My Motif 8 Classic makes a clicking noise when you play certain keys on the keyboard, mostly in the middle and upper range.  The clicking noise sounds like it is coming from under the keys in the upper range of the keyboard when you are playing keys in the middle range of the keyboard, as well as the upper range.  Help!!!!  This has gotten really frustrating recently because the noise is audible even when you are playing with headphones on.  Is there something I can do to fix this problem?

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

On the old A90s I use, a serious clicking noise was an indicator that the felts had worn out. Could it be that with the age of the board, the felts on yours have worn out too so that the hammer is hitting something hrad rather than a nice soft felt.

Your thoughts?

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

The “age of the board”? If it’s a Motif8 it couldn’t possibly be more than seven years old! (My niece plays a Sears violin more than a century old--handed down from my grandfather to my sister to her. It’s never been serviced, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.)

I looked up “A90” on wikipedia.org and got:
____________--

* A90 road, which is a major road in Scotland which runs from Edinburgh to Fraserburgh
* Autostrada A90, the official designation of the Grande Raccordo Anulare, the orbital motorway that encirces Rome
* A90 TRACON, an FAA Air Traffic Control facility in Merrimack, NH
* Dutch Defence, in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
* Austin A90 motor car, either the Austin Atlantic or Austin Westminster
* A-90 Orlyonok, a Soviet model of Ekranoplan
_____________
It seems more likely that the “A90s” to which you refer are some sort of electronic keyboard instrument, and since you say you still use them, does that mean you’ve replaced the felts? How or where?

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

Scotch,
alas wikipedia makes no mention of the venerable Roland A90, a workhorse 88 note midi controller which if used with the additional epansion board give you a very useable stage piano with the ability to layer up to 4 sounds internally and control up to 4 other midi systems via the 4 midi outs.

As with all things mechanical some work has to be done from time to time. Even your niece’s violin will have had strings replaced. On any acoustic piano, from time to time hammers will break, strings will break, felts will die. The older the piano, the more likely this is to be a regular occurence.

A clicking keyboard on a digital synth may have something to do with something loose in and around the keybed (I dropped a coin in between two notes ones - it made a dreadful racket until it was rescued), but if it mostly affects those notes which are played a lot and played hard then it may be due to worn felts in that area and yes, they can be replaced. The ones for the A90 come pre-glued, like double sided sticky tape - you peel off the protective waxed strip and stick the felt into position (having removed the old felt first). Of course you have to take the board apart first, and remove the keys and hammers. But the result of that is a keyboard which plays like new, so it is worth the effort - took me about an hour and a half to do it all.

Hope this helps clear up this issue /forums/images/icons/smile.gif alt=

Cheers

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

This is of some concern to me because my Motif keyboard has been getting steadily noisier.

Where did you get the new felt pads--if you don’t mind divulging (and where might I get Motif8 felt pads)?

Do you think playing with worn felt will ultimately damage the keys?

About the Roland A90: This is a touch-sensitive keyboard? Do you actually own more than one or was that a typo? How would you rate the action on this keyboard?

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

I forgot to add my reply to the initial response to the forum.  Here it is:

The thing I didn’t mention is that this Motif 8 had this problem from the beginning, it just seems to have gotten worse with time.  I was just wondering if there is an easy way for the user to service this part of the instrument, or at least have a look at it.

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

Scotch,
I have 2 A90s - both are now around 10+ years old. I had over the years become a dab hand at whipping the screws out of the base plate and changing broken hammers. Having worked with someone on changing a whole set of felts and hammers on an even older RD500, I saw that this was doable by someone with a modicum of DIY skills.
A set of hammers and the relevant felts were ordered from the parts dept of Roland UK - a very helpful chap there talked me through what was needed. Of course, each hammer is cheap, but when you add up 88 of them it comes to a reasonable amount.

Yamaha actions are different and as of yet I have not had cause to take either my Motif 7 or my CP33 apart, though I have taken a venerable P100 clavinova apart. It had a few different features but still looked to be take-apart-able by someone with good DIY skills. Patchcord has from time to time posted up some useful info on this as has another guy recently - I’ll try and track his posts down and point you in the right direction - his included videos of taking an 8 apart and changing a key - useful.

Koorah,
If your 8 is outside of its warrantee period, then with the power cable unplugged, it is not too hard to take the keyboard apart and at least have a look to see if there is an obvious reason for the noise. If you take the casing off, it is not too difficult to remove a key or two and have a look at the state of the hammers and felts. Replacement keys and hammers are individually quite cheap. If its something you feel confident in doing, you can save yourself a heap on service bills. Touch nothing electronic though - Be warned - static electricity kills chips. Whatever you do, it is at your own risk.

Cheers

Re: keyboard makes clicking noise

OK, the poster I was looking for was Salsamac and he has posted up videos on the link in This post which show how to take an ES8 apart - the ES8 is the same keybed as the classic 8 so the instructions should hold. Salsa’s post is at the bottom.

Cheers