The MONTAGE 6 action is identical to the Motif XS/XF6.

To Bad Mister
U say Action is exactly the same.
And I tell U. The M6/M7 keybed feel is to die for. and. The Delicate responsiveness is Great.
But
Key-bed Spacing on the montage 6/7 is SOOOOO Tight.
ON average when compared to a Korg Keybed The M6/M7 is missing 1 full inch. per five octaves. About the same Comparing it .To any Normal Key-Bed. Any brand.
IE: Nobody makes a Key-Bed this Tight of spacing.
And To Your over seas Higher up's. People are Getting Bigger and taller. Not shrinking.
Sound on Sound Called out Yamaha on This spacing. In their review of the Montage.
Now I am on my Second Montage. This one is a 6. It has about 1/32" more space between the black keys. Than The M7.
I am also on my 9th week of retraining my left hand Formations. But Your talking. Breaking over 40 years of playing habit.
Waterfalling a Controller. To use my left hand on it. Is very hard to Do. Since the Montage . Is So Deep. ( Inches wise. ).
The head of Support And The Head of The keyboard Div(So they said). Said The Montage key-bed was the Exact Same as the Motif.
To be kind. I will just say. They Mis-Spoke. Because. I have seen the inside of both. And They Are not the same at all.
And I have no trouble. Playing a Motif.
So one Question I have.
Do You have a Photo of the . Underside of the Montage keybed.
Because. I am Willing to. Use the 1/4" of empty space on each end. And take the 10 to 15 hours. It would take. to Spread The Keys spacing out. I just have to know. Where the End keys are sitting in the Key adjustment slot.
And The Second Question. And I am not being a Smart ass.
Who could ever think .This was a good idea.???

The Montage keybed is definitely not as wide as others. I immediately realized that when I bought my M6. At first I couldn't explain to myself why am I playing "dirty", missing notes and holding wrong intervals. I play on just one keyboard so I adapted to the length of the keybed. The M6/M7 is a wonderful keybed, I like it much better compared to the Kronos keybed for example. But I really hate this elitist approach of Yamaha "we can do what we want because we are a big company". That is a bad, selfish approach where they don't take into account that people use different keyboards at the same time and that they will run completely unnecessarily into this kind of problems. Big thumbs down here for Yamaha. On an otherwise wonderful keybed.

The action is nice but the spacing is horrible! You absolutely CAN'T finger chords which are comprised of mostly blacks and a single white key in between, no space for the tiniest finger there. What the hell were they thinking. seriously now.

here are the remarks of Sound on Sound on the Montage regarding this in their Montage 7 review:

I have a particular liking for instruments with 76-note semi-weighted keyboards, so imagine my surprise when something felt a tad wrong when I started to play it. It wasn’t the throw of the keys, nor the slightly spongy response that I suspect will loosen up with time: it was the perennial issue of Yamaha’s slightly narrow keybeds. A full-size 76-note keybed ranging from E to G is 1060mm wide, whereas the Montage’s extends to just 1033mm, which (in old money) is about an inch too narrow. It doesn’t sound like much, by my fingers noticed it even though my eyes didn’t. I have no idea why Yamaha do this, and I wish that they would stop because, if I want to stack multiple manufacturers’ keyboards in a live rig, I want them to line up. For me, a discrepancy of about 1.5 keys from bottom to top is serious, and trained pianists are at risk of playing ninths when reaching for octaves. It may seem a small difference, and it may even be irrelevant to you, but it’s one that you should consider before handing over your cash.

Well I was hoping to keep this thread from going into. Complaints about the Key-Bed on The M6/7 And There are many more.
Before I spend 1-2 hours. Taking the Keybed out. To Widen the spacing as much as possible.
I would. Love To have a photo of the. Underside of the Montage keybed. That Shows The Key Spacing slots.
That would save me. The bother or trying to make Adjustments. If it can not be done in the first place.(I know the slots are there. As I could see 2 of them from the top. But that repair shop. Was not fixing the keybed. So I could not see the underside.)
As for the Other Concerns You need to have about the Montage Key spacing.

After playing The Montage 6/7 for a long period of time. Readjusting to a normal key-Bed. It is a problem. You will miss-hit notes. On a Normally spaced Key-Bed. I played my First. Montage 7. For 4 weeks and nothing else. Readjusting to my Korg. Took Days. This is a big problem for Real players.

I have had My M6 for about a month now. It Still does not Feel right Comparatively. My left hand is a little bigger than My Right hand(like Everybody. Either or.) You really can not have your Mind preoccupied with the keybed while playing.

I surmise. That this whole mistake. Came from 'The Appearance' of the overall Keyboard. Overruling any common sense. I seriously doubt. That any Player. Would have cared. If the M7 was 1 & 1/2 inch longer. And The M6 at least 1" longer. And Maybe A unconchance factor. Built for Japan. And Not the World. IE: Nobody in Japan. Considering. How big people's hands are in the Western Part of the world.
I know 10 players. That Would buy a Montage. In a Heartbeat. But the Keybed spacing. Stops them cold.

I may Eventually. Have to use a Controller for the Montage. That I consider. A Total waste of a otherwise. Great keybed. And Makes the Montage 6. Nothing more than a Rack unit. And Finding a controller. With Anywhere near the Playing Quality of M6/M7 Keybed. Is A near impossible task.

Does anyone know if the same "problem" exists on the 88 key version?

I am only hearing a problem with the 61 and 76 key versions...

The 88 key Is not as tight. But Close.(U can see one at almost any Major Music store Chain.) Yamaha Are Perennially Tight spaced Keybeds. People have been complaining for many years. About How tight key spacing is Compared to Korg and Roland. And there is absolutely. No logical Reasoning. For Making a Key-Bed Tight Spaced. In the first place.
But. The Montage M6/M7 are Extreme. And Cause almost all players. To re-adjust. When Switching Keyboards.
Let's Say They saved $0.10 in plastic costs per unit and $2.00 per unit in overall Materials Per unit. The result. They Cut off at least 25% of potential Buyers. And Because. The Montage is Such a Great Sound Creation instrument. I have yet to meet any keyboard player. That Does not want 1. That probably. Turns into a Real Hard number. Of Lost 10%-12% sales. At $3000+ per unit.( And I think I am being very conservative here. )
It is counter intuitive thinking. And Dare I say? Just plain Stupid.
Genos. ( I doubt I will ever see one up close in Columbus, Ohio. ) But if They Put the Montage Keybed in a Arranger. They Really, Really. Cut their Nose off to Spite Their Face. ( I only mention the Genos. Because. IN Videos and Photo's. It looks Like they have put the Montage Keybed in it.)
Because. Lets face it. Arranger players. 50% or so. Are not. Real good players. So. For Arrangers. You're going to have a much wider demographic Customer base. Meaning. More potential customers. With Larger hands. No matter How good The Instrument is. If Someone. Can not play it Comfortably. They will not Buy it.
I Do not understand. Why Yamaha or any Company. Would Deliberately. Cut off a Portion of Potential Customers.
If it is a Elitist Type of Thing? IE: 'We only want. The best Players to Buy our High end Keyboards'. Or some such nonsensical Thinking. Then That person(s) at Yamaha. Needs to Step down. IMHO.

If this has been going on for years - and even professional reviewers are puzzled by it...

Why does Yamaha keep doing it?

Has Yamaha ever commented on it?

Back When I had a Yamaha Baby Grand. Some 37-38 Years ago.
And Ran a Small Recording studio.
We had a Small problem with the piano. When it was delivered. A senior Yamaha Rep came by.
And During The Conversation.
He Snobbishly. Said almost to the Exact words. "'We only want. The best Players to Buy our High end Keyboards/Pianos"'
While They have always. Made Great products. To me. This is How They have always Acted and Done things.
I did not buy another Yamaha product Until 5 years ago. A used Motif XF.
As to Whether. They have responded to Complaints about Key Spacing??? I think their Response. Is Self evident. Because They Just keep making Tight spaced Keyboards. And Just ignore The Small % of Piano/Keyboard players. With Larger hands.
The Montage 6/7 keybed. Goes Way beyond Just tight spacing. As compared to Korg and Roland. It is Actually Weird. When Compared. To any brand of Keyboard or MIDI Controller. Yamaha Says. "There is no Standard For key-beds or Key Spacing". That is true to a point. But Width wise. They are all(Key-Beds ) Total Width wise. within a 1/4" to 1/2" of each other.
The Montage 6. Is 1" short per 5 octaves. The M7 is 1.5 inches short of korg's 76 key. So It is. Way outside the Box! If not able to call it Sub-Standard.
It is only Because of. What it can do. And What I can do with it. That I even have one. And If necessary. I will Play it with a Controller.

Well... Since it was I who started this (long) debate, and since the Master (Bad Mister) has long dropped it (after replying), I feel the obligation to try and end it.

I've owned a Motif XS6 for several years, used it on stage, at rehearsals and at home. Found the keybed, in touch and feel, simply the best synth keybed I've used till today. Extremelly quiet, even hitting repetitive chords, super comfortable.
Never had any issues with key spacing while playing. Simply because I practised a lot due to my stage commitments.

So, as Bad Mister said, it is only a question of practise. Simply. The keybed is excellent. Put the "key spacing" issue to the back of your brain and have fun playing with the best synth keybed made until today. :o)

Eduardo wrote:
So, as Bad Mister said, it is only a question of practise. Simply. The keybed is excellent. Put the "key spacing" issue to the back of your brain and have fun playing with the best synth keybed made until today. :o)

In that case you both are wrong and neglect one important real life situation: a lot of people use two or more keyboards from different manufacturers, live on stage. That is what makes the whole thing far more complicated than the simplistic "you'll get used to it" answer.

EDUARDO,

The fact you're the OP of the thread doesn't give you the right to end the discussion that surrounds it. This is the whole point of forums.
There are many people who complain about it, even professional reviewers, and this is exactly the stage and place to do so.

You may as well leave the thread and disregard it from now on.

Thanks.

I guess I am sort of confused by the argument(s) made here...

The argument seems to be that people with smaller hands are better at playing the piano than people with larger hands...?

To me it is just the opposite - larger hands can cover more keyboard area - while those with smaller hands have to "roll" to cover the same area.

And not to be stereotypical - but could Yamaha's position have something to do with the fact that Asians/Japanese usually have smaller hands...?

Here is a Montage 8 - does the key spacing look small...?