KVR Audio

fred65 · Post by **fred65** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:45 am

Hi, I've got a Yamaha PSR-275 (it's a "beginner's" keyboard)

I know it's nowhere near as cool as what you guys care about, but it does the job for me until I can afford something better. So the problem is, after a few years of use, the G3 key is no longer touch sensitive. You play a soft quiet song and hit the G3 key by accident - DING! So it seems to be stuck on like 127 velocity. VERY annoying. Note, transposing doesn't fix this - the physical contacts must be playing up. I don't remember damaging or dropping anything on the keyboard...

I took it apart and sort of gave up as there's a lot of screws and bits that will take a lot of effort to dismantle just to look around in there. Anybody else heard of this problem? Better still, any on how to fix it?

Lagrange · Post by **Lagrange** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:10 am

I've fixed a few keyboards like this in my time.. Yea nothing has to drop into the keyboard to mess with keys. Alls that needs to happen is the rubber seal between the contact and key opens letting in moisture and dust. Together they gew up and turn into a hard kind of substance almost like wax. Your actually quite lucky your still getting any sound from that key!.. Are the keys weighted (metal under the key) or a light plastic?

Some keyboards with all plastic keys have a release screw that once loosened will allow the keyboard to 'pop' out or up. Look for that or a release pin but be gental!! Also you have to determine if there are any seals from the key to the contact board and if theyre removable THIS IS IMPORTANT..

If you do make it to the contact board you will probably have to lift several surrounding rubber seals. DO NOT RIP or TUG any of the rubber seals they should kind of unplug with a little bit of constant effort. Take q tip with alcohol and twirl it over the contact board only NOT THE NUB UNDER THE RUBBER seal. That can be cleaned with mouse trackball cleaner. Gently snap the surrounding seals back into place sequentially from top to bottom (or vice versa).. So D3 then C4 then D#3 then B4 then E4 then A#4 and so on.. The key to this is to remember where everything goes so keep a record (a digital camera goes a long way at documenting every screw!)..

Hopefully this fixes the problem. Oh and one note, if it happens to one key you should expect it to happen to others!

L

fred65 · Post by **fred65** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:14 am

Thanks a lot Lagrange for your useful reply. The keys are normal plastic type seen on these cheap keyboards. I like your idea about using a camera to document the process. I will definitely look at those seals when I have some spare time. Thanks again!

fred65 · Post by **fred65** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:43 am

OK so I've cracked the keyboard open again, and after some effort I've found that the actual tactile rubber contact strip seems to be the issue. I swapped this one for one from another part of the keyboard and now G3 is working. I will give this one a good clean and we'll see what happens!

fred65 · Post by **fred65** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:21 pm

I tried cleaning the contact in question but no luck. It's still 'stuck' on full velocity... The keys aren't weighted btw.

Any suggestions on cleaning the contact further, or is there somewhere I can get a replacement? Thanks again.

Lagrange · Post by **Lagrange** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 2:18 pm

Is there any way you can take a picture of the contact and related parts and post them?

L

Broken - key is no longer touch sensitive