It all started when I was in the airport wheeling my Yamaha Keyboard in a custom built roadcase to the check-in counter and I was verbally abused by a rookie airline staff member that was quoting the rule book and wagging her finger. I'm part of a touring classic rock band and I have been flying with this case or (keyboard coffin, as it is often refered to) for almost two decades. We never complain about paying the overweight charges it's just part of the cost of doing business. the majority of times a seasoned veteran working at the check-in counter will smile and put our bags, cases, guitars and drum cases through the process without charging us at all. They know that bands travel all the time and that we are good customers. This time was different.

After an hour of confrontation on how my case needed to be sent as cargo and that I would have to miss my plane and wait 'til the following day, I finally got fed up and asked to talk with the sales manager. Yes, you heard it right, the sales manager. You see, the sales managers are trained in customer service. They are trained to bring in more business - not lose it. When the sales manager found out who we were he confessed to being a huge fan. He gave me a suggestion as to how I could prevent this from happening again. My Yamaha keyboard made it home and I had a challenge ahead of me.

The sales manager had given me the specs outlining the airline policy for checked baggage. I took the allowed measurements and went to work designing a road case that would comply with most of the top airlines' luggage policies. My case builder and I weighed my Yamaha keyboard and then subtracted that weight plus the weight of the damper pedal and a few cables from the airlines' allowable weight which was 90lbs. The keyboard and accesories weighed about 61lbs. This left 29 lbs from which to build the road case. We then had to measure the length and width to make sure it fit with the airlines' container specs.

After weighing the hardware and materials, believe it or not we came in under weight! The case and keyboard combined weighed only 88lbs and fit the container specs no problem. I could finally appraoch almost any ticket agent with confidence knowing I could take my Yamaha electronic keyboard anywhere in the world.

So why do I leave my Motif ES8 in my studio? Simple, It's too heavy. It was only a few short months after we put all that effort into buildng a compliant roadcase that the airlines changed their weight restriction to under 50lbs. There is no way my Yamaha S90 or my Yamaha Motif ES8 could possibly fly with me as luggage. Each alone weighed over the limit. After years of flying with my instrument I was forced to make a change.

Here is the secret every travelling musician should know.

It is cheaper to rent the same instrument in whatever city you are playing in, than pay the overweight charges. My Yamaha Motif ES8 and my Yamaha S90 keyboard now weight less than an ounce. I discovered that I could carry a Smart Card with my sounds programmed onto it and load them into a backline rental keyboard and feel like I was playing my own instrument. How cool is that! Sounds can also be stored on a USB jump drive. Where was this technology in the 70's when I was hauling around a Yamaha Electric Grand Piano, a Hammond Organ, a Fender Rhodes and a Roland Jupiter 8 synthesizer! No wonder I have back problems every once in a while!

Now I just have to remember what pocket I put my keyboard in :)

Motif ES8 Review:

Because I am endorsed by Yamaha, It would be silly to say anything bad about this professional keyboard. The sounds are among the best I've heard and it has the largest wave ROM of any workstation keyboard available. The keyboard touch and velocity is beautiful. The Motif ES 8 is compatible with a DAW via mLan and it has an onboard sequencer that when used with the mLan16e combines midi and audio sampled data and, you can record the Motif audio directly into the mLan16e. Sweet!

I personally find the saving of song data is not very efficient. There are also are alot of screens to drill down through to acomplish the simplest of tasks. It will take a while for the inexperienced to get comfortable with this keyboard however it was built for pros so I guess they had to make it tricky. For more info go to www.yamahasynth.com