Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Roland FP 30 Strange Sound - Questions

Hello everyone, some weeks ago I posted a thread about a strange sound on my Roland, and I finally got a new one today, the thing is, it's exactly the same, and it was straight out of the box, I am thinking that it is just my technique in combination with not having the Roland stand that makes that sound happen. What are your opinions?

It shouldn't make that sound - could be a defective batch or something ?

My opinion is it's broken. I have a 20 year old DP and I only hear a very slight sound when I do the same thing you are doing in the video. I have played a number of Rolands and although I can't say I ever tried doing that, I don't see how I could have helped but notice that loud a sound during normal playing. Can you go to the store and try one of their floor models?

The thing is, if I play "carefully" it doesn't make that sound, been playing for like 30 mins and it's doing great, but when I press the key hard and let it go it makes that sound.

Do you need to press the key hard, or just release it suddenly? So if you gently held the key down and then released it suddenly, would it make the same noise? Also, I assume it makes the same noise with the piano turned off, is that true?

It could be, but if I keep coming back to the store with the same issue they will eventually just assume that it's normal

Hard and suddenly, but it's really strange because sometimes I try to do it and nothing happens. Which makes me think that it might be a support problem as I am still waiting for the official stand to come. It could also be a "temperature" problem, it's really cold where I live and it looks like the more I play the harder it is for the sound to happen, as soon as I tried it when I took it out of the box it was awful but now after like 1 hour of playing it almost doesn't happen.

Take it back, that is not normal, not even close.

Edit: After the issues with my FP10, I did a lot of research on the PHA4 action, and it's plagued with issues. And yes, they come and go. It's made me not trust Roland. My piano could be fine for two weeks, and than completely [censored] the bed.

Action on my F140R was fine and I don’t recall seeing many - if any - reports of FP 30 issues here either.

Had my FP-30 a year... used for at least an hour a day. NEVER had any issues with it at all... it was on an X stand.

I most certainly wouldn’t have been happy with that noise (I saw the video in your other thread).

Something isn’t right.

Have you tried isolating the piano from the stand using some foam? I recall I had some pipe lagging, cable-tied to the top supports to stop the piano from slipping on the bare metal.

Ps ‘almost’ doesn’t happen isn’t good enough. Shouldn’t happen at all!

I think I am going to email Roland about it

You're wasting your time. Take it back while you can. If you search around the internet, you will find many cases of that action causing problems. I even watched my tech take it apart, and the grease applied was very uneven.

One Reddit Post

Just to update you, went to have a quick go on a Roland RD-300NX today - sharps/flats made the same noise in the upper registers... not in the middle for some reason. It belongs to my piano teacher, so thought I’d try it to give you some feedback.

This thing is at least 5 years old mind... and has a slightly different action, however construction peculiar to the problem could be similar. 5 year old - maybe... brand new... no, not acceptable.

Interestingly, my other half had an FP-50 of similar age (cannot remember the action for the life of me, but could well be the same/similar as on the 300NX) which did not do it at all. That was well used too.

So, that makes one out of three Rolands that I’ve tried (with older actions) that have done it. Obviously the devil is in the detail which anyone could research RE the specifics of the actions if they choose.