I recently discovered this one-of-a-kind guitar that’s made out of carbon fiber and bamboo, equipped with DiMarzio pickups, soon-to-be equipped with a unique hexaphonic pickup, and impressive switching options that would provide a wide palette of guitar sounds. Oh, before I forget, did I mention that this is 100% Filipino-made? It is the brainchild of IT consultant, guitarist, and luthier Joel de Guzman:
It looks pretty, and (based on the recording I checked out) it sounds awesome too. Just go to http://www.cycfi.com/2011/03/finally/ so you can see what this instrument is all about.
If I could have one of these for myself (it’s pretty obvious now that I want one), it will open up more possibilities for future compositions. I could perhaps ask Mr. de Guzman to build me a custom Cycfi guitar (if I have the money for it), maybe a 7-string model with locking tuners and floating bridge or a guitar with MIDI output (something that would help me transcribe GuitarZoom lessons better). Wait a minute. I think I did ask him via email. Unfortunately, the Cycfi guitar is still in the prototype stage (Alpha) so there are no production models out yet. The instrument looks very promising, a form of innovation you rarely witness in this tropical country called the Philippines.
In a matter of months or years, will the Cycfi Guitar be featured in events like the NAMM Show or Musik Messe. I do hope so. In any case, should the time come that the Cycfi Guitar becomes available in the market, I will get my hands on one. After all, it is that sort of instrument that would implant a nagging thought in your head like, “Play me,” or “Check me out!” Therefore, I can say with confidence that this guitar induces GAS!
On a final note, Mr. de Guzman is looking for a luthier he can work with so that he could kick start the production process. If you know of one, please contact him through or drop a note here.
I am but one of the many who have noticed that Facebook is the host or platform for today’s virtual society. Much of the world interacts of Facebook. I myself am, out of necessity (unfortunately), within the confines of that bandwagon. Almost everyone I know is on Facebook although there are three friends who come to mind who are not on Facebook (a high school buddy and two physicians). As almost everybody is immersed on Facebook, almost all sorts of human activity is (dangerously) represented in it such as music, the arts, work and business, social interaction, leisure, etc. Coupled with the advent of tablet computers and smartphones, everybody has a photo album inside Facebook, making physical photo albums almost obsolete. Heck, I for one have digitized some photos from old collections myself. Since FB now appears to be the platform of global society, I also see things such as rumors, political agendas, and everything else in between. You can even say that it also has become a platform for anarchy: one could now easily express thoughts and ideas (through writing mostly) that people would be ashamed of proclaiming in setting where people have to physically meet other people. Apart from actual physical manifestations of people, animals, things, places, etc., it is as if almost everything is there on Facebook, very much like the town squares of cities worldwide, a virtual space where order and chaos are playing tug-of-war.
Much activity on Facebook operates on writing a post, commenting, “liking”, and sharing. Being mired with human imperfection, we often get too much unverified information out of it. Many of my Facebook “friends” have posted a lot of unverified rumors and statements ranging from the usual gossip and pseudoscience to urban legends. A notable one is the essay “Paradox of Our Time”. I’ve been hearing excerpts of this essay over at 98.7 DZFE for quite a few years when just this morning, It’s a very insightful piece regarding observations we see in society today (double income, less family time, the negative perception of marriage, more technology, less physical human interaction, etc.) I saw a friend of mine share the essay over Facebook, saying that the comedian George Carlin wrote it. My skepticism led to me to find out (outside of Facebook) that it was written by a pastor named Dr. Bob Moorehead. Another thing is that on the old George Carlin website, Mr. Carlin said that the essay is not his writing and he even goes on to call that essay as “bad prose”, “weak philosophy”, and a “sappy load of shit” that he doesn’t even care about. The sad thing is that, like in actual physical society, many of my FB “friends” would fall for it, believing that essay to be George Carlin’s writing. I also remember listening to Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity”, which is apparently Jay Kay’s rant about how messed up the world is.
Such observations have led me to thinking about a number of things. It’s already very obvious about how messed up this world is. Chaos has been increasing day by day. It can be easily observed from a number of things ranging from November 2013 supertyphoon in the Philippines to how relativism and situational ethics have become the primary guiding philosophy of this generation. It’s also odd that in this day and age where knowledge flourishes, a lot of people just choose to accept information rather than think about it. I remember that catch phrase from Ecclesiastes that says, “Meaningless. All of this is meaningless”, or “Vanity. All is vanity.” Most of the time, it does appear to be that way, unless you have some sense of purpose of an absolute guiding philosophy that directs how you conduct the way you live out your life.
If I choose to think of my life as nothing more than an accident, then I could just do whatever the hell I want without regard for consequences. After all, everything and everyone is either an accident or a part of something whole entwined in a complex process that is part of a singularity, that somehow, whatever it is that I choose to do, it will all work out towards becoming one. And so therefore chaos wouldn’t matter much. Why would I care then?
However, I don’t think of life that way. I’d rather believe that I have meaning and purpose in life. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 reads,
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
You can call me stupid or crazy but I’d rather believe in meaning than randomness. Let’s say that, for example, I die now and my existence ceases (as naturalists would believe), then I have lost nothing. But if for example I die now and there is something beyond this physical life (yes, I’m talking about God), then I would have gained more. What is there to lose when you believe in something greater than what your five senses can perceive.
Now, what has all of this got to do with the Paradox of Time, Facebook, etc.? Seems like there isn’t a lot but let’s face it. Facebook is now a reflection of what life is like in a messed-up world where everybody calls himself/herself an expert. If you have no solid philosophical framework as the backbone of your mind, then you would be easily led to believe everything you see and hear. We all need some semblance of morality and philosophy to help guide us how we think for ourselves and how we decide what to do with the things we perceive on a day-to-day basis. The philosopher of Ecclesiastes said, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” This is especially evident in the age of information, and Facebook (unfortunately) represents that, a platform that is capable of bombarding us with information, much of which I believe to be useless, and this is why we need something in our minds to filter that.
I was going through Facebook when I saw Kanye West’s proclamation that he will be greater than Nelson Mandela ever was. Cashing in on the dead: how honorable. Just to feed his narcissistic desires, he spews out filth just as much of the world mourns for the passing of one of the world’s most influential leaders. It bewilders me that such a person, who has made his fortune ripping off other artists by “sampling” them and having the audacity to label cut-and-paste jobs as his “music”, could make such a claim. I would also have the guts to say that today’s generation is exercising its stupidity in glorifying such talentless plagiarizers.
Related to this matter is the fact that greedy businessmen have made it a point to bleed true artists dry, a fact that Robert Fripp is very much troubled by. You can read all about it in this article.
In this article, Robert Fripp points out how “21st Century Schizoid Man” was heavily sampled in Kanye West’s track entitled “Power” without his consent. Here we witness one of the most important progressive rock songs of all time turned into rubbish by some rapper who doesn’t have the skill to write his own music, and then earn millions afterwards. If you want evidence of how unfair the world is, well here’s one example folks.
It’s one result of how broken our world is because of sin. It is easy to fall into the temptation of . While the wicked prosper in this day and age, it is something that should not be envied because it’s temporary. Reading Proverbs 3 and the entire book of Habakkuk assures us of God’s promises that such injustice is temporary as we look forward into a prosperous eternity. It’s a crapsack world for now, but it will pass.
I like looking around music stores and testing their stuff. It’s like the equivalent of a candy shop for the kid in me. It also happens to be the kinds of places where I get all sorts of info regarding the local music scene, and so here’s one story:
There was one time when I was visiting one of my favorite music stores (Lazer Musical Instruments SM Bicutan), and the reliever for the store manager was there. We jammed a bit, talked about music, about performing, etc. and then he asked (I’m just paraphrasing here), “Nagsi-sequencer ka ba?” Now, for my non-Tagalog-speaking friends, the question seems odd. Bear with me for a little while and you’ll get the gist of what the question is all about. I thought that the guy meant, “Do you use a sequencer for live performances?” And so I replied, “Hindi, pero sa bahay may computer ako na ginamit kong sequencer.” (No, but at home I use my computer as a sequencer.) The ignoramus in me never thought that he was referring to a kind of musician.
So, since I’m rather ignorant, I ask what exactly is a sequencer the musician? From what I have deduced from my conversation with that guy, a “sequencer” is a pianist or keyboard player that plays cover songs in lounges or bars with a singer. From what understand now, “sequencer” is Filipino musician slang for lounge pianist or musician (which I am not) that specializes in performing covers of other artists. And so, when I Googled that up, I found terms like “sequencer band” or “sequencer duo”, all search results referring to groups of Filipino musicians. It must be like that because they’re supposed to sequence a musical program or perhaps sequence a musical program with real instruments plus a sequencer (the hardware). I’m not really sure if that’s how would you define “sequencer”.
And so, the lesson learned here is that if you’re going to talk to a Filipino musician, especially the kind that plays in cover bands or groups, and you’re talking about sequencers, clarify first what is his/her definition of the term “sequencer”.
Just this afternoon, I saw this post by a pastor/apologist, one of the people I have tagged as a friend on Facebook. He was condemning this particular bit of news about a family praying for the success of a family member who was about to take the UPCAT. For the uninitiated, the UPCAT is the annual admission exam to the University of the Philippines. With all good intentions noted, it does look like a really good picture. They all look like they were deep in prayer with sincere intentions. This slice of life was even covered by GMA News as a featured post in their Facebook page. Many people responded well to such a public demonstration of faith.
If you read Matthew 6, however, The Lord doesn’t seem to have a good opinion about such a practice. Matthew 6:5-6 quotes Jesus as saying,
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
This is pretty much self explanatory, an imperative that even a grade schooler would have no difficulty understanding. Pray in secret and perform your good deeds in secret, doing it all for the glory of God. I’m not surprised when my pastor/apologist friend at FB condemned that picture to which I had responded with a comment that it seemed like this family has either never read or have never been taught or have ignored this particular bible verse.
After a few hours, another person, most likely another pastor as well, retorted with the comment that we should have left them alone rather than post a comment. I believe the exact comment was, “Let them pray! They did not do that to impress you.”
Perhaps that the family was praying with all sincerity. The second pastor understood that, hence his condemnation of the comment I posted as well as pastor/apologist’s shouting rant that is so much against such public displays of faith. After all, I do think that many of those who pray in public settings have it in their hearts to communicate with God and surrender themselves to him. However, does sincerity make an act correct? I don’t think so. To be technical about it, I wasn’t really stopping anybody from praying in public, but that doesn’t change my opinion that it is a practice that is contrary to what is proper prayer according to the words of The Lord himself.
The problem with sincerity and intention is that it is mired by our imperfections as human beings. It is possible for me (and everybody else) to be convinced and be so sincere and true about what I believe when in fact what I believe could be wrong. If I base it on postmodern morality, it wouldn’t go anywhere since postmodern thought rests on a relativistic philosophy where my perspective could be right or wrong on a case to case basis. However, such philosophy is fundamentally flawed given the fact that it could not point to a standard of morality. If I base my conclusion on the Blble, I get something that is an absolute standard of morality. It would then go back to the skeptic regress of why believe in the Bible. To be brief about it, I would choose to believe what the Bible says because it has proven what it claims to be for ages, the Word of God (proving why it is so merits another long discussion that many apologists have settled over the years).
So what does that discourse have to do my comments about public prayer and the response to my comment about it? Well, it is true that I should perhaps leave such people alone out of respect for their free will. However. It doesn’t mean that I should change my mind about the fact that it is a practice that is condemned by Jesus himself. I may be mocked for seeming to look like a dilettante in a small theological discourse involving two pastors, both of which have graduated from prestigious seminaries. However, God’s word remains to be true. No matter how much you try to support public prayer as a valid expression of faith, the Bible says the opposite. I remember one led in our church remarking that you should just keep it between you and God rather than perform an outward display of it in a space outside of church (an essential definition of what public js). You may receive your reward of public adulation from man, but God himself said it was such a thing that he would not listen to. Even of you say I should shut it rather than voice out my opinion, it doesn’t change the fact that it is wrong to pray in public because more likely than not, it tends to glorify the self rather than God.
In the Philippines, one of the latest products being peddled on TV is the new Axe Apollo body spray. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not reviewing the body spray. I could care less with all that machismo and chauvinism that is so appealing to many men in Filipino society. The reason why I’m talking about this is because of the fact that the said TV ad sums up the value system of contemporary society: image over substance.
The gist of the TV ad is this: Some hero-type fireman hunk rescues this pretty lady from a blazing inferno. Instead of the usual gratitude that such an act would merit, we then find out that the woman runs toward this guy wearing a space suit in the middle of the city.
Now, here’s some food for thought. What is it exactly that this silly astronaut suited guy (we don’t even know if he’s a real astronaut!) do to get that shallow woman running after him? Unless astronaut guy was married to that shallow girl, I can’t see any reason why this whore would run up to him. What he just did was perform that slow cliche walk and look “cool”. What a load of crap! Is that how you’re supposed to be thankful to the person who has saved your life? The shallowness of it all is sickening!
This TV ad teaches a fact in postmodern society: Image is more valuable than talent or character. They say, “To see is to believe,” even if it does not have any substance. This is what, unfortunately, TV is trying to teach children today: looking “good” or “hot” or “cool”, whatever it may be, is more important than your skills, talents and character. It is the complete opposite of what the Lord values. Once more, this TV ad reinforces the fact that man looks outward rather than inward.
The passage in 1 Samuel 16:7 reads, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” How I hope that people would keep such words to heart and reject man’s empty value system based on superficiality.
I grew up as a fan of metal. I should be because I started out playing in a band that covered Metallica. Naturally, therefore, I would love thrash metal. Heck, I still do. Of all the Big Four thrash bands, Megadeth was up on my list simply because I think their musicianship was the most superb of them all. My favorite Megadeth album is “Rust in Peace”. Fast forward 2013, they released this:
Hmm, okay. I wouldn’t call this thrash metal. It’s some kind of hard rock that is more akin to a Mr. Big hit than a thrash metal anthem like Slayer’s “Angel of Death” (by the way, RIP Jeff Hannemann). I have seen how some fans have started to hate Megadeth because the band has the desire to expand its fanbase (and perhaps earn a lot of money in the process). Who could blame them? They got families to feed, bills to pay, etc. They do this for a living. This has to be respected rather than bash Megadeth for seemingly selling out.
I couldn’t really stand how narrow-minded or close-minded rabid thrash metal fans can be at times. Can’t we respect the band for trying out something else? I mean they’re artists. You can’t expect an artist to put out something like “Rust in Peace” every year or so. That’s the kind of thing that kills innovation.
So, for fans who are disappointed with Megadeth’s direction, please shut up. You’re not doing anything good. Hey, I would agree that this new Megadeth song isn’t really something that I’d be crazy about but you have to respect the fact that they’re living up to their name as ARTISTS and not mere parrots that repeat the same thing over time without meaning.
A huge part of being a musician is the fact that one would always be under some sort of criticism. I know for one thing that I am not exempt from that. There will always be people who will hate you for no reason at all. You would be thankful for a few who would actually give out criticism because they care and they want you to improve. Unfortunately most of these people who are called “trolls” on the Internet really have nothing good to say. They only care about bashing or slandering you with words. If you think about it, it just shows how insecure they really are about themselves and they try to find self-worth in trying to hurt other people with words. If you ask me, that’s a truly miserable experience.
Whenever I watch videos of people playing their beloved instruments on YouTube, most of them would leave the comments section open for the public to use. Occasionally, you will see people posting positive, heartwarming comments, something that would give you the drive to continue on doing what you love. Most, however, would try and put you down. Many times I have been at the receiving end of such things. Back in the days when I had limited equipment (from 2003 to 2009, I produced music with a Pentium III PC and a consumer-level sound card!), I get comments like my music is overblown, too long, poor production values, overly ambitious, pretentious, etc. Some were even cruel enough to suggest that I forget music altogether and take up something like tennis! Now, how are those comments of any help might I ask? They aren’t. They just exist to hurt you.
So, how do you respond to such things. Never give up! Take all of those things as a challenge. All my life I have had to face critics ranging from my own parents to some stranger who knows nothing about my life and my passion for music. I had moments when I cried because of such painful words. Still to this day, I have to deal with how low my self-esteem has become because of mere words. The thing is that critics will not go away. They will always be there. It is best that you take those comments into consideration and take them as pointers for improvement. While we recognize the fact that the impulse to feel angry or sad will always be there after a critic attacks harshly, it is best to always use your cognitive faculties to look at the criticism from an objective standpoint.
Back in the days when I just used a Pentium III to experiment with sound and produce my music (I still have those albums in this website where I made use of such equipment), I felt deeply hurt when critics attacked the quality of my recordings and the quality of my voice. But then again, after all that emotion had passed, I evaluated myself. I realized the fact that I didn’t have the right equipment; it’s something that I had to accept. I also realized that I needed to read and learn more about the various facets of music production i.e. using EQ, effects, mixing, etc. Looking back, I’m glad that I risked putting my music out for the world to listen to; otherwise I wouldn’t have learned. Fast forward to the present day, I am at the very least scraping some of my living expenses from a variety of musical activities. Given my age now, I think I would have been worse off had I followed the troll’s advice of going for something like tennis! At least music gave me something to hope for that is achievable. If I tried tennis with my present weight and bad knees, I would be laughable.
To anyone reading this who has been shot down by any troll’s words, here’s what you can do:
1. Allow your emotions to be felt but control how you respond to them. It’s all right to feel sad, angry, bitter. You really can’t help it. It’s natural to feel that way. But then, make use of those emotions to drive your creativity. Maybe you can write a song about it or do some other thing. Express that emotion in some positive way. It wouldn’t really help at all if you try and kill the troll. That wouldn’t be of benefit at all.
2. Study the critic’s words. In certain instances, criticism has some kind of basis. Try and figure out why it was said in the first place. Maybe there really is something there you can use to improve. I for one had to swallow my pride and see if there really is anything in there for me to consider. Discard the bad, take note of the good.
3. Accept the fact that you cannot make everybody happy. Despite any measure to improve, you will always be under attack by some critic or two. The Canadian band Rush exemplifies this fact by continuing to create their brand of music, despite being ignored for years by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and attacks by famed critics like Robert Christgau.
4. Continue on working towards your goals. Never give up. At the very least, your creativity will bring forth achievements that will be gratifying to yourself and to others. Hey, at the very least there still will be one or more people who would like your work. For someone like me, it’s enough drive to for me to continue. Even if nobody would like what I put out, I’ll still try because eventually my persistence and hard work will pay off.
As a consolation, try this out. Look up a video on YouTube of any musician performing. Many times you will find trolls posting harsh comments. Try clicking on their profiles and see if they themselves have put out any smidgen of creativity like an original song or a performance. Many times, you will find that they really don’t have anything to demonstrate except for their harsh words. You will see how empty such people really are.
Here you will see Japanese guitarist Akira Wada testing out the amp. You will see here comments by this guy saying, “oh god,stop it! he plays like a 12 year old student..,”and this guy saying, “I had to watch again OMG he is playing like a 13 year old in a guitar store.Perhaps it’s to sophisticated for me to understand.It made me chuckle, for whats it’s worth.” The funny thing is that these people have the balls to post such comments when they themselves have nothing to show. All words people! Can they demonstrate how a mature man should play guitar. It’s best for them to shut up because if you inspect their YouTube profiles I don’t see any videos of them playing like Steve Vai or Allan Holdsworth or Eric Clapton even. It just demonstrates how fools use empty words. I remember reading Proverbs 15 when dealing with unqualified people who speak empty words. Verse 2 reads, “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” Seems to me that there are two kinds of critics, the “wise” ones who actually know what they are talking about (useful for learning) and the fools a.k.a. trolls who could not demonstrate what they are saying and only mean to hurt people.
For those trolls out there, I challenge you. Is this a guy who plays like a 12-year old?
If you could play better than this, I MIGHT listen to you. Otherwise, you aren’t worth my time.
As Jean Sibelius once said, “Pay no attention to what the critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!” It has the similar tone of Proverbs 12:16 which reads, “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.” I remember Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland insulting Dream Theater. Did Dream Theater paid attention to his attention-grabbing antics? He was simply ignored.
The electric bass guitar certainly has a very interesting history. If it were a person, you would know that one of its ancestors was the orchestral double bass and from the other side is the electric guitar. Most people would know a bass guitar to be a four-stringed instrument, but as bass players wanted to extend the range of their instruments, instruments with more than four strings have been developed, the five-stringed version with the low B being very popular. However, I have chosen to go one string further with a six-string bass.
I started playing a four-string bass when I was a teen and then I went up to five, and then more recently the six-string bass. While there are those who hate the six-string bass by being too much to handle, I personally love the instruments flexibility and range. I’m assuming people didn’t realize that the six-string bass was supposed to make people’s lives easier. If you’re surprised that I’m saying that, try playing a two-octave arpeggio over a four string. I’m quite sure that it’s a stretch. On a six-string bass, you can play the same arpeggio over just a span of six frets. If I use the four-string technique on the six-string, I could cover three octaves.
The way I chose my tuning is a matter of convenience. For a while I was playing my six-string bass in the standard fashion: all fourths from B to C. It was wonderful at first. But being a guitarist as well, the C at the 1st string can sometimes be off putting. I could manage with that C well, but I wanted my guitar technique to translate into my bass playing. This is why I decided to tune my bass like a baritone guitar (an octave lower of course) and so the tuning is (from 6th to 1st string) is B, E, A, D, F#, B. It’s a step higher than the Guitarron Mexicano. The great thing about this tuning is that I could use my guitar techniques, one of the most important is the CAGED system. I could also use certain techniques I’ve learned from fingerstyle guitar i.e. classical/flamenco-style tremolo, barre chords, etc. Rather than putting energy into learning techniques specific to the standard six-string bass tuning, I’d like to concentrate more on writing and making music and so the baritone guitar tuning helps a lot by saving up my neurons for something else. It’s just more efficient for me that way.
Given the size of the neck, the six-string bass guitar can be unwieldy. Thus I am not surprised why John Myung wants his six-string bass guitar to have a neck width comparable to just a five-string. At this point, I really can’t have a choice on that matter. It’s rather difficult to find a six-string bass guitar in the Philippines unless you have one crafted for yourself, so I’m very fortunate to have found one at a budget price. All in all, the six-string bass guitar has been of great help for my music.
Today I’d like to talk about my present band practice and gig instrument, the Kurzweil PC88 Performance Controller Keyboard. Why would I do so? Because I like this instrument very much, plain and simple. For any of you out there looking for a review of this fine instrument, read on.
Before I discuss the ins and outs of this instrument, I’d like to tell a brief history about how I stumbled across this “portable” stage piano and eventually became its owner. I was looking for a portable 88-key replacement for a Yamaha SY-77 I had sold a few years back. In July 2012, I browsed through the Philmusic classifieds and found a seller who was selling a PC88. The price seemed reasonable, and then I thought to myself I could use something a bit similar to Jordan Rudess’s Kurzweil K2600. To cut the long story short, I bought it and have been using it since then.
The Kurzweil PC88 was exactly what I was looking for, a keyboard with a pianistic range and some very good sounds. My favorite patches in it are “Classical Piano”, “Suitcase E. Piano”, a number of organ sounds and the “Slow Digital Pad”. In my mind, these sounds should serve as my bread and butter presets. My particular unit is the “MX” variety so it also has a general MIDI bank and a generous 64-note polyphony. Because it’s not a synth, its selection of sounds is limited but it has powerful layering capabilities via the “MIDI Setup” mode where you can layer four sounds, each of which has its individual volume slider. In a limited way, you can create some fantastic patches with real-time control over each sound. Whether I’m playing progressive rock, praise and worship music, or jazz, I can pretty much cover good ground.
I’m not really doing multitrack orchestral stuff with it so 64 notes is pretty generous for my purpose. The feel or touch of its key bed is definitely weighted, similar to the feel of a Yamaha grand I had used about 4 years ago in a company Christmas party, but has a bit of a springy bounce that you will never find in an acoustic piano. How would I know? It’s because it feels very different from the acoustic upright piano I use at home. The rugged metal casing provides me with confidence that it would withstand the rigors of playing out.
As much as I love this instrument, it is not without its faults. I bought this particular PC88 used, and so some of the lead weights were loose. I had to hire a technician to have all the weights of the key bed fixed with a stronger adhesive. My technician said that the original adhesive used doesn’t hold up well to tropical weather, and that’s why they would become loose as the instrument ages. Given the fact that it’s not a synth, I could not use the sort of analog-ish lead sounds I enjoyed in my former Yamaha SY-77, and so I have to stick to organ or piano sounds for my leads. Lastly, the PC88 is heavy! You will not enjoy climbing up stairs lugging this keyboard on your own. When I set this up in the church (UCCP-MCCD) where I occasionally play, I usually have to ask for assistance from friend and bandmate Pastor Chaz to carry it inside the church. Yes, Kurzweil didn’t lie when it said that the PC88 was portable. They forgot to write down a caveat that it’s only portable if you have a car, if a buddy to help you carry it, or strength comparable to a well-trained athlete. If you plan on carrying it around while commuting, I’d probably laugh at you.
So, in summary, other than the initial key bed lead weight issue, the lack of decent synth lead sounds, and the weight of the instrument, the Kurzweil PC88 is a great piano analog and an impressive MIDI controller.
