New BR model - the BR-800

[64Guitars]

Here's a Japanese page translated to English by Google. It has more info and pictures of the BR-800. It says the BR-800 will be released in late July.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://mnavi.roland.jp/guitar/201006_01.html&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhgYSwsfMteiNqtZHeXO10kG3hSdIg

[BuleriaChk]

Nevada Music shows them in stock.  
Dolphin says that (as of now), they have one in stock.
Anderton's says they are overdue.....
SoundsLive says 4 in stock
SoundsGreat says in stock.....

Musicians' Friend still shows 7/27...
GuitarCenter still shows 7/7...

It may be getting close, after all, though...

Update: Sweetwater just told me that the date there was set back to the 23rd.....

[64Guitars]

I find it very strange that U.K. music shops are reporting they have the BR-800 in stock while Japanese stores and Roland Japan itself are still saying late July.

If anyone in the U.K. is near a music shop and can pop in and ask to see the BR-800, I'd be very interested to know if they really do have them in stock. Or will the shopkeeper exclaim over the din of the bouzouki player "Oh. The cat's eaten it!"

[pjd1]

I spoke to a guy at PMT in manchester this week and he says they have them in stock for around 339 pounds !!

http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/pmtonline/index.php?cmd=%5BSTOCK%5D&st=75335

I have paisted the link but it does not go to the correct page put in Boss BR800 into the search facility

Dunny

[BuleriaChk]

Just speculating, but the reason for the delay is probably that they have to go thru customs in NY.
(They either came across Russia (or around the horn of Africa), or over the US (or through the Panama Canal) ....  or,...  or,..... 

[64Guitars]

Here's an interesting thread from the Roland U.K. forums:

http://www.rolandforums.co.uk/forums/viewthread/1268/

It seems they weren't expecting them until September but got a surprise delivery on June 30th.

But why have no other countries received any? Why have none been delivered to Japanese stores when the thing is made in Japan!

Here's my cynical theory. They started production on these in, perhaps, May for shipment in June. But quality control found problems with the initial production lot and production was halted. They investigated and solved the problem, making the necessary changes to their production lines. But what to do with the defective units from the initial run? Patch them up and ship them to the U.K.!   Of course, this is pure speculation. I have no idea why shipments were delayed nor why the U.K. got the first batch. But it all seems a bit fishy to me. I'd be reluctant to purchase a BR-800 in the U.K. until the new production run starts shipping worldwide. Of course, it could be that any problems they might have found in the first lot were entirely in the firmware. In that case, the hardware would be perfectly alright and a simple firmware update before shipping would, in theory, make the initial lot just as good as subsequent lots. But, if hardware problems were found, that's a different matter.

[BuleriaChk]

Of course, the Roland/vendors may be waiting until they have blown out enough br600/900cd's in stores and on EBay .....  Nah, they wouldn't do that.... would they..?

[pjd1]

Dawsons Liverpool have two in stock confirmed today !! I read the thread on the Roland forum and i see the point about the release first in the UK, but i cant see them selling units to the public which may have a concern with the quality ! lets hope i am right !

Dunny

[BuleriaChk]

I can only hope that the delays were due to the suggestions I made:

1.  Tap tempo should bring up the tempo menu with focus on the BPM for fine adjustment with the data wheel....

2. If the turkey that designed the DR-880 didn't include a global tempo opotion for the patterns (rather than forcing an assigned tempo for each pattern...)

(Wouldn't it be nice if they had a mode where the play buttons would trigger assigned patterns?  They could do it if they wanted)

Or maybe they forgot to include the ToneLoad function.......

[64Guitars]

Here's a new YouTube video of the BR-800:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3gBT-6AG8

Unfortunately, I can't understand a word of it because it's in German. But it gives a good view of the BR-800 display and menus while in use, especially when viewed in 720p HD, full-screen (go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3gBT-6AG8 and select 720p HD at the bottom of the player, then click the full screen button just to the right).