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Hi everyone!

I've been annoyed for quite some time now by one (occasionally) sticky key, and by another one making a ticking noise every time it is played.

So a while ago I went to a music shop with a repair department, but one month later the problem returned, so now I thought I'd open it up myself.

However I'm not really certain about how to get a key out. I took some photographs and hoped some of you could help me out

First this, just about every key looks like this:
Beneath the white from the keys, there are these broken plastic things, I don't really know but you can't really miss it when you see the photo. Is that a bad sign or something, or doesn't it matter?

Alright, onto the keys themselves. The following picture has been taken from the position behind the keyboard. So you're looking from the upper side of the key (on the top of the photograph) to the lower side (on the bottom of the photograph)

You see these triangles/square things, here is the keybed from the side:

Now, when I push the mentioned triangle/square thing, this happens:

On the left you see there is some sort of metal part getting curved. And there's a couple of things moving of course.

So my question is, how do I get these keys out? Or how can I stop them from making a ticking noise / from being sticky?

Thank you in advance


If I made a linguistic mistake; English is not my first language but you can always tell me so I can learn

Ah, couldn't have been any easier. Just had to pull out the metal lip.
So now i'm pulling out all the 88 keys, will clean things up afterwards and hopefully somewhere along the road I can find the cause of the ticking noise and of the stickyness...

Goof for you! Please keep us posted.

Well, the G key doesn't make it's noise any more. I'm not sure what solved the problem, but possibly it was a small piece of graphite from a mechanical pencil. I use them often when playing on the piano, so it could be that a little piece fell in there once.
In the end I removed all the 88 keys, cleaned up all the mess underneath it and I cleaned the white and black keys themselves from all the filthy stuff (though keeping most of the grease on it, which probably is there for a reason I'd say).

After that I put everything together again. The metal pieces were all bended, so I put the metal piece from the sticky key upside down. That way it gave more pressure and now the key pops back up again. I'm not really sure though how long this will last, and I'm not sure either about the actual cause of the stickyness. Maybe it doesn't stick anymore because I cleaned most of the area.

Well if it's going to stick again I'll just open her up again, now I know how to do it it will go faster next time.

snakechaser,

It seems there has been a known problem with sticky keys affecting some Clavinovas. According to the website below, Yamaha provide replacement keys FOC for affected instruments (but only via authorised repairers).

http://www.mikebarden.com/view.php/area/9/yamaha-clavinova-sticky-keys

Hi, I need to open my clp 360 which may be similar to the 550. Please can you tell me which screws to remove to open the top. Thanks Jo.

Based on the more recent CVPs I have seen, there are "hidden" diagonally positioned screws just under the top cover at both end corners. Use a flashlight to shine into the corner gaps between the top cover and the body/keyboard cover. You should be able to see one blackened screw in each corner. Simple, easy and smart way to secure the top cover.

Hi, I have a yamaha clp300 witch has the same mechanic I saw in the picture. To remove the keys is very simple and I wonder what kind of grease looks like the picture above (do not seems to be from yamaha). The grease should be made of teflon found in some food grease, but is expensive (a yamaha technician told me, because here in Brazil we could not import the grease made by yamaha). Comercial trade problem.

Well, to remove the key you must push that little stain plate and remove it. After that you will find inside of the key (hidden by that little stain plate) a little piece of plastic that you must pull (very gentle)to unlock the key. After that put a litght pressure in the top of the head of the key and pull back the key out. Done

I clean my keys entirely and put these food grease (with teflon in the formula to keep wet and lubricated) very little in the parts where tke key makes a contact with other parts. After that I don´t have any more problems.

I´ve already tried others grease, even based of silicon... but did not give a good results, its essencial and a MUST to use a grease based of teflon.

Best Regards