Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Yamaha P140 sluggish keys : how to fix?

I bought a second hand Yamaha P140 4 months ago, as my first DP. Now that I gained much more experience at playing piano, it becomes obvious that the keyboard has some significant defects : all the keys are noisy when firmly pressed or released and, most importantly, some of the keys have a slightly more sluggish action than others, making playing on the P140 harder than it should be and very much less satisfying. I assume whatever dampens the key when it is firmly pressed or released (some sort off wool pads, I believe) has hardened, causing the noise, and the sluggish action might be caused by some debris and dust. Would it be advisable to open it up and attempt to clean it or should I just list it on Fleebay and buy a brand new P155? Option #1 might save $500-$600, but I wouldn't want to worsen its condition...

Cheers !

Hi Bambell,

Replacing the felts (there are two of them) by yourself is absolutely possible, provided that you find a place to buy the replacements from. Search the internet for suggestions.

You may for example start from this page and this page to have an idea of how that can be done.

Most Yamahas should be pretty similar.

Good luck,
Paolo

I don't know specifically about Yamahas, but noisy keys can be caused by a number of things, such as parts becoming loose and knocking together. The video linked by Paolo70 is useful if it does look like the felts are the problem. If so, I'd expect the noise to be more pronounced on the commonly-played keys, rather than all of them. The sluggish keys can probably be repaired by cleaning and re-greasing the joints. It may be worth finding out the specifications of the grease used on the joint in question, so that it behaves the same as the other keys.

Go ahead and open it up - it's hard to break anything so long as you take reasonable care (in particular regarding fragile wire connectors between the various parts). Sadly, repair guides are hard to come by if they exist at all, so you're pretty much on your own, but if you do work it out, post details here to help anyone else with the same problem.

It all depends upon what you have more of ... time or money.

Nothin' but time ? Give it a shot.

Flush with money ? Forget it. Sell it.

Thanks for the input, guys. I've been playing a lot more with the keyboard lately and have now realized that the problem is a bit more complicated than that. Some of the keys have a sluggish/harder action, but only when pressed with an angle (not perfectly vertically). Do you guys still think re-greasing joints would help? Thanks.

Hi Bambell,

I think that nothing happens without a good reason, so you will definitely gain some insight about the cause of the problem (and most likely find a solution) as soon as you look into it!

The issue may be just due to lubrication as you suggest, but might also be due to dirt or broken keys. In all cases there exist DIY solutions.

Ciao,
Paolo

Regarding the key noises, they can normally be a little loud on this line. I made a video for another post showing the noises made when pressing and releasing keys on my Yamaha P155 which is very similar to the P140, it might be helpful for comparison:

http://youtu.be/XFSdmMkbxNw

Thanks for the posts. It looks like the previous owner has left over 4 guitar picks inside the keyboard... Removing them has fixed some oddities there was, but I did more harm than good. Few of the keys I had to pull out now make a squeaking sound when firmly pressed and I can't seem to find out what causes this... Will check back tomorrow but I'm not very positive I'll manage to fix this.

Hi Bambell,

I don't know where the squeaking comes from, but it might be simply due to a lack of grease. I have uses vaseline on my keys with good results so far.

Another thing that I suggest you to ensure that you properly engaged the key holding spring when reinserting the keys. To check that, you can try to push the top of the key (the part that is usually hidden behind the fallboard) towards the front of the keyboard (i.e. towards the player side) in a horizontal fashion. If the spring is properly engaged, you will feel a strong resistance to that movement. I learned it's quite easy to miss that point when reinserting keys, with the result that the keys do not move completely freely.

Ciao,
Paolo