc. The fact is: I often have to walk through fancy marble halls(no dolly's allowed)... up steps, through narrow kitchen hallways ...... it all adds up to a huffing, and puffing piano mover - all before I even play the first note.

I'm sure we all have our own take on this issue, but here in my town - most of my work is small(size-wise, NOT money wise)- and a larger keyboard with a REQUIRED sound system is just not practical.

Here's a few examples:

1)Thursday & Friday nites - I play a bar in Trenton NJ that has a house system (that I installed)- I walk in, slap the kb on the (custom built) piano/like stand plug into the PA, and I'm ready to go in 5 minutes.
(KB speakers are my monitors, so I put the house volume WHEREVER it needs to be. I am not affected by it.)

2)Sun-Tues down at the Crab Trap (NJ shore)- There is a band that works Wed-Sat, and they let me use their PA, so I walk in, set up a KB stand and BOOM - same thing. ONE trip to the car. No baggage to store.... just a kb case to neatly pack in a closet or behind the rig.
There are countless nursing homes and cocktail parties that require no more sound then the on-board speakers too. In these high-ticket jobs, I can walk in, wearing a tux - open the case put the kb on the stand and be ready to play in less than 5 minutes -without breaking a sweat. I'm talking million dollar homes, private country clubs and corporate gatherings. This crowd just needs musical "wallpaper" not a concert.
I'd love to have kept the 9kpro, but I just wouldn't be able to use it much .... so what's the point?

I'm putting more energy into just playing piano/bass/drum things, and I'll use sequences for the higher energy dance stuff. The summer season is about to explode and I will not be worrying about gear in July. I just wanna sing. This issue is really bringing me down, so I'll can it for now, but thanx for all the participation in this topic. We sure do represent the WHOLE spectrum of users, don't we ?
Best of luck in all your searches - I hope SOMEone finds the perfect fit.

Esh,
I also appreciate the newer gear after years of carrying around much heavier equipment. When I sold my 9000 it was because I was doing as many as three nursing homes per day and the weight made a big difference.
Now I'm playing a sit-down club 3-4 days a week where I leave things set up. I would like to have both a larger setup and keep the small gear for the small jobs.
I know everybody is getting tired of hearing it, but I'm really trying to get away from Yamaha gear.
Maybe they will change my mind. If I could find a used Pro, I might try it until I find and decide on something better. That way it would be no additional revenue for Yamaha!
DonM