Nord Leads and Yellow Keys

[Ricoche]

Hi everyone,

I picked up a second Nord Lead 2 because the price was just too irresistible here in Japan. It had yellow keys and it made me wonder a bit. I have A LOT of synths and definitely with all my gear the Nord Lead yellows the most with regards to the keys. I'm curious. Is the yellow color due to sun, smoke, or age? Any idea why the Nords "might" yellow a little faster? I know they can't be cleaned and I pretty much don't mind at all, but it seems most Nord Leads I find ( 1 and 2 ) have yellow keys in Japan unless they are straight out of the box. Interesting.

Thanks,

Jim

Note my old Ensoniq SQ80, EPS Classic, and Roland SH-1 have Yellowish keys as well.

[ljefe]

In the world of antiques they call this patina, and it's a sign of true vintage
Unfortunately the word 'plastic' covers a huge variety of different materials with different properties, but from what I understand, Fatar keys are made of ABS. If you remove the keyboard and examine one of the keys, you may even see 'ABS' stamped into the moulding, which would confirm it.
Assuming it is ABS, there is a simple recipe that you could try which is based on hydrogen peroxide and UV light - the other ingredients are simply to make a viscous paste so that you can control where you apply it. Here's a link from a starwars geek who goes through the process: http://www.instructables.com/id/Restori ... will-need/
My disclaimer is that I haven't tried this method, but I would be confident to do so if I had any old gear that I hadn't already sold off!

[ljefe]

Wow, neolithic, that is so interesting. It looks like a bit of trouble, but still could be very useful information.

[AdamStage2]

I'd say its more a case of exposure to Sun/Smoke than age,although you don't know the history of a synth if your buying secondhand so it could be any number of things however I have several older Nords (Lead 1/2)which are fast approaching almost 20 years old now,neither of them have yellowing or faded keys,infact non of my Nords have any signs of that,both the Lead 1/2 have been owned from new.I've always taken great care of my gear,kept them clean and maintained them,so I suppose its pot luck how they've been treated when your not the original owner.

My studio has no windows so lacks natural sunlight so have never exposed my gear to direct sunlight other than the odd open air gig,which have normally been done under a Stage set/canopy of some sort so no direct sun exposure plus I'm a non smoker,nor have I ever exposed my gear to such toxins,the keys are fine,same with every other synth I own.

I did once buy a secondhand Korg Z1 which had fading yellowish/Browning keys,the guy said it was down to age,which when i collected it from him knew it was down to smoke exposure as his property reaked of it,after opening the Z1 to do a service/clean of it,the unit also had the remnants of smoke exposure inside with a sticky layering on the circuitry which i managed to clean off with some IA,the synth absolutely reaked inside,after a few weeks of airing and cleaning the synth no longer had that horrible stench,and was more in a reasonable cleaner state although I couldn't do anything with the coloured faded keys(too much cost to replace them all with a new set).

You could always try and find a broken NL2 with a decent keybed and simply swap them out,easy enough to do.