Yeah David..you look like being a test pilot for this unit, for Zydeco particularly..
I'd say at the price and given the sound and technical flexibility, on-board, for these accordions you've made a good choice.Would love to see your reviews and demos.The key change facility sounds REALLY attractive.
Remains to be seen if they have that ' ballsy and bluesy ' grunt of the traditional Zydeco 3 rows..like Dopsie, Carrier, Frank etc. I'd consider buying one if I could be convinced I'd get that Zydeco sound...you know, that wet wet bassy growl those guys get.
Wish they'd have a demo on Youtube of Zydeco with an FR18..all that fast fingering East European and Tex Mex stuff bores me brainless!!..
And here's another reason why the FR18 could be the way to go.(.from a web site selling them here in Australia at $2700 = freight.)...Aussie dollar and US Dollar are parity.
" Performance Style & Comfort
The speaker-less, lightweight body makes the FR-18 diatonic a comfort to wear and play
"
Man...those Piano Accordions and some 3 rows are back breakers...and when fatigue sets in that's when the mistakes start happening...
And , yes, they can't be played acoustically but so what....neither can a Telecaster ! In fact, my Piano accordion playing band member often has that dilemma of balancing the sound he's hearing directly from his powerful accordion and the sound that's in stage foldback. If he could just get foldback sound he'd be better off I think.
Yes, everything depends on the quality of the built in samples. We'll see.
The good news is that even if the samples aren't what we would like, the accordion has the ability to input new samples from the USB port. Creating new samples is WAY beyond anything I would even consider, but it does open the door to a more Louisiana music sound, if necessary. I have no idea what is involved, but I know it can be done.
And, yes, the existing demos are not really my cup of tea either.
One other really cool feature I forgot to mention before is NO FEEDBACK!!! This is huge.
Oh yeah..I forgot about the feedback issue....that's supersonic at times with a Piano Accordion we have in the band....all the other band members and the folks out FOH will appreciate the feedback being killed off !!!
It's hard to say for sure. The best anyone can say is "soon". But I am hoping it will be before April.
Originally, they were saying "end of Feb.", but that estimate came and went.
Before I placed my order, I was talking with several different dealers. Last week, one of them said he called the distributor and was told that the initial demand was much higher than expected, so Roland delayed the shipment so that they could send more of them at once.
Another dealer said that when a shipment like this comes in, it can get held up for a time during the import process when it arrives. She told a story about a shipment of accordions that was delayed because some import inspector read about the contents which said something about accordions with "ivory" keys, and the idiot inspector red-flagged it because you can't import ivory. She had to explain that it was plastic.
Like the idea of headphones capability..that should keep the members of the household and dogs and cats on the right side during the learning process !!!LOL
And a Hammond B3 capability ..hooey...my favourite keyboard sound.
A triple note that can play in any key!!!! Wow, I want one.
I know Curley Taylor used a Roland piano note for awhile and then went back to his Alessandrini because of some problems with it. Maybe the short battery life was a drag. But, how cool would it be to have to haul only one accordion! When do you think they will have the cajun variation. Now that would be the ultimate. Any key at your disposal in one cajun box.
David, good luck with it. Please post us with the updates. thanks.