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

Squeak,
my guess is that no one has purchased a GEM keyboard in a very long time! So maybe only the stores are in trouble with merchandise.
I have one RealPiano PRO 1 left at my store. I've reduced the price from $1299.00 to $899.00, to $599.00 and now I have it at $399.00. I paid $699 when I bought it about 4 years ago! I found it in my storeroom and thought it was an empty box!


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

WOW! That's a huge drop in price George. I doubt MusiciansFriend will drop their GEM products much (if they even drop them at all). The Genesys (speaker version) at MF is selling for $3,700 right now. That's a crap load of money to pay for a keyboard that won't have a factory warranty. Only thing ya got is the 45 day return policy.

Its a sad day...


GEM made some really innovative stuff, espescially the WX2 comes to mind which was the first real keyboard arranger workstation best and far ahead of its time

Next to that the GEM real piano's with their Drake synthesis where and still are among the best digitall piano's ever.

GEM concentrated on Piano's for the last few years and didn't have a new arranger product for almost 10 years now... That mistake must have cost them dearly.

Sad to see them go...

You should take in account also the fact that Generalmusic managements is involved in a big swindle uncovered by the italian financial police of an amount around 1.500.000 euros.

Here's an article regarding this (in Italian)
http://ilrestodelcarlino.ilsole24ore.com...ps_rimini.shtml

In practice, from 1999 to 2004 they moved employess from one company to others of their group pretending they were hiring new personnel and getting contributes from the italian social security agency.

I am glad i still have my PROMEGA 3. Its the best thing ever.
As for Ketron i've heard rummors that Roland might
OverShadow them like Yammi did to Steinberg.

[This message has been edited by Nedim (edited 01-26-2009).]

It is always sad to see a company like GEM go under, and not because of inferior products, but because of poor handling by the owners.

A friend of mine has a Promega2...it is an incredible instrument...lovely piano with terrific realism and an easy to use interface....I love the way you can mix sounds so easily, and the detailed control over the piano sound...something like Roland's new V-Piano.

If Roland takes over Ketron, and the audio styles are as claimed, in as far as chord recognition is concerned, then they will surely have a tremendous advantage in making a new TOTL arranger...IF they are still interested in making such an instrument.

Yamaha bought the Bösendorfer brand a short while ago and saved these great pianos from certain extinction.

Ian

How heavy is that Promega2 or 3 unit?
http://www.generalmusicus.com/Promega2.htm
http://www.generalmusicus.com/promega3.htm



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-26-2009).]

I dont know about the Promega 2, a Croatian friend
of mine has it, i should ask him if i have a chance.

I'd say it was about 50-60 lbs...not very portable...about as heavy as a G70 in a road case.

Early ones had reliability issues, which apparently were corrected. My friend's was a later model and has worked problem free, but it is just used in his home studio.

Ian

Hey...there are people here who think nothing of dragging around 60 lbs of keyboard(in a case)...I'm not one of them, but Fran and Diki seem to manage okay.

"My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—it gives a lovely light!"

Ian here at the arranger keyboard fighting forum just about anything goes.......
now how do you like your pizza?

Cooked?

Great post!!

When I had my organ and piano store in the 70s I sold Gem organs which were called Viscount at the time. They were a lower cheaper line of organs.

Tom

R.I.P.

I can remember selling GEM branded organs and keyboards in the early eighties. A tough sell, even then. The only GEM instrument I can remember standing out was the WS2 keyboard that came along a few years later. Lots of advanced sounds and features for its time, but pro-players recoiled at its bizarre user interface (eg having to delve into a menu to change the master volume!). We must have sold two dozen Roland E-70s for every one WS2 we shifted. Pity.

I have a question, What was Solton to GEM. I rememeber Solton was involved with Ketron, then they moved over to GEM and the had the Solton SD?, which was the GEM keyboard?

Solton in a German Distributor of keyboards. When Ketron started up in the 1980's they produced keyboards that Solton distributed in Europe. So, they called their keyboards "Solton by Ketron".
Several years ago, the Solton Distributor decided they wanted to add Generalmusic keyboards to their catalog and Ketron wasn't happy about this and took the Solton part of their name off their Ketron keyboards.
Solton had Generalmusic make them a Genesys keyboard which was called Solton just for their own distribution. So, some of you have seen the Genesys keyboard marketed under the name "Solton" and "Generalmusic". They are the same boards but the operating system for the Solton was made to highlight German music styles such as Polka's, etc.



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