Today’s tidbits are from Jason at the YamahaSynth.com forum.
First, a major shout out to Jason. Every forum has one or two people who energetically answer questions and keep a forum community alive. Jason is that guy on the Yamaha synth forum, especially after Phil’s (Badmister’s) retirement. Thank you, Jason!
Have you thanked a forum contributor recently?
I’ve been searching for evidence of Yamaha’s CK61™ and CK88™ as we run up to NAMM 2023 (13-15 April 2023). Jason’s diligence has paid off; I’m too freakin’ lazy. 🙂
He scraped a document listing the recyclable content for various Yamaha products. [A document required by some civil authority, no doubt.] I don’t like to post information unless I can verify it independently. More eyes on a problem or situation are always good. Fortunately, I found the same document.
It’s quite a comprehensive list of products all the way down to pedals, stands, power adapters and soft cases. The products are list by category: piano, digital piano (CL), music production (MP), portable keyboard (PK), etc.
Lo and behold, under “MP”, we find CK61™ and CK88™ with product codes VDY9110 and VDY9230. So, these products are not phantoms — unless Yamaha is playing an enormous joke on us! 🙂
Given the list’s completeness, it’s interesting that “Montage” does not appear. I searched and scoured the list. Not there. This could be a mere oversight or what? Have Yamaha decided that MODX+ has overtaken (subsumed) Montage and that’s it for the heavy grey lady? Is Montage necessary if the CKs implement AN-X™? All speculative, of course. [Yamaha’s product strategy smacks of “Pokémon Gotta Catch ‘Em All.]
I have not been able to independently verify Jason’s other information:
STAGE PIANOS
CK61 New generation 61-key portable stage synthesizer inc. adapter $22,630.00
CK88 New generation 88-key portable stage synthesizer inc. adapter $34,736.00
Prices are given in Mexican Pesos. If these are pesos and genuine prices, that’s approximately $1,250 USD and $1,920 USD, respectively. I think the use of “STAGE PIANOS”, here, means stage keyboards. I don’t think “synthesizer” is accidental, tho’.
Blake Angelos (Hi, Blake) has posted an invite to “Join us for the Tech Talk Season 3 finale on March 14. We’ll be revealing something new you won’t want to miss! It all happens Tuesday, March 14 1:00 PM PDT, 10:00 PM CET. Hope to see you there!”
Please check out the discussion on the YamahaSynth forum and let Jason take a victory lap. Thanks, again.
Update. And the thread is gone from YamahaSynth. If you would like to join a discussion, Yamaha Musicians Forum has knowledgeable and passionate members who are engaged with this topic. You might also consider the Music Player Keyboard Corner, too.
Yamaha may be trying to stuff the toothpaste back into the tube, but their own site has pages referring to the CK88™. That’s why I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. 🙂
Copyright © 2023 Paul J. Drongowski