korg krome 88 keybed complaints

[demonhyde]

the actual problem when you have velocity sensing issues is that a small amount of lithium grease has wound up in a particular contact. I have found that by wiping the crap out of each contact (both the black carbon on the strip, and the pcb) with a dry q-tip does rather nicely for fixing any volocity problem keys. before fastening the top back on, test all the keys and re-wipe as necessary for any keys with residual velocity curve problems..

sometimes hammering the key repeatedly will remedy the situation, given the amount of lithium grease in the contact zone is small enough, but for anything else use the method above.

[sceedigh]

the actual problem when you have velocity sensing issues is that a small amount of lithium grease has wound up in a particular contact. I have found that by wiping the crap out of each contact (both the black carbon on the strip, and the pcb) with a dry q-tip does rather nicely for fixing any volocity problem keys. before fastening the top back on, test all the keys and re-wipe as necessary for any keys with residual velocity curve problems..

sometimes hammering the key repeatedly will remedy the situation, given the amount of lithium grease in the contact zone is small enough, but for anything else use the method above.

I am also experiencing velocity sensing problems with my KORG Krome 88 and it's getting more and more annoying as time goes by. Since I mostly play more classical piano it's extremely annoying when trying to play a lower velocity note which results in a maximum velocity (fortissimo) note! This really makes my Krome unusable for any serious work...

In my case the Krome has never been outside my apartment after I bought it brand new which means it has only been exposed to normal dust (I try to clean it regularly). It also seems only the black keys are affected and mainly the middle octaves (around 10 black keys in total with varying degree of sensing issues). If I hammer the black keys for a while it gets a little better but it never goes away entirely which is really frustrating since I always hit a number of bad notes when playing.

I've been planning to take the Krome to a keyboard repair shop here in Stockholm (of course there's no warranty left) but I've now finally taken the time to disassemble it on my own to try the tip in the above post of using a dry q-tip to clean the black carbon on the strip as well as the PCB which had a fair amount of dust on them. I'm not sure I did this correctly though as the problem still remains afterwards. Also, I couldn't really see any lithium grease on the PCB or the carbon on the strip. Could this mean I missed something in the cleaing process or is the keybed design really that bad?

Here are some images of the dust on the carbon and the PCB before cleaning (also note the lithium grease below the PCB):





My general feeling is that I should have removed the rubber contacts to clean the PCB below them but I wasn't sure how to do that in a safe way (I'm not a keyboard mechanic).

Thanks a lot for any input...!

[voip]

The carbon contacts are underneath the strip, and that part of the strip and the PCB will need to be cleaned or the strip replaced. The keyboard strips come in rows of 12 and lift off and refit quite easily.

Do an internet search for "korg keyboard contact strips" and select images in the search results. It might be possible to find an image showing the strip pulled back.

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[sceedigh]

The carbon contacts are underneath the strip, and that part of the strip and the PCB will need to be cleaned or the strip replaced. The keyboard strips come in rows of 12 and lift off and refit quite easily.

Do an internet search for "korg keyboard contact strips" and select images in the search results. It might be possible to find an image showing the strip pulled back.

.

Thanks a lot for your feedback! I finally managed to remove all the strips and tried to clean the carbon contacts as well as the strips with some q-tips. Unfortunately this made no difference at all to the velocity issues.

I even tried cleaning with a pencil eraser but that didn't help either (actually it seemed to make it worse):

http://oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/korg ... lean2.html

My guess is that the rubber strips are simply worn out after a few years of playing (not more than a few hours a week) which is really quite astounding for a keyboard in this price range. My previous keyboard was an old KORG 01/W which never had similar problems, apparently because it doesn't use these kinds of low quality rubber strips.

I will simply have to look into replacing the bad strips as a last resort. Fortunately, I managed to make the whole keyboard a lot more playable again by switching places of the good and bad strips. The worst strip was in the middle octaves so I moved it to the lowest octave which made everything a lot better!

Here are some photos of the strips and the carbon contacts before cleaning:





I found replacement strips on order here:

http://www.guitar-parts.com/catalog/kor ... 0500504102

[voip]

Just for interest, the grease type used on these keyboards is not lithium grease, but a perfluoropolyether-type grease; examples of this group being Yamaha key grease and Krytox. They offer much better operating characteristics and life, especially with certain plastics and rubbers.

I think there's going to be quite a market for these keyboard contact strips, as they're not the most durable technology out there. The Korg 01/W, M1, Wavestation, and others of that era use Yamaha FS keybeds containing precious metal plated contacts with an intentionaly roughened surface that should last a long time, if looked after.

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[jabberpony]

I'm having the same problem as sceedigh on my Krome 88 - several notes jump to full velocity without my having played them hard. Has anyone successfully fixed this yet? Thanks!

[sceedigh]

I'm having the same problem as sceedigh on my Krome 88 - several notes jump to full velocity without my having played them hard. Has anyone successfully fixed this yet? Thanks!

I finally invested in new rubber contacts for all 88 keys which cost me around 100 USD (1000 SEK) and replaced them myself (otherwise I would probably have paid 200 USD for the new rubber AND replacement and also have to transport my Krome to the keyboard repair shop).

This finally fixed all my issues and my Krome is now as good as new!

Happily enjoying playing the new Keyscape C7 Grand Piano on my Krome keyboard...

[jabberpony]

That's great news, sceedigh. I look forward to a similarly successful resolution for my Krome 88. Thanks for taking the time to reply and also for posting the tip about the Keyscape.

[Kronos2ison]

Just be lucky you don't have a Krome 61 key. The key bed hinges out side of the key bed. Meaning the back of the key does not depress. You can only press the front of the key. Talk about simular Casio $150 toy like keyed. The 88 Krome is actually pretty nice compared to the 61.

You can't get so hung up on where you'd rather be, that you forget to make the most of where you are.