Hey Donny,

No truer words need to be spoken !!

Hey Diki ,

I hear ya`, it is strange but just the way it is
I remember when Casio made the early arrangers , like the CT-701 , Casio was big , now they are just another keyboard maker.

I remember back in the early 80`s they ( Casio ) even had a dual manual arranger !!

That CT-701 I bought cost me a grand back in `83
It had 8 voices and 8 styles with 8 variations of each.
O__ and 2 orange sound F/X buttons !!

Take care guys,

Gary 

I'm not surprised by any of these posts. I live in SW Florida and a popular music store in Fort Myers didn't even have a Tyros2 six months after I had mine. Even when I go to Tampa or Miami the big box stores, Sam Ash, Mars Music (extinct now?)always disappoint me. Years ago I remember a store in Lansing, Illinois called MusicLab. They were the best back then. When Yamaha had its DX-7, TX-81Z, QX-5 hardware sequencer out their people knew everything about them. They could demonstrate all the features and seemed genuinely interested in my satisfaction. Even after purchase they were there with weekend workshops, always had the time and resources to answer anything. That was a different time, I guess. Maybe there are still places like this, but probably not as many? -charley

DX-7's probably outsold every arranger made in the last ten years by every manufacturer (at least the TOTL and MOTL ones). It still remains to this day the single highest selling keyboard in history.

OF COURSE a salesman is going to know more about his most popular product than his LEAST...

Trust me on this one.. if Tyros 2's sold in the same kind of numbers than the products they DO know about, they would be knowledgeable about THEM and keep them in stock. But a handful of retirees is a drop in the ocean compared to the hordes that buy Motif's and Fantom's.

What would YOU spend your time boning up on, if you were a salesman (assuming you don't have enough time to bone up on everything, which is usually the case!)?

Try MI retail as a living before you get too worked up about the lack of knowledge in most music stores... Either educate yourself exhaustively before you attempt any shopping, or simply be HAPPY to pay a premium for knowledgeable staff and well stocked stores.

You can't have it BOTH ways!

In this part of the world, independent music stores are slowly, but surely giving way to big box stores. Just two decades ago there were loads of Ma & Pa music stores along the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan corridor, stores that had a knowledgeable staff, carried everything from guitars to electric pianos, and provided outstanding service. Additionally, there were several stores that just specialized in pianos and organs, most of which are still around, but again, they too are headed for extinction. The few that remain, such as Washington Music in Rockville, Maryland, stores that have a dedicated area for keyboards, synths and electric pianos, still cater to the pro players who knows what he or she wants and is willing to pay MSRP.

For all others there is GC, and soon to come, Best Buy, which at best can be described as a training ground for high school kids that need a part time job so they can put gas in their cars and party. The kid that's an employee at GC and Best Buy could care less if you were a pro player, and in most instances if you are older than 30 they don't want to be bothered by waiting on you, especially if you have a question. God forbid, that would require using the thought process, or even worse taking time to look up the information of the store's computer data base.

The bottom line--Live with it! That's what's in store for the future. Within the next decade it will be click, shop and drop, few if any independent music stores, and the only service will be direct from the factory.

Good Luck,

Gary

Exactly Gary...... "click, shop and drop" we're there already............educate yourself & take a chance on a product afterwards...if it dont work out off to eBay & try again. This is where we're at now..."Old School Shopping" is a thing of the past.....& it's sad for our generation.......the kids will have no recollection of it when we're gone.

Few kids have much recollection of ANYTHING these days, after they fight through their drug and partying haze!

"Why can't they be like we were,
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids?
What's the matter with kids?
What's the matter with kids today?"

Bye, bye, all you birdies!

hammer, you should have asked for a Pa2xpro instead, they probably would have known what that is! LOL

The only arrangers in the store were a Yamaha S900 and a Korg PA800.
Go figure.
Hammer