Taking a dive into making my first post! I have a Yamaha AR80 and subsequently fancied (as you do, when you go on YouTube and see some beautiful keyboard playing!) a Tyros. So 6 weeks ago I ordered a Tyros 3 from Hamiltons, what a brilliant and awesomely friendly service, they couldn't do enough for me - and received the Tyros a couple of days later by courier. I loved the Tyros instantly and to date have achieved the impossible 2 dreams that every bloke aims for: 1. I have played it every single day, and absolutely love it, and 2. Have p*ssed the wife off considerably, because I am now unable to do the housework, due to playing the Tyros for hours on end.
The Tyros is a superb instrument, and quite honestly, I sound pretty GOOD at it and find the learning curve exciting and emotional and genuinely uplifting - it has given me a new-found love of music and if the term 'sky's the limit' is overused somewhat, I believe it's a true statement of how I feel about this keyboard.
Now, having the Tyros, I had not played the AR80 for all that time, and to be honest, I did begin to find my limited skills rather tiresome, as the AR80 doesn't instantly scream 'Hallelujah' like the Tyros does, EVERY SINGLE DAY.
But strangely, I found myself in the same room as the AR80 today (the Tyros and the AR80 occupy different rooms, in case they get up to shenanigans in the dark, and the last thing we needed was little Tyars running around). So while I was in the same room as the AR, and hiding from the dreaded housework, I decided to fire the beast up, and you know what - it's different on all levels to the Tyros, but by jove, I LOVED it again. Different techniques, different sounds, a different type of enjoyment - but enjoyment it certainly was.
My enjoyment dictated that as I enjoyed it more, so the more I pumped the volume up, and Sod's Law dictated that the wife could locate me easily and managed to drag me away to drive a broom around the kitchen.
But yes, keyboard vs organ = dead heat, in my opinion. Tyros for excitement and professional sounds, AR80 for those nostalgic drawbar sounds and slow-drawling ballads.
I did advertise the AR80 for cheap money when I got the Tyros, but nobody wants an organ any more unless it's really silly money, but after today I might just keep the old girl and dabble now and again, just for the memories.