Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Clicking noise coming from my Kawai CA-97: see on video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNaHGPPYpU4

The "click" can be heard when the piano is on, but only when I strike a key hard and suddenly. I've only noticed within the past month that some of the keys can be made to make this click sound.

Does anyone else's CA-97 do this? Should I contact Kawai? Thanks.

Do you also notice it while playing or only when you slap your piano?

The hammer is launched faster the more you play upfront instead of at the end of a key. To me it sounds like some felts inside ( i dont know wich, because the CA - 97 also uses a damper mechanism ( absent in the higher register like a normal grand ? ..... not sure, because i haven't seen it myself)
Silent piano's set on silent have this habit occasionally, striking the key hard will result in an extreme bounce to the silent strip from the damper. The felt is not capable to dampen the sound properly and a ticking sound is heard when played with genuine effort.

This is of course one of the possibilities.

Make sure your key doesn't hit the iron front, it happened to me, althaugh not really visable. The gap must be at least 2mm between the keys and the iron front.

The felts used in high quality grands all have different purposes, some have more hair, some more wool. The more wool the softer and a better damping result, while other parts need firm hairy felts to " catch" other parts during repetition.

What i saw when opening my MP8 this week is that they used some synthetic felts, good but not the best out there.
There are hundreds of felts and sometimes replacing one piece of felt in a piano is all that is needed to get rid of annoying clicking and ticking.

Good luck with solving this problem !

This click happens when I'm playing, but only rarely. However, it seems like it's getting easier for me to make this click now than what it was just a couple weeks ago. I hope that you are right and it's just the sound of some felt. Maybe they are loosening up somehow?

Contact Kawai. My CA97 unit doesn't have that clicking, even if I strike very hard.

It's possible that the caps are not completely glued down and so when you slap it like that and hit the edge, it causes the caps to lift from the key in the middle and then it slaps back into position, making that sound. Certainly there's no reason to ever play like that, but it should be fixed regardless.

Contact Kawai, it should be easy for them to fix for you.

Hello pianopap,

As others have noted, the instrument's keyboard action should not produce that sound. My advice would be to contact the dealer from whom the instrument was purchased and/or the Kawai distributor in your country (I'm assuming from your accent that this will be Kawai America) to request assistance.

Kind regards,
James
x

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will be contacting them.

Hi pianopap
You are not the first one with clicking Kawai keyboard. Read the thread Kawai Grand Feel key clinic.
There is a lot of information there about clicking and other problems, what causes it and how to fix it.
But if your piano is still under warranty you should of course require that Kawai fix it.