No Choice of Finishes in Keyboards

[augerinn]

Eric, not to quibble, but I think Drummers are way more prevalent the Bass Players. IMO, Bass Players and Keys Players are the least common....

[eric]

Ok you're probably right. How about this update.

Out of 100 musicians
- 50 guitar players
- 30 drummers
- 15 bass players
- 5 keyboard players

[augerinn]

Looks about right to me

[Metrosonus]

1 chick dancing to some other music than the band is playing

[The Pro]

There's a lot of beat-box musicians/rappers/DJ's and I know some of their gear can be custom-painted. For us lowly keyboardists there's always the AX-90 keyboard stands which come in flashier colors than most. I recently bought one and guess what color I picked? Yep, black. I wish "woodgrain" had been a color option... I'd dig an AX-90 in walnut.

Then there's Paul McCartney's custom piano shell:

[ElectricPuppy]

Ok you're probably right. How about this update. Out of 100 musicians - 50 guitar players - 30 drummers - 15 bass players - 5 keyboard players

Thank you for proving the Soul Coughing theorem of "The 5% Nation of Casiotone".

[ClavAnother]

6. Styles and tastes change more often than keyboard players replace their gear.

 

 

 

 

well...'cept DLP, of course.

[ClavAnother]

So whats that picture from?? double-Photo-shop-job???

[MartinHines]

I suspect cost is the primary factor which is due to:
-- Low volumes: compared to other consumer products, and even music products, keyboards are produced in low volumes
-- Manufacturing not set up for different colors: with guitars especially, you are talking about painting wood. Creating different colors of plastic would be more expensive
-- Managing inventory: when you start adding colors (in addition to 61, 76, and 88 key versions) you create problems trying to manage all that inventory and get it sold.

Keyboard manufacturers could start offering products in a few different colors, but the cost would probably have to go up a sizable amount to "pay" for all of the inherent problems that would result.


Probably the only way to get a custom colored keyboard would be if the manufacturer allowed to you custom-order the product, which might take months to arrive (assuming product built in China and Japan).

[joemmi]

Ok you're probably right. How about this update. Out of 100 musicians - 50 guitar players - 30 drummers - 15 bass players - 5 keyboard players

 

It is indeed an interesting question of how "unique" Keys are. I am not sure it is THAT little, plus, a GOOD drummer is hard to find, but not sure in terms of quantity. In any case, after one hour of research, there are no figures available, only musical product sales (and they cost!!) So as a proxy, I used the number of items on ebay, the number of threads on HC and the number of posts in the four "classical" rock bank instruments categories. Here is what I got:

 

Inst eb pos threads HC

Keys 12% 11% 13%

EGit 55% 54% 51%

Bass 10% 28% 28%

Drum 23% 06% 08%

 

So many guitars... (annual Sales in the US: 3Mio!! )

[plaid_emu]

So many guitars... (annual Sales in the US: 3Mio!! )

That's a good thing. There'll be much more firewood to go around when the depression really kicks into high gear.

[pogo97]

I want mine in black. And never mind the silk screen; I've got a Dymo labeler.

[The Professiona]

I'm going to just throw out a thought and argument I had myself that may very well give me the reason I asked for in the original question, but you guys may have wiser comments. I don't have any real numbers to back this up, but based on just a couple different observations, I think probably that keyboards have a good bit less mark-up (or cost more to manufacture and create from the ground up) than these other instruments. That's no insult to craftsmen of other instruments, but hear me out.

Every time a new keyboard is created, new samples need recording (which costs a lot of money in the backend), new artists have to be paid for their sampling and looping (which costs money), and even new operating systems need creating. My Roland XP80 alone thanks almost 50 different people for their services in creating the samples, loops, and software for the keyboard. All those people had to be paid.

Now, not diminishing what goes into other instruments at all, I'm relatively sure whenever new drums and guitars come out, they don't have to pay for recorded samples and loops, and there are typically no great and new software achievements that go into them.

All that being said, at the end of the day, the design, creation, and build of a $2000 keyboard probably had a lot more money going into it than a $2000 guitar, bass, or drumkit, and thus, they can't risk an entire color scheme in the series not selling because no one was interested in the new Fusia X90S. They just make some relatively neutral colors that are (for the most part) stylistically pleasing, and let it go.

Thoughts?

[Citizen Klaus]

 

Voyager Select Series, anybody?

 

 

+1 here, as well. A solar walnut Voyager is one of the few things that still gives me GAS. Granted, they'll probably be out of production by the time I can afford one, but it's nice to dream...