GEM closes down his factory and fires all workers. The website is closed also, so don't expect any new product from them.
A sad story of bad management, the same destiny of many Italian companies ruined by stupid and money-hungry managers.

WOW! Honestly doesn't come as a surprise though as GEM has been very quiet lately. Makes me wonder what Musician'sFriend is going to do with all their stock since the warranty to those items just went down the crapper.

GEM brought to itself it's demise, Bad management and for my own experience, bad service to their dealers, besides the most important one, the customer's service, to be honest, it did not surprised me, it was matter of time.
I am aware that some people that may worked there where not like that, but I can see that it felt like swimming against...you know.

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mdorantes

Technics......GEM..... so who will be next?

Wersi. Again.

You heard it here first.

I wonder if Generalmusic's division of ahlborn-Galanti church organs has closed as well. I know many churches around the country use their church organs.

I was a Generalmusic Keyboard dealer from 1998 till about 2004. I even traveled with my wife to their factory in Italy in 2002. Some of you here might know Chris Anthony, a long time employee of Generalmusic who programmed many of the styles used in the WK4,6 and 8 and the Genesys series. Everything was going great until many changes were made in Management and Chris no longer was a full time employee. I was getting very frustrated with the lack of support and not being competitive in the market with prices going through the roof on their top of the line Genesys keyboards.
During the rough period of the last few years, there was Dave McMahan who was very helpful to all that needed him, but this wasn't enough to sustain their business.
With the economy being what it is today, I worry what will happen to many smaller companies around the world.
I am sorry to see Generalmusic gone. They manufactured innovative products and kept other manufactures on their toes.
Generalmusic was not only providing their own products but they also produced many of the parts used in Ketron keyboards. I saw this when I visited their factory in Ancona Italy. Ketron XD9 plastic keyboard casings where lined up in a big room where they had just been painted. I also visited their Organ Factory in another town. Generalmusic also distributed products from other US manufactures throughout Europe. I wonder if everything has been shut down.
I wish only the best for the Galanti family.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

My guess is they were developing something special for the market, but unfortunately the Global recession came and the banks wouldn’t lend them any more money for the R & D, and so that was the end.

Technics was purely accountants, the music division accounted for about 1% of total sales and so they didn’t consider it worthwhile to continue.

As to Wersi, they got caught out in the last recession, so hopefully shouldn’t make the same mistake this time.

Bohm should also have learnt from the past.

Regards

Bill

Which begs the question of how much longer will Ketron be able to hold out? Ketron is limited in their overall customer support as well as very poor distribution in North America and other parts of the world. If the Audya happens to sell at a reasonable price and sell reasonably well worldwide then Ketron may be able to recoup some of their losses from R&D and the underwhelming sales of some of their other products. To be honest I will be surprised if Ketron lasts through the rest of this year. Of course we have no way of really knowing how financially stable and secure Ketron really is but I am guessing they are suffering much like practically every other major business is world over. Being a relatively "small" business (company) in a sea of much larger and much better established ones like Yammie and Roland, I have a tendency to think that Ketron is on the verge of possibly sinking and going belly up much like GEM recently has done.

I hope they don't, of course, because competition is good for consumers and businesses alike. But my gut feeling is telling me different sorry to say.

All the best,
Mike

Re Generalmusic:

I was reliably informed that the problem with Generalmusic was down to the chineese manufactured products. Items like the RP710 piano were manufactured in china however most of them the reliabilty was poor and neede repair. I was told that that Gem are still trading but the financing from the bank had been reduced. The chineese manufacturer for them being the major factor. I was told that a skeleten staff of people were still in place with gem.

However i suspectwith this news spreading about they may well cal it a day.

I worked for gem and had a big involvement with them in the UK from the WK4 days up to Genesys. They did a fabulous product but lacked impact in the market place and would not listen to what the market place needed.

It is a shame the pianos were and are still a fabulous product and the technology is far ahead of any other product. As for the keyboards...... well in todays market i,m not convinced they cut it.

Even though i do own a few gem keyboards

I hope they can salvage something. I would even buy there piano technolgy myself and market and run it.

All the best to the staff and Galanti family.

My question is what happens here..??? The cheapest GEM item on this page is damn near $2,000 and that price is for a "scratch and dent" item (that has NO keybed)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What happens now with warranties..., and where are customers who just recently purchased a GEM standing regarding their warranties???
http://keyboards-midi.musiciansfriend.com/navigation/keyboard-workstations?N=100001+338022+203491