OK, here’s the sustain, but WTH is an LCD display?
Alas, my old, second-hand Yamaha MM6 is essentially on life support, at least as a reliable piece of gig equipment. Half its LCD display had the habit of taking unplanned vacations, making it difficult to do just about anything new. Sometimes it would come back; sometimes not. I dealt with that for the past 2 years, given that I had saved about 10 sounds that were quite suitable for our gigs: pianos, synths, accordion (Shipping Up to Boston and various other Irish tunes) and even a nice split with piano on the left and synth on the right (no more button pushing for Don’t Stop Believin’). So I got by okay with the MM6 for several years, more than justifying my $250 price…
…UNTIL its sustain function bit the dust. (It’s fun to learn these types of things when you’re setting up at a gig, too far from home.) To quote Clint Eastwood, “I know what you’re thinking…” The obvious diagnosis was that the sustain pedal died, and the fairly painless treatment was to get a new one for under $50. Unfortunately, the pedal worked fine on another keyboard at home, and a known-good pedal would not sustain on the MM6. Thanks for your years of service, old friend…
At the gig, I compensated with the Release control knob, but it was kludgy for most songs, especially ones that called for sustained chords. Oddly enough, it might have been my best rendition of the solo in Scandal’s Goodbye to You.
Time for some shopping. Brand new this time, if possible.
Mike's Musician Musings 