An Old Pro Needs a New Keyboard

by Bob
(Long Island)

Back in the days when you could buy a vinyl 45-rpm record and 8-mile-per-gallon cars came with V-8's, 4-barrel carburetors and 8-track tape players in the dash, I was a semiprofessional keyboard player. I did the resort circuit where we cut music for comedians, magicians, etc., and contributed significantly to the staggering national divorce statistic by playing a thousand weddings. Back in the late 1970's-early 80's, portable electronic pianos sounded like banjos and portable organs didn't sound anything like the awe-inspiring Hammonds we wished could be made portable (and affordable). Nobody made a decent keyboard amplifier for these old axes, so we improvised, modified and combined various components to get the job done. I wound up screwing a 15-inch bass speaker into a lightweight, portable Leslie to give the thing some bottom-- which I needed because my left hand was playing bass in lieu of an actual bass-guitar player--fortunately Farfisa and Crumar marketed portable keyboards with respectable bass voices combined with a feature which eventually came to be known as keyboard-splitting. For anybody interested, here are some web addresses of photos of the antiques I played back then:

Anyway...

Today, I find myself in need of a very good quality, basic keyboard that has keyboard splitting (so I can play bass with my left hand--and a separate volume control for this would be wonderful), organ and touch-sensitive piano voices, internal speakers and a standard jack outlet for an amplifier. Don't need no midi, don't need no recorded songs, don't need no automatic chordmaking circuitry (you're kidding) or keys with lights in them (you've GOT to be kidding!). And since I'm old and decrepit, I need this puppy to not weigh a ton. My question is, who make something like that and where can I buy it?

Thanks for your patience,
Bob