Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai CA78 key action concerns

So I'm in the market for a proper digital piano, and after some research and testing, I initially landed on the Kawai CA78. The key action is superb, and it has a sleek, buttonless design (Albeit a touchscreen, but when it's off, the screen is much less distinct in the design than buttons).

While saving up the money to actually buy it, i spent the time doing some more extensive research, and I stumbled upon a YouTube video displaying a key-action issue, where the keys were uneven in alignment and sound. One of the comments read:



And



Now I was wondering, how much truth is there to this? How often will it need to be regulated? How expensive is it to do it? I live in Norway, so a Kawai technician seems a bit too good to be true in my case, but if I do it myself, it will void my warranty.

The commenter states that all digital pianos with wooden action face this issue, so is this also true for the Yamaha CLP line (645 and up) or the Casio GP 400/500?

If so, what is the best digital piano within my budget (Kawai CA78 being as expensive as I can go) that is truly maintainance-free?

Not having to maintain the instrument is one of my key selling points in choosing a digital piano over an accoustic (along with headphone capability). Also, has anyone experienced any other Kawai CA 78/98/CS11/NV10 issues? Such as the screen brightness dimming with age, or burn-in marks?

my current issue with GF2 is that the keys start to have uneven height

Thank you for the reply!
If you don't mind me asking, how long have you owned the piano? And how often/how long have you played on it? I.E how many hours have you played before the issue manifested?

I have an NU1 with acoustic action. This means felt bushings and felt/paper washers at the front and balance rail. I play every day maybe 1+ hours, for the last seven years. The keys remain level, and gaps equal. There is more play in the bushings in the middle and ends of the action but nothing to worry about, yet. Felt washers and and also felt bushings can be purchased, and this type of regulation is do-able by the practical enthusiast. I would worry about other things unless there is history.

Key height on a GF2 board is regulated by paper punchings placed over the balance rail pins. I've made a few adjustments to mine (using 3-ring hole punch reinforcement labels of all things). As spanishbuddha says, should be an easy fix and not indicative of a larger problem.

For a comparison, this pic is from the NU1 I play (it's ~2 years old and gets a good amount of playtime):



There are a few keys that have developed height differences, and the gaps between the white keys are all across the board now

Still plays nicely though.

I own it for about 1.5 year...
I haven't played a lot lately, only 30mins, twice a week . But last year I had some projects and played it about 4 hours everyday for 6 months.
The thing looks obvious after I left it untouched for a month

Interesting, I'll give it a try

Best of luck. Here's the GF1 action from my MP11 - you can see the key removed and the center rail pin where punchings can be added to regulate key height:



Hint - if you remove a key and the hammer swings down to the floor, have a magnet handy to easily grab the hammer and pull it back up.

Faiz, may I ask if you can post a picture, please?

Kind regards,
James
x

Sure James!
but everything is okay now

before


after

Thank you Faiz!



It seems that the D (fourth white key from the left) is very slightly lower than the other keys.

But what happened to the Eb key?

Kind regards,
James
x

It is actually quite strange, the 5th key (D) is slightly lower but the 7th key (E) a little bit raised. So I just moved the washer from the 7th key to the 5th key, and the 7th key doesn't have any washer underneath, but it works!
for the other keys I use paper like Gombessa's advice

I removed it, in that pic I had already dismantled the piano

for full pictures of naked Kawai CA98
http://forum.pianoworld.com//ubbthreads.php/galleries/2868205.html#Post2868205

Thanks Faiz!

So white key length = 24cm, and black key length = 21cm.

I'll use these measurements to calibrate my portable key-length (to pivot point) measuring device.

The entire key stick length is more than 30cm.
Sorry I forgot to take pict of the measurement

The important measurement is the length to the pivot point. You got that.

Some people complain about the spongy feel of the key. I assume the cause is from the hammer and the sensor because there still few millimeters distance between the keystick and the keybed even after the hammer in full contact with the sensors, when the key is forced to touch the keybed the hammer squish the rubber at the sensor even more

Is there any tut for opening the ca 78/98 and fixing the keys?