Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum What sort of replacement keytops do you recommend?

Was the piano and its keytops manufactured before 1990? Do its key tops qualify for a pre-CITES certificate?

Unfortunately no. The ivories were fitted to a new piano in the mid 90's from old trophy tusk material. I don't think it can be certified from what I've read. It's a real pity actually.

Hi all, I may be buying a grand piano which has ivory keytops on it. As the piano is in another country and I am in Australia, the ivory would probably have to come off and new keytops installed.

I am interested in your thoughts on replacement keytop material and brand. Which ones would you personally choose? Which ones do you install most often? Do you tend to do one piece moulded tops or two piece tops?

I noticed the one piece tops all tend to be the same glossy plastic, whereas to get the ivorite tops, you seem to be limited to two piece tops. Do any of you know of any ivorite one piece keytops? I'm only talking about the white keys, btw. The blacks are fine. What do you think of the commonly available keytops compared to the plastics the major piano makers are using? Perhaps there are really only a few manufacturers of keytops anyway.

I want a classy feeling surface, not cheap slippery plastic. I do like the feel of high end Yamaha plastic(C5,C6,C7), for example. I plan to do the job myself as it doesn't appear terribly difficult.

Who is a good supplier (with online store) for these things?

Any thoughts appreciated.

....I want a classy feeling surface, not cheap slippery plastic. I do like the feel of high end Yamaha plastic(C5,C6,C7), for example. I plan to do the job myself as it doesn't appear terribly difficult.

Don't be fooled by appearances. Doing a good key replacement job by yourself is indeed very difficult if you do not have a mentor at hand watching over your shoulder all through the process. That is why many experienced technicians send out their sets to be replaced by shops that specialize in keys.

I am not trying to scare you, but similar to refinishing a piano, I have never seen an amateur key recovering job that was anywhere near being up to snuff.

If it is a beater piano for your basement, then go right ahead. Anything better, instrument wise, and I would think twice.

Actually, I would not consider it at all.

Ando, the job is certainly not as difficult as a transmission rebuild. The professionals who do this all the time have some machines set up to speed the process, especially in prepping the keys. I can square and plane the keys using a decent table saw... mills and routers can be used also, and there are even a couple proprietary machines made which can do this along with associated trimming and notching also.

Sometimes the keys need some filler because wood gets ripped off when removing the tops and fronts. The plastic covers are quite uniform, unfortuantely the wooden keys often are not. Sometimes the tops are not square to the sides and techs will bump the balance pins over to poorly compensate. Instead, this is an opportunity to true up the tops to properly remedy the problem. Rarely have I done a set that didn't need trimming afterwards since the covers are made to accomodate the largest keys out there and overhang the rest.

The main problems DIYers have is that theres not much room for trial and error...they give you 52 covers for 52 keys. Secondly, you should be familiar with the glue and how it works, how much is too much or too little ect...
Hand files can be used for trimming, but that requires some dexterity to avoid ugly notches and ridges on the sides and is quite labour intensive. Poorly set up power machines on the other hand can melt the plastic, burn or chip it.

It would be highly advisable to get tips from a pro on how to do it as opposed to gleening obscure information off the internet. I've seen some pretty scary looking recover jobs done by DIYers and they actually thought they did a good job on it so take well intended advice with a healthy grain of salt.

That looks rather nice, Ryan. Did you have to paint the wooden surfaces white before using those translucent tops? Or can you just use a white adhesive to attach them?