Hello friends! I am deeply shocked. My S970 is under a year old, and I have been very careful with it. Most of the time I just play at home. Now and again I go on a gig, and handle the instrument very gently. Yesterday I sat down to play and all was normal. Today I wanted to work a little more on a song, turned on the S970, and all I heard was hissing and crackling noise!! Turned on and off several times. Nothing worked. I had to bring it down to the store where I bought it. They gathered around it, shook their heads and was at a loss. All of them echoed each other in saying: This is a new one, this has never happened to a Yamaha before! That just made me feel worse, thinking that I was the "lucky" one to pick the one Yamaha failure! I am not worried, the music store is serious, and I have a warranty. But it shook me up really bad. So, with my dear S970 in the hospital, there will be no songs from me for a while. Have anyone else experienced something similar, or did I get the one instrument that someone cast an evil spell on? I need a virtual hug now, I am not a happy person at this moment....