U.S. arrival of the Electro 5

[Serena-5]

Pablo, the suspense is deafening. Has the E5 gotten to you yet ?? If not, will you post it's arrival on this site ??
-Alan

[pablomastodon]

Hi Serena/Alan,

Arrived on Friday evening, gigged with it on Sunday. Mine was part of a very small airlifted shipment and was toured and demo'd by someone else for a week before it came to me. Container load scheduled to arrive shortly and shipping to stores shortly after that. Should be before the end of the month.

Let the questions begin...

Bless,

Pablo

[Serena-5]

Ok...the anticipation builds further. Any idea how shortly till the container arrives ? I've got a gig on June 6 that I'd really like to use it on. And, what were your impressions on the gig ??
-Alan

[pablomastodon]

It's not usually a good idea to set oneself up for failure by counting on something like this on a certain date. It will take a day or two to empty the container and check all the contents into computerized inventory, then more time to be packed for shipment to various dealer warehouses, then more time for the dealers to check things into their computerized inventory, then shipped to customers. I'm not in the loop on shipping date details -- only know that it's in process and will happen very very soon. Customers who have pre-ordered will have priority, no doubt.

The instrument was great to gig with, but because I'm used to gigging with NS2 (midi'd to Micro Mod and G2E), it was an adjustment. There was one sort of trivial detail which surprised/annoyed me, but I got it sorted at the first set break: I'm playing bass and piano on one tune and arrived at a point where I want to let go of the bass and replace with organ. Quick and easy front panel change got me where I wanted to go...but...when I wanted to get back to my original program I discovered that hitting the Program button did not trigger a reload of the instant program. Had to turn the knob one click to load the next program and then back again to load the original program with bass and piano. Prior to the gig I'd had 20 minutes or so to create some custom programs. At set break I created songs for my custom programs and moved them to the front of the bus in Setlist 1. After that, any spontaneous program editing while playing could be quickly and easily reverted to original stored version of the program by triggering the appropriate button while in Setlist Mode.

The net effect of which was to greatly stoke my lust for the integration of the Setlist feature onto the Stage platform. There seems little doubt that an NS3 will HAVE to contain this feature.

All in all, a very pleasant gigging experience.

Bless,

Pablo

[Serena-5]

Sounds like maybe that could be rectified in a software update (or at least the option offered in the menu page), as so many of the parameters are on the Electro and Stage...I imagine that the hardware is there to support it. Right now, my main keyboard is a fully loaded Kronos modded up to X standards (program and combis don't get any easier than that to easily program and manipulate on the fly). But if they offer the Stage 3 with a OLED display on it and a better, quicker form of organization...it'll be a done deal !!
One thing that really grabbed me when playing the E573 at this year's NAMM show: this Electro is the first one with a synth action that I could really play convincing acoustic piano on. For some unknown reason, I could play great organ, clav, and ep's on every other electro...but not acoustic piano. On the E5, however, it was easy, and I would feel confident on pretty much any gig with it as a standalone instrument. Maybe it's the larger piano samples ?? The best organ, bar none...drawbars...great clavs and Ep's...built like a Swiss Army knife...and all under a paltry 21 lbs ?? Wow...IT''S A GREAT TIME TO BE A KEYBOARD PLAYER, isn't it ??
Well, even though I'm set up for disappointment, I'm going to remain positive on this one. Sweetwater has turned pre-order gear around to ship same day they have gotten it (as they just did with my Spacestation V.3). So, I'll just sit here drooling until my E5D73 arrives, Pablo. Thanks for the update/impressions.
-Alan

[Gospelkeys]

Interesting as a lot of the U.S. online retailers have increased their availability date from end of May to early to mid June.

I was assuming this was because they had more accurate information now.

Let's hope it works out to be sooner. I am told I am near the top of the preorder list at a large online retailer so I should get one from the first shipment.

I have big plans for the E5 this summer. Booked every weekend. About half of those gigs I will do with the E5 only so my back is getting impatient.

[pablomastodon]

Just FYI, there is another, newer source of delay -- two containers shipped with NE5s prior to the release of current OS update. Nord has asked us to update them prior to distribution. WIth hundreds of these coming in, that will be something of an operation. Don't be alarmed when it appears that the factory seal has been broken on your new instrument. We'll probably drop little postcards in there advising of the reason for this.

Bless,

Pablo

[okiechris]

Sweetwater said today ship date will likely be June 4 or 5. Gonna be a long two weeks!

[Serena-5]

AWESOME NEWS !! But, my fingers are crossed for a date a little earlier (ha ha). Where are you on the preorder list, Okiechris ?? And which one did you order ?

[okiechris]

AWESOME NEWS !! But, my fingers are crossed for a date a little earlier (ha ha). Where are you on the preorder list, Okiechris ?? And which one did you order ?

You and me both! I ordered the 61, but I'm a little torn between that and the 73. I've been lugging an 88 stage 2 around and it got really old, so I went for the 61. Hope I don't miss that low octave too much.

I ordered in early March. Sweetwater said they had plenty in first shipment to fill all preorders.