Nord Piano 3 Key knocking noise

[DanielD71]

UPDATE on Nord Piano 3 replacement.

Sweetwater shipped the new Nord Piano 3 two days ago, and it arrived today. It actually has a broken key. I'm not even shocked at this point, just listless and getting very discouraged. I believe Nord makes fantastic products, but this Fatar action they use is either the most prone to problems of any action EVER, or, the quality control at Fatar is very bad. I own a Nord Electro 5D 73. I love it, LOVE IT. I wanted the same awesome Nord Piano sounds in a weighted keyboard, with the triple pedal, but here I am on number two and I've got problems right out of the box. Feel free to view the video below. This is the NEW replacement.





I WANT to love this keyboard, but I am getting really discouraged by what I'm seeing here. I will try ONE MORE TIME with another Nord Piano 3, and if that one isn't as it should be, I'll have to pursue other options, maybe the new Korg Grandstage.

To be clear, my opinion of Nord as a company is extremely high. These instruments are built like tanks, well constructed, sound incredible, and have my highest recommendation, just not for the Piano 3 at this point. However, I am willing to accept that I might have the worst luck in the world... and try ONE MORE TIME to get a good Piano 3.

ROUND THREE, here we go!

I'm sorry for you, when you pay a lot of $, you want to have zero issues with your new keyboard.
I made a 7 hours trip to test my NS288EX this spring, the music store owner told me that it was free shipping but I said to him if there is an issue, I won't have to ship it back.....

I'll do the same this September for the NS3....

Hopefully, you're next one will made you happy...

[Rychubil]

Few days ago, I played first time on NP3. I had NP2 any time ago. My impression was that the keyboard of NP3 is more quiet than NP2.
Is it something made with damping of the NP3 keyboard?

[Macsaint777]

Nord Family,

I regretfully decided not to go another round with the Nord Piano 3. I am certain most of these instruments are 100% fine, but I've had two of them now and both were absolutely not fine. I even opened one of them up and found that part of the plastic piece in the Fatar TP 40 H was missing, causing the hammer mechanism to scrape the side of the housing it is in. I made a video of that, which you can see below. I'm amazed that I had two brand new Nord Piano 3s shipped to me, and both had key action issues, the latter of which was worse than the first. I do still have an Electro 5D 73, which I love and use daily. As a company, I think Nord is fantastic, but something is seriously wrong in Quality Control for these keyboards to leave the factory in this condition. Every other aspect of the Nord Piano 3 is FANTASTIC, but until the Nord piano 4, I'm done for now. I may look into a stage 3 at some point, but at this point, I have placed a preorder for a Korg Grandstage. Two Roland RD-2000s, now Two Nord Piano 3s, lets hope things go better with Japan!

and

Cheers,


Ben

[Dave Ferris]

Ben, either the quality control is just gone and there is a serious production flaw with this "new & improved" Fatar action on the NP3, or you've had incredibly bad luck.

In my opinion , Clavia should make this up to you by personally getting in touch and making absolutely sure you have a 100% defect free action on the NP3.

Like I said, I'd be surprised if the Korg fulfilled you a year out. They have never been praised for their pianos. You want the NP3 deep down, they should make it right for you whatever it takes imo.

That's quite unbelievable of what you've had to endure with all of this.

Another alternative is If you can get by with the CP4 for gigs, maybe forget the concept of a "stage piano" for home altogether ?

The Avantgrand is very expensive but the Kawai CS11 is around half of the N2 last time I checked. Or the Casio Hybrid is even less. I liked the Kawai better then Casio myself.

[Macsaint777]

Dave,

I thought about what you wrote, and then called Sweetwater. I asked them to personally open every Nord Piano 3 box they had in stock and test them until they found one that made ZERO noise and had nothing abnormal going on. I sent them my three videos and said if the Nord Piano 3s you have are doing anything like you see here, then leave me down for that Korg Grandstage, and I'll roll the dice when the time comes. But you were right, I do want the NP3 deep down! I don't hold Clavia responsible for the issues, and I've not attempted to communicate with them directly as I did with the Nord Piano 2 problems I had, but Sweetwater Tech Support said they would carefully check the Nord Piano stock they had and if they found that this was a re-occuring problem that was really obvious, they would contact Clavia and file an official report, since something was obviously very wrong somewhere in the assembly either in Sweden, or Italy. So, I am holding my breath now as they spend the next few hours hunting for a new Nord Piano 3 that fulfills my requirements (which are not unreasonable, just a 3000.00 Nord that performs like a 3000.00 Nord!) and then we will go from there.

Listening to The Korg Kronos Pianos, I have never been a big fan of that SGX 1,2 engines, so your words are wise and timely. The Grandstage looks interesting for sure, and I may yet purchase one if all this turns out to be a waste, but thank you for your thoughts! I wouldn't have presumed to ask for a pre-shipment inspection before hand. Like most music companies, I assumed Sweetwater would say no and claim they had to sell anything they opened as "Open Box"... but now that I think about it, how else would they make sure all software is up to date, and special Sweetwater only sound banks get installed in some gear? Hmmm... Yes, good thinking on your part, though at this juncture, it is Sweetwater and not Clavia that is racing to resolve this for me.

Oh, and as far as the CP4 goes, I already sent it back when I thought the NP3 would be the do-all- end-all for me.

How do you feel about an MP 7?

[Dave Ferris]

How do you feel about an MP 7?

I didn't care for it. The main default Concert Grand sounded brittle and had an ugly decay in the higher register. The Jazz Grand was better. I feel about Kawais like I do Casios - they need to improve the basic core tone of their pianos.

Any word on the Sweetwater status yet ?

Just to go at this from a complete 180- for home practice have you considered getting an acoustic piano ? They are expensive (we financed 10K of my first grand , a Yamaha C7e, in '85) but a solid long term musical investment. If you have the space and no noise constraints of course. If you can experience even something along the lines of a used, well maintained late model Yamaha C3 or newer CX3 - all this digital/electronic stuff pales in comparison imo.

There was a fellow around 2010 , I believe from Norway maybe, Christian. He was making a lot of very nice lyrical recordings and posting them on the web. He was VERY picky about the sound and wanted the "best". He first bought the CP1 but after about a year grew tired of it, he kept the Yamaha but bought a Stage and started experimenting with the Nord Pianos. That didn't last long as he hated the action on the Stage. Also this was before Nord had improved their samples and added the Long Release feature that improved the sustain.

Anyway, not long after he sold the Stage and went up to the Avantgrand N3. He was on that for a year or so and was liking it. And then I noticed he stopped posting his recordings altogether. I sent him an email asking how he was doing and what was up with him. He replied that he was burnt out on all digital pianos and spending all this money chasing after the "best sound" and best action. He said he initially liked his upgrades but after awhile he grew tired of the sterile, soul-less sound and playing experience. He was in the process of getting one of the smaller handmade Yamaha Grands, the S4 around that time. He lamented on how expensive it was but said ...if I would have originally went this route instead of throwing all the money at the digitals, It wouldn't have been that expensive of an initial outlay.

Just food for thought and fwiw of course.

[Macsaint777]

Dave and Nord Family,

Sweetwater has come through for me BIG TIME! They overnighted me a third (wow, I can't believe I am typing this) THIRD Nord Piano 3, one they thoroughly checked before sending. I am happy to report it has NO ISSUES at this time, but forgive me as I hold my breath over the next month! I am hopeful I will have no issues arise, but Sweetwater is already aware of my plan to get a Korg Grandstage if anything whatsoever happens with this Nord Piano 3. I am very happy for now! It plays beautifully, and I know that is in large part due to whatever software wizardry is contained in the "Virtual Hammer Action Technology" that Nord has designed into this keyboard. Something is certainly going on there, and whatever it is, it just works incredibly well!

As for your suggestion about an acoustic piano, I would have done that long ago if I wasn't surrounded by neighbors on each side. One day, I will most certainly have a real acoustic piano, and probably a million more keyboards too!

I'm under no illusions about the "best digital" vs the real deal. The Nord doesn't feel like a real piano, and neither does the RD-2000, CP4, or even the MP11. They get close enough for us to play them for sure, but like a real Hammond B3, "aint nothin like the real thang baby!"

I kinda hated to send the CP4 back, it was a really nice instrument, I just couldn't justify having two stage pianos, especially when the majority of the time I am playing either solo, with a blues band, or (most of the time) doing worship services with various churches. My thinking was that I could leave one stage piano set up at home, and leave the other wherever I was practicing before the actual gig, but I've since decided that I don't want to leave $8,000.00 worth of gear sitting out where I can't control what happens to it for a few days, so I may as well just have one stage piano and carry it around as needed.

So, the plan from here.. is to play the hell out of this Nord Piano 3 (though I cannot read music and don't any anything like your skills!) and see if it develops any problems over the next month. If all is well, I'll be a happy camper... but if anything happens, Sweetwater has a Korg Grandstage preordered for me, and I think I can get used to the SGX-2 pianos and RH3 action. By this time, who knows.. maybe Yamaha will bring something to the table.. after all, the CP4 is getting a bit long in the teeth.

Even after all the back and forth with the Nord Piano 3, I am still struck by how well these things are constructed. Yes, the action is loud as the keys are pressed down and reverberate through the metal body, but these wooden end caps and solid metal housing, along with the reassuringly tight knobs and buttons, really scream quality and if the key action holds up, I plan on keeping the NP3 for a very long time. If the action doesn't hold up... well, it is easy enough to play the NE5D from a Grandstage or something else over MIDI.. heck, all I'd be missing is the pedal noise.

Thanks for following this crazy journey, I am touched by the concern everyone has shown, and especially Dave Ferris, who has offered excellent advice and solid recommendations all along the way.


Cheers!


Ben

[Rychubil]

Ben, how you to assess noise of the keyboard action with NP3, comparing to the NP2?

[Macsaint777]

Rychubil,

I find the actual noise of the key action to be exactly the same from the Piano 2 HA 88 to the Piano 3 HA 88. The metal body of both keyboards, with no dampening material inside, just makes for a louder action in general than some keyboards, like the Roland RD-2000, or Yamaha CP4 for example, though the CP4 bottoms out in a way the Nord Piano 2 and 3 do not.

Hope that helps!

[Rychubil]

Thanks Ben