I'd like to mention that even without the front-panel LCD, it's possible to use this tone generator fairly well. When pressing the unit's power-off then power-on button, the unit apparently resets itself to the default, the first "performance" (single or dual-layer tone), which is "Grand Piano." From there, it is possible to cycle through the various tones just by pushing the "Perf / Tone" Previous or Next buttons on the front panel. After a while, one would become familiar with how many button-pushes it might take to activate his or her favorite tone(s).

In addition, it's often possible to guess what the LCD might otherwise display, just by reading the manual to see how the front-panel buttons work, then pressing some of them repeatedly to get to the lowest value, before incrementing them to achieve the desired parameter value.

Apparently a lot of GEM RealPiano Expander users have complained about this short-lived LCD issue, which seems to have been a common defect on these units. Other than this issue, the tone generator works perfectly and produces some very nice tones for use with MIDI gear.

Best wishes,
Steve