coul'd you believe it??

[frankiduke]

Hello again everyone,

I've posted the topic about a velocity problem several days ago, and as said in that topic, i got a new nord stage 2 in replacement. And guess what....: an oder problem occured!!!!!

so the first day I checked and played the norstage 2 averything was fine (on friday) then, on saturday, I wanted to play in the evening after work (I teach piano) and the D4 come back much slower back to its position (the E just beside also, but a little less), so it's impossible to play trills or tremolos correctly for example! It's like there is glue retaining the come back of the key. This is not a joke, I really take care of my instruments as I'm Professional musician. My Bösendorfer piano is 10 years old, and there is not a little scratch or mechanical problem.

Also When I try to play pianissimo on that key, It is really difficult to push it down.

For 3000 Euros, I'm not expecting that kind of keyboard problem to happen twice. My shop open again on tuesday, think like I've to go back there. And I'm the first client to come back with a nord stage 2! They said they rarely 've problem with NORD, what I can believe, this keyboard is really nice, but I'm so unlucky...

Does anyone know this problem or had this experience?

Thank you in advance!

François

[frankiduke]

Hmm. Sounds like Clavia had a batch of faulty Fatar keybeds. I guess Clavia should improve keybed quality control. The good thing is that it's rather rare issue. I've been using Clavia products for 8 years. It's very reliable. Clavia products also deserved very good reputation within professional gigging musicians. Nord Stage is extremely popular in Russia. Lots of guys use it.

[frankiduke]

Have informed the Nord Crew? http://www.norduserforum.com/member490.html. It would be helpful if you could provide both serial numbers for the faulty units. I guess you also deserved a present from your dealer. You certainly could request something like a case or triple pedal.

[mjbrands]

the D4 come back much slower back to its position (the E just beside also, but a little less), so it's impossible to play trills or tremolos correctly for example! It's like there is glue retaining the come back of the key.

I think I know what's causing this, as I've had the same issue on a brand new Kurzweil PC3K8 and on a 2nd hand Virus TI2 keyboard (which also must have had this problem since it was built). On the Kurzweil this even happened on two keys (black ones) and I returned it for a refund, since I was rather disappointed in the quality control (this probably expresses your current feelings on the Stage 2).

On the second hand Virus TI2, I found the cause by accident; I had to dismantle it and clean up it completely, since the previous owner has spilled a softdrink in it causing some keys to stick (this didn't show up when I was testing it before I bought it). After I was done, one key still behaved strangely in exactly the same manner as you described. As it turns out, there was a bit of rubber that was rubbing against the inside of the key, causing it to come up slower. Since that rubber is lubricated, it came up very smoothly (like the other keys), but much slower.

During production of that rubber bit, some flashing must have occurred and when the keyboard was assembled at Fatar, this bit of flashing wasn't removed and caused the rubber part to bulge on one side (see the arrow).



In this image we're looking at the underside of the rubber bit. I've lifted up the bit of flashing that was pushed inside when they mounted it on the keybed.



In this picture I've removed it.



After this small modification, everything was fine again.

I've been in contact with Access about this issue (they were very quick to respond). I complained about the quality control at Fatar (not at Access themselves, because in some other parts of the keyboard you could really see it was built by someone who cared about quality). I've also opened lots of Nords (including my own Stage 2 SW73) and I'd say the build quality of the Nords and the Virus is about the same, though I'd say the Nords are a bit more maintenance friendly.

Anyway, I told Access I'd expected them to pick up the slack for Fatar; i.e. if Fatar can't spot this issue in the factory, I think Access should've (the same goes for Nord and Kurzweil of course - all three use similar Fatar keybeds, though the exact type varies with the type of keyboard - semi-weighted, hammer action, etc).

The guy from Access told me they'd seen this issue once or twice before in the last few years, in which they've sold thousands of Virus keyboards. I believe the guy, but I still think this should've been spotted before the keyboard was sent out to shops and customers.

This is not a joke, I really take care of my instruments as I'm Professional musician. My Bösendorfer piano is 10 years old, and there is not a little scratch or mechanical problem.

I'm not a great player, but this key issue made playing feel wrong. I know you're not joking (and probably rather disappointed, as I was).

Note this is an unofficial Nord forum: I don't work for Nord, I don't speak for Nord, I'm just some geek somewhere in an attic.

For 3000 Euros, I'm not expecting that kind of keyboard problem to happen twice. My shop open again on tuesday, think like I've to go back there. And I'm the first client to come back with a nord stage 2! They said they rarely 've problem with NORD, what I can believe, this keyboard is really nice, but I'm so unlucky...

I don't think it is exactly the same issue, but I think I know exactly what you mean. For that 3000 euro you'd expect there to be a really small chance of running into an issue like this, let alone two times! I'm sure Nord could give figures showing issues like this occur really seldom, but that doesn't fix the bad feeling this has left you with.

Does anyone know this problem or had this experience?

As mentioned above, I know the problem and had to run into it myself twice with brands that in my opinion normally provide quality products (Kurzweil and Access, maybe the quality of Access products is a bit higher since they're hand-assembled in Germany instead of China like the Kurzweils). I've not had issues with any of the Nords I've had (except some power supply issues with my Nord Rack 3); given that the Nords are hand-assembled in Sweden, I'd say the quality and attention for detail should be about equal when comparing the Nords and the Virus.

I could understand it when you return your Nord, but the question is whether that would really solve anything; whatever you get next (Korg has had serious issues with keybeds on the Kronos, for example) might also have issues. If I were in your shoes, I'd expect to see a bit more from the local distributor (because I think they should solve it) than taking it back for repairs. It would be nice if they could replace it right away (so you don't have to wait for repairs) and maybe they could throw in a nice discount on a triple pedal or something like that.

If I were you, I'd contact the local distributor (funny, that's the same company as for the Netherlands) by phone and explain the situation to them, especially that the replacement also has an issue with the keyboard. I had an issue with a Nord gigbag and I was kind of pissed off about it, but they solved the issue to my satisfaction. After you know how the issue will pan out with the distributor, I'd send Clavia a message about it. I think you should do that even if you return the Nord, because I think it will help both Clavia but also her customers.

Right, sorry for this wall-of-text, but this brought back memories of my own feelings when this happened to me.

[whitenoise]

Cool story, mjbrands!

[frankiduke]

Thank you for your answers!!

thank your for your explications mjbrands!

I'll ask my shop for the serial number of the oder Nordstage 2. anyway, I already 've the Nord triple pedal system;-)

It is a good thing if it can be transmitted to Nord in Sweden. So, tuesday morning I'll give back this nordstage 2, take the serial number of the oder defect one and give you news then.

[frankiduke]

to whitenoise:

I just wrote to Nord Crew for their information and'll try to send them the different serial numbers later.

[frankiduke]

ok so I normally get a new nordstage 2 tomorrow. NORD'll get the serial numbers from my shop and the problems are reported.

[frankiduke]

Ok so, I directly got a new one this morning... for the moment everything works fine:-) Thanks again for all the answers, and for your long story mjbrands! It's nice to have such quick contact with passionate musicians.
I can focus now on the music and my next rehearsal with my nord!

A+

[whitenoise]

Fingers crossed. lol