Nord Lead A1 – age by serial number?

[MrWriter]

Is there a way to find out the year of manufacture by the serial number on my Nord Lead A1?

[StrangeAeons]

I had been wondering that too, back when I bought my pre-owned A1, so I asked the same question. Unfortunately, the answer is that you need to write Clavia (there's a contact form on their website). And whilst they always replied to my every request and rant, I never got a reply about my synth's age. Perhaps you'll have better luck!

That said, there is a way to get a rough estimate of your Lead's age. Every Nord keyboard has a tiny writing on the main panel which says "Handmade in Sweden by Clavia DMI AB", immediately followed by a version number, which represents the hardware revision: my A1 reports v. 4.3. The stock pics on websites like Thomann seem to show a v. 4.1 model. The chap that sold me his A1 a few months ago told me that he had bought it about four years earlier (which makes sense in terms of hardware revisions since the A1 came out in late 2014). Therefore, if your Lead A1 reports V. 4.3 or higher it's a recent board, otherwise it's been manufactured sometime between 2014 and 2017.

[MrWriter]

Mine says 4.5 and the guy told me he bought it at least three years ago, 2018 or earlier. For the record, I find Nord to be useless when it comes to replying to their online form. I have sent them about five contact form questions in a month and I don't hear, so I won't bother anymore. Thing is, if people say are there keyboards any good my stock answer will always be to point out the flaws with the A1 and I'll always add to these, 'forget customer support, they are rubbish.'

[Mr_-G-]

Just out of curiosity, what were the 5 questions you asked and they did not reply?

[MrWriter]

I asked about ageing the A1 via serial number, no reply, ignored. I also asked why numbers 3 and 4 of first preset library were empty with nothing on them (turns out this unit was faulty so I returned it), again, no response, ignored. I asked if they did a black plastic wiggle leaver that I could replace the horrible wooden thing for, personal, I know, but for me it ruins the look of it, again, no response. I asked if Nord made a sustain pedal and if not, could they recommend one, again, ignored. Can't remember the other questions, there were a few technical ones where I could not get answers in the manual, all ignored.

[Mr_-G-]

As mentioned in their web pages, the technical support is not dealt through Clavia itself but via the distributors, see: https://www.nordkeyboards.com/support and therefore you should email or call them directly: https://www.nordkeyboards.com/distributors

The sustain pedal is mentioned in the Accessories section of their website (where it says that is available for all keyboard products): https://www.nordkeyboards.com/accessories
Anyway, any "normally closed" switch pedal should work.

The serial number, I am not sure it would be something a company would normally reveal. I suppose that the SN is there to track the manufacturing process. What would be the advantage of knowing a date if they gave it away? Have you thought of opening the chassis up and check if there are any dated QC stamps in it? or check if the boards have version numbers? I think that would be more relevant, because a serial number alone and a date would not tell what hardware version those correspond to (if there are indeed several). The boards themselves might have that info.

About the "wooden thing"... it is kind of a special in Nord keyboards, they hold a patent on that pitchstick mechanism and even they had an article about the guy that makes them (there might be a link somewhere in the forum). I never seen or heard of a plastic/kryptonite/whatever version of the pitch stick, so I am pretty sure that the answer is "no", but there is nothing stopping you making your own now that 3D printing is not sci-fi anymore.

If you remember any of the other questions, please post them here. There are lots of knowledgeable people in the forum which are happy to help.

[varignet]

I looked up model number and in a bit confused, mine says on the board where the lcd and buttons are:
Nord Lead A1 Version 0.7
Hand made in Sweden by Clavia
plus there are several stickers showing the 10/2015,
so I suppose end 2015 for me

[Synth Nerd]

On my older Nord leads,NL1/2/3 when I opened them up to clean and service them there usually were Quality control labels on some of the circuit chips,with the Clavia Employees name and date stamp when the chips passed a check,I know this doesn’t give the exact time the keyboards were made but at least gives some idea as to what age the synth is, I haven’t opened up my A1 but I’m sure they probably would have this same QC mark

[monk303]

hello, i created a topic here earlier in the section, but also on a different question
why am i posting in your thread to give an explanation....because at the time of talking to the distributor, they had a 2.3 synthesizer version. and they answered
means it was assembled 2-3 years ago,

I also have 4.5 and they told me that it was 4-5 years ago, although I bought a new one this year 2022, so you can roughly understand that mine, like yours, is 2017-2018 build

[frekvencia]

Mine had a sticker inside with a name and a date. I'd guess the name was the person who assembled it and the date was when it was finished. I don't whwre exactly it is, I bought mine used and the sticker fell out. It might worth a try.