I've been very lucky and never experienced "buyer's remorse" on any keyboard purchase.

[Krakit]

I would say I've regretted selling some things, but I went into selling some gear with my eyes wide open that I would miss the board in question. Probably the one I miss most is my Moog Rogue. 

But I've never purchased anything and later felt "damn that was a waste of money". 

 

I feel fortunate in that regard because I know most of my peers have horror stories about gear. 

 

Granted, I never rush into any purchase unless it's priced so low that I can't resist. 

 

[lsj]

same her, before I buy a synth, I go through all the user reviews, patch libraries, youtube videos,etc.  I always hate to hear someone purchasing it then returning it to the dealer before the trial period is up.  yes, the days of going into a local store to try things out is all but gone.  why should the store take a hit when someone did not do their homework.  if the returning continues, I wouldn't be surprised that it will become a thing of the past just like insuring your gear, when years ago people were abusing the policies and just destroying their equipment to put in a claim.

[CyberGene]

Some people are prone to the opposite effect, that of “Choice-supportive bias” (AKA post-purchase rationalization) to counteract the “buyer’s remorse” though, and so these people also never experience it. Not saying that’s the case. 

[ABECK]

My buyer's remorse typically manifests itself in the realization that the new gear hasn't made me a better player.  

[stoken6]

I used to buy cheap gear on the basis of "how bad can it be"? Roland JX1, Kawai K1 were both disappointments.

 

My first non-regret board was an Ensoniq KS32. Lovely, but heavy as anything. I got a SQ1+ to go with it for an all-Ensoniq rig.

 

I bought red in 2012 and haven't regretted it. Not looking to upgrade either.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[nadroj]

I still don’t know why I bought the MODX7. I didn’t need it. Still don’t. Now I can’t get rid of it. 
 

At least doing that taught me that watching YouTube videos and reading specs is never a good alternative to getting hands on experience before putting down the cash. Lesson learnt! 

[16251]

More than 50% of all the keyboard purchases since 1974 I have made were bad decisions. The older I got the more remorse I felt since more choices got available. Since leaving the general business music career, can say I finally have the best equipment to suit my needs. It is fun, fantasizing about adding a hydra-time synth, but know it will only sit in the corner and take time away from playing, transcribing, listening.

[Delaware Dave]

Happened once.  Alesis QS6.1.  Biggest POS I ever purchased (sorry Dave Bryce). Fortunately I was able to unload it. One mans trash is another one's treasure.

[mate stubb]

So many regrets.

 

At the very top of the list - Rhodes Stage 88 and RMI Electra piano. Dreadful sound and playability, and weighed a ton.

[Shamanzarek]

I never planned to buy a Behringer Model D but a few years ago they lowered the price and with the GC 15% discount it was under two hundred dollars so it seemed like a no brainer. I used it on one gig and haven't used it since. If I had it in the 70s or 80s I'm sure I would have found a lot of use for it but these days I have so little need for synth sounds that it doesn't warrant bringing a specialized piece of gear. 

[CEB]

I have short term buyers remorse on every board I buy but usually in a week or so I adjust.  Usually it’s the action or velocity curves being different than I’m used to.  Many boards have a  thing or two I dislike but I can usually find things I like 

[Dave Bryce]

4 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

Happened once.  Alesis QS6.1.  Biggest POS I ever purchased (sorry Dave Bryce).

 

No worries - I didn’t design it.  

 

Clearly, you never played an XP10.  Man, I hated that thing.  Poly-800, too… 

 

dB

[ksoper]

Any regrets I had were usually associated with budgetary constraints. I bought the best I could afford. As my pay went up I corrected my mistakes. Outside of a few impulsive plug-in purchases I can say that I have no buyer's remorse over anything I still own. Well, maybe that VK7 propped up in the corner. Oy. 

[KuruPrionz]

I've always bought used keyboards and sold all of them for a decent profit. 

I don't regret passing them along, they were all pretty old but still functional so hopefully somebody is having fun with them.

 

Currently I have an XKey 25 that a college student wanted $10 and an Akai MPK25 that I traded for, got about $15 in that. A friend is using it but I might get it back because knobs. She could borrow the Key instead. 

[Konnector]

I can honestly say I have no regrets over any keyboard gear I've ever bought over the last 40 some years. I did regret buying a Hammond C3 as a teen because it was murder dragging it to gigs. I sold it after a year or so for quite a bit more than what I paid and got something more gig friendly, so it was all good in the end. Some synths I bought over the years didn't get much use compared to others I had, but because I bought them used and sold all of them for a lot more than I paid, I have no regrets there either.

I did regret buying two ADATs though. I bought one after the price dropped considerably and 2nd one I bought used. They served a purpose for a couple of album projects, but those things were tape eating, buzz killing hounds from hell and I was glad to finally get rid of them once computers could do the job.

[Outkaster]

My Mojo was the worse thing I have purchased.

[David Emm]

52 minutes ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

Clearly, you never played an XP10.  Man, I hated that thing.  Poly-800, too… 

 

 

The XP10 was a "budget" synth clearly aimed at making a kid hate music. Those shite samples were bit-crushed to Hellenback.

 

I'm glad I missed the Poly-800. Not Korg's most shining moment. The Mk II featuring a delay was notably better for it, but it was mostly neutered on the design table. Its far easier to do way better now, even for minimal bucks. An added plus is not having to chunk a crap softsynth from a hotel window.

[Paul Woodward]

Always chose gear carefully, squeezed the most out of it then sold at decent prices to fund the next purchase. Last board that just didnt grab me was a Moog Sub 37…cant say why, just didnt find a use for it, but I sold it for more than I paid. Last(ish) purchase was a Korg Grandstage 73. It was just £500 with a quality stand and soft gig bag. I needed a controller for the studio and expected it to be worse for wear for that price. Came complete, boxed and pristine and I still love it. Would have paid at least double that now I know how good it is.

Bought a Yamaha YC61 last week and was instantly disappointed with the keybed which has become noisy so I thought that would be the first bit of gear I regretted and thought about selling but ts getting repaired under warranty and I really do like it so, so far, no real regrets.

[David Emm]

5 hours ago, mate stubb said:

So many regrets.

At the very top of the list - Rhodes Stage 88 and RMI Electra piano. Dreadful sound and playability, and weighed a ton.

 

That could become a separate thread: "Crap Gear I Torched On A Hilltop Like Wakeman Torched That Mellotron."

 

Secondary thread: "Quality Gear I Torched Prematurely Because I Was A Naive Newbie, Thereby Screwing The Pooch."

[Dave Bryce]

My least fave that I ever owned - Alpha Juno 2. 🫤
 

 

dB

[Chris Towns]

Hi,

Most of my life I've been involved with home keyboards (arrangers, etc) and the sales pitch is always that a better keyboard makes a better player, (although the sales guys are clever enough not to use those actual words).  Despite that, I cannot recall buying any that I regretted (perhaps with the exception of a Nord C1 organ). 

I concur with ABECK on his comments and have realised in my 67 years that to improve at any level requires lots of hard work and effort, not the latest greatest shiny new keyboard !!

Chris

[Delaware Dave]

6 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

No worries - I didn’t design it.  

 

Clearly, you never played an XP10.  Man, I hated that thing.  Poly-800, too… 

 

dB

Geez, i forgot about the Poly800. Another POS. 49 keys, 8 notes of polyphony (4 in dual voice mode). Useless instrument. It was midi capable but i never went there with that keyboard.

[The Real MC]

My first keyboard (not counting Fisher-Price) was a Rhodes my parents bought for me when I was a freshman in 1978.  Sold that in 1983 because it just would not cut through the guitars in the band.  No seller's remorse.

 

I have no seller's remorse with anything I sold, nor have I owned anything that was a POS.  

 

Never owned a sampler, a DX7, D50, M1, or any of the "fashion" synths that many got into.  Not a member of the upgrade treadmill "flavor-of-the-month" club.

 

I make my purchases carefully, and my policy is the gear has to used regularly for minimum ten years.  Most have met that standard, some were sold.  Last year I sold my vintage Vox Continental - it was a pawnshop bargain from 1995, but I had barely used it so I sold it before I relocated.

 

I used a Poly800 in a band borrowed from a friend, and I'm not a fan of those.

[Stokely]

Poly 800 was also my least favorite board I've owned, possibly mostly because it used to go out of tune almost a semitone at random times.  It got stolen after a gig and I wasn't all that bummed out.  If my JX10 had been stolen...well that would have been bad!

Inevitably when I get a new (or used) keyboard I tend to be underwhelmed to some degree.  I think my mind builds them up to an unreasonable degree.   Ironically my new Hammond Sk pro is suffering just a bit because I actually think B-3X (what I've been using) sounds better, at least in the overdrive dept   It's what I'm used to, so I'll need some time to get used to the sk pro.  Definitely it will be more fun to play organ on the hammond than on my modx, of that there is no doubt.   The true test for me is gig recordings, I'll make a point to start recording some shows as it tells me a lot more than headphones at home or in-ear monitors at gigs.

[Shamanzarek]

Back in the day I regularly used a Poly 800 on stage from 1984 to 1992. I also had an OB8, Jupiter 6, S770, and DX7 so it was supplemental. I MIDI'ed it to the Jupiter 6 and sometimes layered the sounds. It was also useful as a battery powered strap on keyboard and did some sounds none of the other synths could do. The Poly 800 has turned out to be an excellent controller for the Behringer Model D I never use. Never regretted buying the Korg.

[TJ Cornish]

The biggest buyer’s remorse I’ve had with a keyboard was the original Roland Fantom - the one with the grayscale screen and floppy drive. I came from an XP-80 and presumed “Surely the new version is better.” Nope. That was the shortest time I owned a keyboard.

 

I’ve had very little keyboard turnover in the last 18 years - played a Korg OASYS for 9 years, moved to a Kronos, and now have a Roland Fantom 7, which is hard to say is better than the Kronos, but is differently good in ways I need right now - LED ladders on sliders, better polyphony and more useful effects (the Kronos can do more with IFX chains, but you’re usually out of IFX after about 3 parts in a COMBI while the Roland is fully allocated).

 

As Hammond organ came and went and came back again in genres I play, I sold my Korg CX-3 at one point and used the OASYS/Kronos internal version and later bought a Hammond XK-5.

 

I was watching the One Man Yes/Genesis videos linked here. After admiring his incredible talent, the next thought I had was “wow - we are so spoiled - I can make all those sounds with one keyboard.” I’m younger than some on the forum and so never really lived the analog era, but came up through the teenage years of digital (Roland D-20/JV-80, Yamaha V50). Other than bragging rights of owning a CS-80 or DX-1 or something where I would take one if someone gave it to me, I have no desire to accumulate vintage gear. The latest generation of keyboards from all of the vendors sound pretty good to me (other than organ where carrying the XK-5 is still worth it, IMO).

 

The things that would cause me to pry open the wallet again would be workflow/structure improvements (e.g. the Fantom timing sucks - LFOs don’t sync to MIDI Clock) or “more” - (e.g. 32 IFX on a Kronos gen 3). 

 

 

[Paul Woodward]

I did grow up at the tail end of analogue gear even though my first synth was digital (Poly 800 II). I used that with a Juno, Mono/Poly, SH101. Hell I even had an EDP Gnat at one point. Thing is, when it comes to vintage gear you need a roadie and/or a technician with you. Technology today can recreate most sounds well enough for the ears to enjoy for 3-4 minutes at a time. Easy to be precious about ‘authenticity’ but my back (and bank balance) prefer a lighter and more reliable option. I even use my iPad and apps to recreate Rhodes, Moog, Hammond etc. and they are good enough for an audience who are unlikely to even know what the vintage gear is nevermind recognise it.

Horse for courses I guess. For me its how a sound enhances the track/song and how it fits in but admittedly I am not a concert pianist or Hammond expert.

[RABid]

Only three that I can think of in my long history.

 

Sequential 6 Trak. My first synth with a DCO and I hated the sound. Loved the Drum Trak and kept it for years.

 

Oberheim Matrix 6. I knew it was a DCO so I did not buy it for sound. I wanted it as a MIDI controller because it had the twin levers that I loved to use. It failed as a MIDI controller because any pitch bend or modulation MIDI output was extremely stair stepped. Must have had a very low MIDI output resolution.

 

Yamaha Montage. I had the Motif and loved it. Bought the Montage expecting a bigger, better, newer Motif. Didn't realize that they had totally change the sound structure and I could not sit my Montage 6 on top of an 88 controller and play piano from the controller while playing other sounds from the Montage. I quickly sold it. My other complaint was that every patch had way too much reverb. Yamaha does not need that. They sound good without being washed away. That is something you do with a keyboard that sound bad. If I had kept it I would have needed to edit every patch that I used to cut back the effects.

[jazzpiano88]

On 11/24/2022 at 4:05 PM, Dave Bryce said:

My least fave that I ever owned - Alpha Juno 2. 🫤
 

 

dB

 

I had suffered with the Juno106 until my music store buddy started loaning me the Alpha Juno 2.

I was in heaven with newfound velocity, but never owned it to explore its deficiencies.  

 

Ended up getting my least favorite "keyboard" an Akai Midi controller MX-73 to control the TX7 and MKS20.

 

Little did I know the Akai MX-73 velocity curve was virtually unusable with the TX7 and MKS-20  (you couldn't dig in to get the max response).

Had to eventually abandon it (literally) and got the Roland/Rhodes MK80 as a controller/source.

 

[Dave Bryce]

15 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

I had suffered with the Juno106 until my music store buddy started loaning me the Alpha Juno 2.

I was in heaven with newfound velocity, but never owned it to explore its deficiencies.  

 

 

Funny - my experience was the reverse.  I quite liked my 106, and thought the AJ 2 sounded anemic in comparison, even with the velocity.  

 

I eventually replaced the 106 with a JX-8P.

 

dB