At the NAMM show in January, Roland was offering E80 keyboards at a very discounted price to authorized dealers. I didn't order any until the week after NAMM. Not having many dealers, I thought I'd have no problem getting a few. However, on Friday, I was told Roland didn't have very many here in the USA and so they were out and apologized because I couldn't get any. I asked if more were coming and the answer was no. They were not shipping any new ones from Italy to the USA. So, I can say they've been discontinued! Not enough had been sold here in the USA to have Roland continue to stock them.
If any of you are desperate for an E80, you should be able to pick one up for around $2000.00 brand new if you can find a dealer who was luck enough to purchase one of the last ones.


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

Maybe this means something new is on the horizon.
Ever the optimist,
DonM

I was curious about the product but could never get a definitive answer on how good or bad the speaker system is

Bebop always said his was pretty good...

Still not sure I would go the E80 route, being even heavier than the G70 is...

Now George, are they discontinued in the US only, or are they out of production worldwide? To be honest, it seems like Roland are capitulating the arranger market in the US completely, spending next to nothing on promotion and incentives. They have a good thing in the WS's, but don't seem to have any interest in arrangers at all over here. But Europe seems a totally different market...

GX90

GW-8L.... that is Roland's only recent arranger. Downmarket. Stripped down. Basic. Cheap. Light. And nowhere on it is the word 'Arranger'.

I predict the sub-$1000 toy arranger market will survive, but does anyone remember what happened to the 'home organ' market during the last recession? Just like the auto industry, they went high dollar luxury gas guzzlers in a sub-compact world. And now they are in museums. Ketron's ONLY new arranger in years is a $5000 behemoth.

Roland's is a sub-$800 compact.

Guess who'll survive...

Guess who'll survive...

My guess is neither will survive.

Gary

On a long enough timeline, NOTHING survives!

Hammond, Sequential Circuits, ARP, Oberheim... who could have guessed at the time that their days were numbered?

Well, probably Gary! He knows all...

Ketron has no WS line, is a tiny company... Roland is a large corporation with diverse products, some of which, at least, are market leaders. I don't think survival is much on their minds, but getting out of the diminishing arranger market is probably a good way to not waste money, at least...

I think yamaha has the total opposite idea...& is looking to totally dominate the arranger market in the years to come.....just look what models they have put on the market in the last 10 years compared to all the rest.

Dikim GW-7 and GW-8 are not even arrangers,
hence no Arranger mark or word on them.