Nord User Forum

Gave it open heart surgery. Most intense hour of my life. One note hits its peak velocity far too easy and it was driving me insane.

Followed the guides and advice here, took the keyboard apart,exposed the key contact and found a piece of dirt on the key contact in question. Got it off with air and a Q tip, made sure it was all clean (as well as the rubber strip) then put it all back together again.

Nothing broke, some of the chassis screws fought to go back on, but I got it done, turned it on. It still worked. Tested all the keys. They still worked! Tested the bad key; it...was still doing the same thing. Mustn't have been thorough enough. I'm not doing all that again and due to gigs I don't have the time to send it half way across the country to a service centre so I'll just make do with it, even though it's driving me crazy and makes me not want to play it. Seriously, so many of the bands I play in use chords that use that middle D and it sticks out like a sore thumb every time I play it in a chord or lick.

No real reason for my posting...just disappointed and wanted to tell someone.

Sorry for you

Hope you’ll be able to repair it

Regards

I have heard of a spec of dirt causing a Nord key to not work at all, or to only work for organ.
But I have never heard of a spec of dirt causing a note to hit its peak velocity too easily.
So I don't think that the problem is that you did not clean it well enough.

I went thru the same thing last year with a couple of notes right in the middle of my E3. After a first attempt at cleaning the contacts (there was a noticeable, small piece of something that I removed) I still had 1 note triggering a lot louder than the rest, and decided if I was going to go and open the board again I might as well just replace the whole contact pcb.

When the replacement arrived and I began to disassemble the board again, I decided I would try and blow everything out 1 more time. The 2nd cleaning seemed to have fixed the offending note. I now have a spare pcb for the upper half of my board for when/if I ever need it.

Things I learned along the way...

1. Pablo is the Man.
2. This problem will become more likely as your gig schedule increases. (See also Murphy's Law)
3. Contacts do eventually wear out. It is/will be far easier and better in the long run to just replace the pcb.
4. It doesn't take much to create this problem. I am convinced that there may have been something left behind the first time which I did not see.
5. Patience, Gumption, and this forum are your best friends when attempting to clean key contacts. I have been thru this process more than a few times, and I never encountered a screw that required more force than screwing in a light bulb to tighten.

Please let us know if, when, and how you get this resolved.

Nadroj, if you already have opened up the keyboard I would try again using isopropyl alcohol and a Q tip. I know there are some precautions/warnings about using isopropyl alcohol on the forum, but I have performed this procedure multiple times on a Nord Electro 2 and Nord Electro 3 and never had any problems with removing excess carbon from that contact strip. Make sure to clean both the PCB and the rubber contact side. If that fails then you could replace the PCB/contract strip as suggested.

Max velocity triggering is a symptom of dirt/debris/dried beer (in my case) on the carbon contacts.

harmonizer wrote:I have heard of a spec of dirt causing a Nord key to not work at all, or to only work for organ.
But I have never heard of a spec of dirt causing a note to hit its peak velocity too easily.
So I don't think that the problem is that you did not clean it well enough.

My understanding is that a torn or dirty bubble contact can give you a velocity value of 0 or 127.

HI. If I was you, I Will give that dirt a second fight !!
post71862.html#p71862

I did that last night. Three gotchas:
1. You need TORX T15 and T20 bits for most of the screws.
2. Take a picture of the ribbon connectors, especially the bass ribbon. For reasons known only to an engineer in Sweden, the female jack is not as long as the male plug on the bass ribbon, meaning you have extra pins. If you don't plug it in correctly, you will be missing notes.
3. Have a mechanical pencil or a very small Allen wrench to poke the rubber tabs back into the contact board. They probably squish down when you screw the board back onto the key bed so you don't have to get the rubber perfectly flat, but you have to get every tab into its hole before you fasten the board.

I have to agree that Pablo is the man!

Nadroj wrote:Gave it open heart surgery. Most intense hour of my life. One note hits its peak velocity far too easy and it was driving me insane.

Followed the guides and advice here, took the keyboard apart,exposed the key contact and found a piece of dirt on the key contact in question. Got it off with air and a Q tip, made sure it was all clean (as well as the rubber strip) then put it all back together again.

Nothing broke, some of the chassis screws fought to go back on, but I got it done, turned it on. It still worked. Tested all the keys. They still worked! Tested the bad key; it...was still doing the same thing. Mustn't have been thorough enough. I'm not doing all that again and due to gigs I don't have the time to send it half way across the country to a service centre so I'll just make do with it, even though it's driving me crazy and makes me not want to play it. Seriously, so many of the bands I play in use chords that use that middle D and it sticks out like a sore thumb every time I play it in a chord or lick.

No real reason for my posting...just disappointed and wanted to tell someone.

Same problem here on 4th B from bottom. Nord Electro 3 73. Sending healing vibes your way. About to replace my PCB hoping that will solve the problem! I'll keep ya posted.