Clavinova CLP-970 - dealing with a sticking key
Sylvia Else
take the thing apart to see whether I could fix it myself. The cause
appears to have been a small bit of paper that had fallen between the keys.
I am posting this so that it will end up in the Google Groups archive,
and perhaps be useful to someone one day.
NOTE: There are at least two versions of the keyboard. The original
design was flawed, and prone to failure (the symptom was that a key
would start sticking badly). Yamaha replaced it free of charge some
years after the warranty had expired. If you don't know that your
keyboard has been replaced, it would be worth making inquiries first. In
any case, the method of removing and replacing individual keys may be
different from what I've described below.
Further, there could well be differences in detail, and you should
assess the correctness of each step described below for yourself.
Needless to say, I offer no guarantee that you won't end up breaking
your Clavinova. Whether to take the risk is for you alone to decide.
I spent a couple of hours on this, but most of the time was involved in
figuring out what I had to undo to get to the point where I could
examine the innards of the keyboard. I've made some notes that might
assist someone else who prefers not to pay repairmen for things they can
do themselves. I was able to perform the entire task using a single long
(15cm shaft) cross-headed screw-driver that I had magnetised, and a thin
piece of metal, which in my case was a paint scraper.
In the discussion, "backwards" means towards the back of the piano.
Related words take their meanings accordingly.
0. Make sure the piano is unplugged from the mains.
1. The music stand is attached using keyhole mountings. Remove it by
sliding it upwards by a couple of centimeters and it will unlock and can
be easily be pulled forwards. Be careful that it doesn't simply fall off!
2. Remove the two large brass mountings that held the music stand.
3. The one centimeter thick frame for the fabric speaker cover is now
held only by Velcro, and can be pulled off from either side.
4. At each end of the speaker enclosure there is a large slot through
which a screw can be reached. Remove the two screws (that is, one from
each end).
5. The speaker enclosure is hinged at the back, and can now be tilted
right over until it is completed inverted. Make sure there is a clear
space in which to do this, and note that the enclosure is heavy.
6. I completely removed the keyboard cover. I'm not sure now that that's
necessary. It may be possible to deal with keyboard without actually
removing the cover.
6A. Only if removing the keyboard cover: With the keyboard cover closed,
locate the two plastic clips that cover an opening in the keyboard track
slot. Remove the two screws (note, they are very small, and accordingly
easy to drop and lose), and remove the plastic clips.
6B. Only if removing the keyboard cover: Open the keyboard cover until
it is possible to lift the keyboard axle (which has a gear wheel at each
end) out of the slot.
6C. Only if removing the keyboard cover: With the axle now running on
top of its slot, position the keyboard cover so that it is about half
closed, then lift the rear until the cover is vertical. Slowly turn your
body until the keyboard cover front runners disengage. The keyboard
cover is now free. You shouldn't have to apply any force.
7. The control panel is attached to the base by 5 metal brackets, each
containing two screws. Remove the screws. There is also another screw at
the left hand side, which also needs to be removed. NOTE this is not the
same type of screw as the other ten. It's a self-tapper with a blunt end.
8. Remove the screw that attaches the black grounding wire to the
metallic base.
9. The control panel can now be lifted up (CAREFULLY!) and rested on the
keyboard cover track. It is still attached to the base by wires, which
must not be stretched. The reason the black grounding wire was detached
in step 8 is that it is not long enough to allow this step without its
being disconnected.
10. Remove the nine large and two small brass screws that hold the
keyboard in place.
11. Originally I wanted to remove the keyboard completely, and to do
that it was necessary to remove the wooden blocks at either end (one of
which contains the power switch). However, it's possible to remove and
replace keys without completely removing the keyboard, so it may not be
necessary to remove the blocks, or it may be sufficient just to loosen
them. Each block is held in place by a single screw, but has prongs at
the front that engage with the case, so it has to be moved backwards a
bit before it is completely free. The right hand one is in any case
still attached to wires, and can only be moved out of the way.
12. Only if you want to completely remove the keyboard: Lift up the
front of the keyboard, and detach the multi-wire connector from its
socket at the front middle of the keyboard. It should just pull out,
but be gentle. Do not pull by the wires! You may also see that the wires
are attached to the keyboard by some adhesive tape, which will have to
be removed.
12A. Only if you want to completely remove the keyboard: At the back of
the keyboard gently prise open the plastic clip that holds the wires in
place at the back of the keyboard, and release the wires.
13. If you are not completely removing the keyboard, then you need to
move it backwards about a couple of centimeters to give clearance for
the keys to be moved forwards when they are removed. At this point if
you haven't removed the blocks at the end of the keyboard, you need to
consider whether you need to loosen them, or remove them after all.
14. Individual keys are held in place by a black plastic tab. This is
most easily seen on the left most key, where the tab is slightly exposed
to the left of the key, near to the back. If this tab is depressed
slightly, then the key can be pulled forward and comes free. For other
keys, one needs to insert a thin tool between the keys. Note that which
side of key has to be depressed depends on which key it is.
With the key removed, you can see the underlying mechanism, which
consists of little more than a strip of springy metal (hereinafter
spring strip) and an oddly shaped length of plastic with attached to a
u-shapedpiece of metal (the counter-weight). If anything has fallen down
into the keyboard and is interfering with the mechanism, it can be
removed. The green goo is lubricant, and should not be cleaned off.
As far as I can see, it is not possible to remove the oddly shaped piece
of plastic without detaching the end stop for the counter-weight. The
end stop is a strip that extends the width of the keyboard, and is glued
to it. The spring strip metal can be removed and replaced, but unless
it's broken and you have a substitute, there seems little point.
Key replacement is a little more involved than it initially appeared.
Which is to say, I had put everything back together, and was playing the
piano when I noticed there was a problem: The keys I had removed and
replaced were able to move backwards and forwards more than the others,
and sometimes clicked when played.
The problem is that the purpose of the spring-strip is to push the key
backwards. If you just engage the front of the key with the keyboard,
and then slide the key backwards, the tab will engage, and the key will
appear to work normally, but the spring-strip will be trapped under the
back of the key rather than engaged with the key to push it backwards.
So you need to make sure the spring-strip is engaged with the back of
the key. What I found worked was first to slide the key backwards across
the top of the spring strip until I heard the click indicating it had
engaged, and then push the front of the key down and forwards until it
engaged with the front of the keyboard. No great force is required.
Finally pushing the key backwards and pushing downwards at the rear
would make it slot properly into place. This step requires a bit more
pressure. If done properly, the result should be that the key only moves
minimally forwards and backwards, in the same way as the other keys do.
15. Reassembly - the reverse of the above.
When plugging the connector back into the keyboard, note that it will
only go in one way round. Again, be gentle. It shouldn't require much force.
When replacing the right hand block of wood containing the power switch,
you will need to watch where the wires go. Both blocks have metal prongs
at the front, which need to engage into holes in the frame.
When putting the keyboard cover back, and before trying to close it,
make sure that both ends of the axle can reach their rear end stops. If
only one can, then you'll have to lift one end of the axle out of the
slot, and rotate it a bit. Repeat until correct.
The keyboard track clips are mirror images of each other, and are marked
L and R accordingly.
When replacing the fabric speaker cover frame, be careful not to push
where the fabric covers the speakers. Note that there are central
plastic locator pins that have to engage with holes in the speaker
enclosure.
Sylvia.
Sylvia Else
> I spent a couple of hours on this,
Much of it stooping over the innards of the piano, peering at it, a fact
which many previously underused muscles are making abundantly clear to
me today. Memo to self: Do not become a digital piano repair tech.
Sylvia.
Sylvia Else
> right over until it is completed inverted. Make sure there is a clear
> space in which to do this, and note that the enclosure is heavy.
Addendum. Inside the case, there is an metal rod about a foot long, with
two curved hooked ends. The rod is held in place on top of some foam by
twist strips. It can be removed by untwisting the strips, and then used
to hook into the speaker casing and the base so as to hold the speaker
casing upright, rather than letting it fold right over.
Sylvia.
roger....@gmail.com
Roger Duthie
gr3m...@gmail.com
Thanks to this very thorough and detailed instruction set I was able to repair my sons Clavinova and save myself the £80 charge I was quoted. I couldn't find what was causing my key to stick but when I swapped it with one of the lesser used keys, I found they both worked!
Thanks again
Greg
v.khris...@share.epsb.ca
da...@vanmessing.nl
Greetings from The Netherlands.
Daan