Same here, Don. Guitar teachers are booked solid 12 hours a day at the local music store and this store has 20 teaching rooms and the guy is planning to expand to 30 rooms.

There are a half dozen arranger keyboard players within 100 miles of me - that's it! And, I like it that way.

Gary

Mike Mixon at Keyboardamerica (yes-one word)in Delaware has psr 750/950/T5 61 and 76 key there on display. He's a big yammie dealer and full size and e-piano salesman. Sold organs back in the day in NJ. Knows his products inside out, spends the time with you, even has his own youtube channel for instructional demos. Brick and mortar store, and in Delaware- no sales tax period-whether you walk in and buy it there or order online, resident or not. But he is the exception to the rule....as are guys like Frank and George in their respective states.

And the brand new GC by me is advertising their GC studios like crazy. Kids streaming in and out of there for lessons - accompanied by mom or dads credit card of course.. And in today's economy more than ever, comparison shoppers are a given, and you have to be competitive or die a slow death. Kids are hired in the big box stores with a prerequisite of playing in a garage band period. And it is easier for the store to sell 20 $250 guitars than 1 $5k keyboard nobody knows anything about..

there is more then enough on you tube & the internet for info on any piece of gear to make a decision to buy, make comparisons,
talk to owners, reviews, etc, it's a new world out here embrace it I say.

I live in Sherbrooke, Quebec (150 000 of population). We have 4 average size music instrument stores. A lot of guitars, bass, drums,etc but few arrangers. One has 3 or 4 PSR, the 750 being the most expensive. Another has sometime a PA3X and some used ones mainly Casio. The two others don't have any.

But.... there is another store that have been selling pianos for the last 50 years and that carries from PSR-e4xx to Tyros all the time and selling a lot. So the question is perhaps where the arrangers are and the size of the wallet of the usual client.

I think we have to acknowledge the fact that just about any pop or rock band is going to have guitars bass and drums and if its a keyboard it is a synth NOT an arranger ... that is one of the reasons why we are going to see more guitars bass and drums than we will ever see arranger keyboards in most of these stores ...

I have to agree with some of the earlier posts. My local GC, the largest of 6 GC stores in my area, had a T4 last fall that I wanted to learn more about. I hadn't touched an arranger keyboard before and was hoping that someone could show me the capabilities and features of that keyboard. I talked to their most experienced keyboard player on staff and after 30 seconds it was clear he didn't have a clue how to operate the thing, let along demo it for me. But in a way I can't complain about the retailers -- these gizmos are so complex and differ in operation from one brand to the next that I can see how difficult it would be to train the salespeople.

Arranger keyboards are really not that complex, at least I've never found them to be that way. However, at first glance they can be somewhat daunting, with dozens of buttons and lights and a multi-page display. The user manuals are usually of very little help in making it comfortable to sit down and play. Fortunately, there are loads of great web sites, such as this one, PSR Tutorial, and Jorgen Sorenson's Unofficial Yamaha Keyboard Resource Site, which provides users and potential buyers with a wealth of easy to read information.

Gary