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No Keyboards In Stores!


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OK, this a rant. I used to be able to go to at least 2 if not 3 music retailers to try new gear. While I used to live in NY, even if I fly to NY I can’t find any top end keyboards in a single store for demo.

 

So now, we are all using Sweetwater with shipping 88 key boards all over damn place just to try the damn action!

 

I can’t seem to find anywhere in the U.S. where I could actually play a Fantom 8, K2700, Stage 4, OB-X8, etc…yet it seems, Bonners and Anderton’s in the U.K. are able to provide such experiences. 

 

Please don’t provide answers regarding supply chain, economy, rent, labor, carrying costs, etc.

 

“Times may change, standards must remain” seems to have gone out the window. 

 

 

.

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Using:

Yamaha: Montage M8x| Spectrasonics: Omnisphere, Keyscape | uhe: Diva, Hive2, Zebra2| Roland: Cloud Pro | Arturia: V Collection

NI: Komplete 14 | VPS: Avenger | Cherry: GX80 | G-Force: OB-E | Korg: Triton, MS-20

 

Sold/Traded:

Yamaha: Motif XS8, Motif ES8, Motif8, KX-88, TX7 | ASM: Hydrasynth Deluxe| Roland: RD-2000, D50, MKS-20| Korg: Kronos 88, T3, MS-20

Oberheim: OB8, OBXa, Modular 8 Voice | Rhodes: Dyno-My-Piano| Crumar: T2

 

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29 minutes ago, Motif88 said:

Please don’t provide answers regarding supply chain, economy, rent, labor, carrying costs, etc.

 

 

What was that line from a movie.....  Don't ask questions you don't really want the answer to.     

 

Sweetwater has an onsite store that supposedly has everything out for demo so you could drive to Indiana. 

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Yes, frustrating situation.  Buy to try, 45 days to return, eat the shipping cost if you don’t like it.  It sucks.  
 

I’ve begun to wonder if there is a market for a showroom with an entry fee - like going to a movie.  I would gladly pay $10 on a Saturday afternoon to sit down and try out the new stuff.  As a patron I’d just expect the place always has the current models and maintains the showroom for a quality trial experience. 
 

In Melbourne there is a Synth Museum where they collect and maintain synths.  As a member you can book a session with any instrument you like.  Bring your headphones and your MacBook to play and record your sessions.  
 

https://mess.foundation/

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Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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I only need to drive about 3 miles up the road to visit this store, here in the UK...... 

 

And - as already mentioned - there are other retail stores much like this, dotted around the country.

I have to say I am very surprised to read just how different the situation seems to now be in the USA?.... I would have thought similar business models would apply on both sides of the pond?

It is very useful to be able to try out from a selection of keyboards,  on display side by side. ... Actually being able to run your fingers over the keybeds allows quite lot to of them be dismissed from consideration within a few seconds!  :)   

 

Yamaha - YC61 - P105 - MOX6 - HC2 -- Neo Vent 2
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19 minutes ago, rogs said:

I only need to drive about 3 miles up the road to visit this store, here in the UK...... 

 

And - as already mentioned - there are other retail stores much like this, dotted around the country.

I have to say I am very surprised to read just how different the situation seems to now be in the USA?.... I would have thought similar business models would apply on both sides of the pond?

It is very useful to be able to try out from a selection of keyboards,  on display side by side. ... Actually being able to run your fingers over the keybeds allows quite lot to of them be dismissed from consideration within a few seconds!  :)   

 

This was the norm just a few years back.  Online sales with better pricing and free shipping has made it harder and harder for there to be many competing brick and mortar shops.  Also the US is really quite large so there are still many areas of the country that are a good distance from a city.  That said - the keys section at Absolute pales in comparison to every other section, ya?  Don’t they love their synths and electronic music in the UK? 
 

Have you been to Andertons? 


Or Bonners?

 

 

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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20 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

This was the norm just a few years back.  Online sales with better pricing and free shipping has made it harder and harder for there to be many competing brick and mortar shops.  Also the US is really quite large so there are still many areas of the country that are a good distance from a city.  That said - the keys section at Absolute pales in comparison to every other section, ya?  Don’t they love their synths and electronic music in the UK? 
 

Have you been to Andertons? 


Or Bonners?

 

 

Been to Andertons, not Bonners though. That Absolute Music video doesn't show all their keyboard rooms. They have a similar number of keys on display as Andertons -- maybe 50 or 60 different models, I would guess?......

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Yamaha - YC61 - P105 - MOX6 - HC2 -- Neo Vent 2
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I agree- gone are the days in my area of having independent music stores with up to 20-30 current keyboards. Several of my purchases such as the Nautilus, Arturia and CK61 I did without trying the boards out. Had a SP280 and thats one I would have skipped due to the action.

When I go into keyboard stores it is like less desirable items there

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2 hours ago, Motif88 said:

OK, this a rant. I used to be able to go to at least 2 if not 3 music retailers to try new gear. While I used to live in NY, even if I fly to NY I can’t find any top end keyboards in a single store for demo.

 

So now, we are all using Sweetwater with shipping 88 key boards all over damn place just to try the damn action!

 

I can’t seem to find anywhere in the U.S. where I could actually play a Fantom 8, K2700, Stage 4, OB-X8, etc…yet it seems, Bonners and Anderton’s in the U.K. are able to provide such experiences. 

 

Please don’t provide answers regarding supply chain, economy, rent, labor, carrying costs, etc.

 

“Times may change, standards must remain” seems to have gone out the window. 

 

 

.

I hear ya!

Welcome to our world down under. Been like that for some time now. I've settled on the fact that I have to buy to try. As I live in a regional area in Australia, returning it sometimes isn't even an option, as the non business freight rates are excessive. So I have to sell it off second hand, so the buyer pays the freight. It does mean I keep it for a bit of time and get to know it before deciding.

 

What's worse for us, is that the online shop fronts are often out of stock, so all we get to do is window shop! One thing I've noticed these days, is that it's easy for businesses to list pretty much anything on a website, as they don't tend to physically hold the stock, so it makes the business look like a bigger store than they really are.

 

On the upside, as Elmer mentioned, we have a synth workshop to try. Luckily I live only a few hours drive to it, so I should one day check it out. It's even closer for Aussiekeys, he lives pretty much in the same city as it.

The companions I can't live without: Kawai Acoustic Grand, Yamaha MontageM8x, Studiologic Numa Piano X GT, Kronos2-73, .
Other important stuff: Novation Summit, NI Komplete Ultimate 14 CE, Omnisphere, EW Hollywood Orchestra Opus, Spitfire Symphony Orchestra, Sonuscore Elysion and Orchestra Complete 3, Pianoteq 8 Pro, Roland RD88.

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Has Guitar Center in San Jose on Stevens Creek dismantled their keyboard inventory?

 

They had everything known to man in stock.

 

I'm now about a 6 hour drive on I80 from Sweetwater. 

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage8 | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

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5 hours ago, Motif88 said:

I can’t seem to find anywhere in the U.S. where I could actually play a Fantom 8, K2700, Stage 4, OB-X8, etc…

because you have not yet visited Chuck's  ;)

(Washington DC suburb)

 

Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center

11151 Viers Mill Road

Wheaton MD 20902   301 946 8808

 

(disclaimer, although it was last century, I worked there for almost 10 years)

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43 minutes ago, Doerfler said:

Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center

11151 Viers Mill Road

Wheaton MD 20902   301 946 8808

I used to make summer pilgrimages there, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s.  The great Len Halleck ran the keyboard department, and he never, ever discouraged even a long haired ne'er-do-well like myself from trying out -- and learning about -- any keyboard that was in the room.  Good to know they're still kickin' there.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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I really appreciate having Chuck Levin's within driving distance.

 

Last year I was in the West Covina, CA area, so I took the opportunity to visit Perfect Circuit in Burbank.  They had some Sequential keyboards and other mid to high end 'boards on display but you had to bring your own headphones.   

 

Made me appreciate Chuck Levin's even more.  No diss on Perfect Circuit, it's just that Chuck's has a wider selection of... everything

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Sam Ash and Guitar Center here in Central Florida are now keyboard wastelands.  Though it must be said that even when they used to have somewhat of a selection, they'd rarely bother to hook them up to audio or sometimes even power.  Um, guys, are you even trying to sell a keyboard here?  Even if they *were* hooked up, it would be to a small mono powered cheapo speaker that sounded terrible.

Then of course you had gospel-playing guy that would jam with a rhodes sound at full blast for my entire lunch hour I had dedicated to try out keyboards.  Had that happen more than once.  That's ok, headphones help unless you unfortunately wanted to try out that particular keyboard.

I really hate the idea of buying a new thing just to try it out, but what choice do many have.

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16 hours ago, Motif88 said:

Please don’t provide answers regarding supply chain, economy, rent, labor, carrying costs, etc.

 

OK how about a regional thing.

I've traveled a lot and it did not escape me that the better keyboard showrooms are near large metropolitan areas.

 

Not all of them though.  Very little around Orlando FL.  One Sam Ash store was reported to have an OB-X8 on the floor, the GC near Kississimi had P10 and a few others.  I'm not counting the bread-n-butter digital pianos, you can find them in every store.  FL seems to be a guitar-centric region, especially with the bands here.  Very few are looking for keyboard players, and the ones I have heard from want wallpaper sounds behind a guitar solo.

 

Outside those large metropolitan areas, near nothing except for bread-n-butter digital pianos.  Yawn.

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13 minutes ago, Stokely said:

Sam Ash and Guitar Center here in Central Florida are now keyboard wastelands.  Though it must be said that even when they used to have somewhat of a selection, they'd rarely bother to hook them up to audio or sometimes even power.  Um, guys, are you even trying to sell a keyboard here?  Even if they *were* hooked up, it would be to a small mono powered cheapo speaker that sounded terrible.
 

I was going to say similar.  There are two Guitar Centers near me, and the better of the two isn't too bad....  But the other one has a tiny room full of keyboards but last time I was in there I only got one or two of them to work.  Maybe they're pilfering the power cords for other rigs?  I don't know....  Someone probably took the extension cord over to a different department.

 

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This rant brought me back to the two years I was searching for my grand piano.  I visited four different cities in the US, and maybe walked into ten or so better "piano stores".  It turned out the best of the bunch was just 45 minutes down the road from me, and was where I finally purchased one.

 

I am hoping that Sweetwater in Ft Wayne is the last bastion in the US where they actually have competitive keyboards stacked up in a room to try.  I am planning a road trip out there later this year.  I think the only reason they can afford to do this is their massive online volume.

 

I have found that user forums, when available, are almost better than trying one in person, as you can peruse dozens and dozens of opinions.  This is where I find out about the all-important "gotcha!"s as well as aesthetic impressions.  If lots of people are connecting with a particular board, chances are  will too.  The Nord user forum is particularly good.

 

 

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

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10 minutes ago, cphollis said:

 

I am hoping that Sweetwater in Ft Wayne is the last bastion in the US where they actually have competitive keyboards stacked up in a room to try.  I am planning a road trip out there later this year.  I think the only reason they can afford to do this is their massive online volume.

 

 

Sweetwater is not a music store. It's more of a music instrument mall. Huge rooms for keys, guitfiddles, live sound, studio gear, drums, recording studios, auditoriums, cafeterias, barber shop, and of course the slide from the second floor.

 

You will be amazed.

Moe

---

 

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I obviously struck a chord here...

Agreed Sweetwater and Chuck Levin Showrooms seem to be the few options left in the U.S.

Appreciate all the comments!

 

 

Using:

Yamaha: Montage M8x| Spectrasonics: Omnisphere, Keyscape | uhe: Diva, Hive2, Zebra2| Roland: Cloud Pro | Arturia: V Collection

NI: Komplete 14 | VPS: Avenger | Cherry: GX80 | G-Force: OB-E | Korg: Triton, MS-20

 

Sold/Traded:

Yamaha: Motif XS8, Motif ES8, Motif8, KX-88, TX7 | ASM: Hydrasynth Deluxe| Roland: RD-2000, D50, MKS-20| Korg: Kronos 88, T3, MS-20

Oberheim: OB8, OBXa, Modular 8 Voice | Rhodes: Dyno-My-Piano| Crumar: T2

 

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1 hour ago, Stokely said:

Sam Ash and Guitar Center here in Central Florida are now keyboard wastelands.  Though it must be said that even when they used to have somewhat of a selection, they'd rarely bother to hook them up to audio or sometimes even power.  Um, guys, are you even trying to sell a keyboard here?  Even if they *were* hooked up, it would be to a small mono powered cheapo speaker that sounded terrible.

Then of course you had gospel-playing guy that would jam with a rhodes sound at full blast for my entire lunch hour I had dedicated to try out keyboards.  Had that happen more than once.  That's ok, headphones help unless you unfortunately wanted to try out that particular keyboard.

I really hate the idea of buying a new thing just to try it out, but what choice do many have.

Agreed...I'm on the west coast of Florida, Sam Ash and GC are barren.

Using:

Yamaha: Montage M8x| Spectrasonics: Omnisphere, Keyscape | uhe: Diva, Hive2, Zebra2| Roland: Cloud Pro | Arturia: V Collection

NI: Komplete 14 | VPS: Avenger | Cherry: GX80 | G-Force: OB-E | Korg: Triton, MS-20

 

Sold/Traded:

Yamaha: Motif XS8, Motif ES8, Motif8, KX-88, TX7 | ASM: Hydrasynth Deluxe| Roland: RD-2000, D50, MKS-20| Korg: Kronos 88, T3, MS-20

Oberheim: OB8, OBXa, Modular 8 Voice | Rhodes: Dyno-My-Piano| Crumar: T2

 

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Another reality to consider.

 

There is an ever growing market share for MIDI controllers and plugins. As this segment grows, the all-in-one keyboard segment will shrink. 

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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14 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

Another reality to consider.

 

There is an ever growing market share for MIDI controllers and plugins. As this segment grows, the all-in-one keyboard segment will shrink. 

 

 

Side effect of the pandemic and DIY music.    Was listening to some Apple talking heads last night and they say the Logic and FC on iPad that is their target market, especially how short form TicTok,  IG and YT Shorts have taken off with people.  Controllers and plugins are right in the easy buying decision price point.   

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Just now, Docbop said:

 

Side effect of the pandemic and DIY music.    Was listening to some Apple talking heads last night and they say the Logic and FC on iPad that is their target market, especially how TicTok,  IG and YT Shorts have taken off with people.  Controllers and plugins are right in the easy buying decision price point.   

Exactly why I mentioned it. Plugins continue to improve and so do MIDI controllers. With MIDI 2 just getting started, there is more to come. 

I'm a guitarist, I bought Fishman Triple Play about 10 years ago and it was pretty OK for recording. New plugins have me wondering if I should consider using it live. 

I used to own a couple of synths but sold them long ago. X-Key 25 and Akai MPK 25, as outdated as they are still do anything I'll want for recording. 

 

As the paradigm shifts, so does the market. 

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It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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1 hour ago, KuruPrionz said:

Another reality to consider.

 

There is an ever growing market share for MIDI controllers and plugins. As this segment grows, the all-in-one keyboard segment will shrink. 

 

I see the result of this in our local Guitar Centers already.  The keyboard section is largely replaced by home producer gear. Small controller keyboards and MPCs.  Digital pianos have their own section. 

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Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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2 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

Exactly why I mentioned it. Plugins continue to improve and so do MIDI controllers. With MIDI 2 just getting started, there is more to come. 

I'm a guitarist, I bought Fishman Triple Play about 10 years ago and it was pretty OK for recording. New plugins have me wondering if I should consider using it live. 

I used to own a couple of synths but sold them long ago. X-Key 25 and Akai MPK 25, as outdated as they are still do anything I'll want for recording. 

 

As the paradigm shifts, so does the market. 

I also would expect Roland at some point, knowing how many of their customers are using Zenology and Roland Cloud, to release a controller that’s just right for their software running on a computer. Similar to NI Komplete Kontrol.  Roland Control.  I can only pray it has their better actions and audio interface built in. 

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Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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18 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

I also would expect Roland at some point, knowing how many of their customers are using Zenology and Roland Cloud to release a controller that’s just right for their software running on a computer. Similar to NI Komplete Kontrol.  Roland Control.  I can only pray it has their better actions and audio interface built in. 

 

 

Since everyone constantly complains about keybed this approach remedies that, buy the MIDI controller with the keybed you like add the tablet or laptop you prefer and download a zillion libraries and you have your dream system.    Now you can be like guitar players and buy the body, neck, PUPs you like wire it your way and wa-la your dream instrument.

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totally surprised last week when I stopped by Guitar Center in west palm beach, florida.  they never had any decent keyboards in stock, this time however, they had the new OB, a couple of Moogs, yamaha and korg.  the keyboard room was quite full and the synths were powered up.  

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2 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

I see the result of this in our local Guitar Centers already.  The keyboard section is largely replaced by home producer gear. Small controller keyboards and MPCs.  Digital pianos have their own section. 

Yeah, and two thirds of those are "Williams Digital."  :gofish:

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-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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