Keep Clean

[Daniel Lumertz]

So, i fix a dead key a mouth ago , and i clean all keyboard remove all dirty, a thing that i not did is clean every single contact i just clean the dead key and some neighborhoods of she , and every time that a iam not playing i put some old tshirt up the nord to dirty not come inside of him . So what do you do to dead keys not heapen? Clean evry rubber contact? - this sounds like a lot of time but if work by , one years or two semms like a good trade . I will open probaly this or next week , so any tip to clean it very well? Sorry the english


Edit: ohh and how often do you have to clean insede your nord is this a thing of 2 , 3 months ?

[stiiiiiiive]

i fix a dead key a mouth ago

No offense, I could not resist

Welcome, colleague. Putting a cloth onto your instrument while you are not playing it is always a good thing: I do it for most of my gear (it spends most of its time in dark...)
For the method to clean it, I let Pablo answer you.

[Daniel Lumertz]

hahahahahahaha weelll i almost write correctly .... Ok i will wait.

[Nordlicht]

Hi,

I'm using felt clothes (mostly used for piano keyboards). They are dense, they are placed and taken off in a second and they are cheap (sold by the meter in the drapery).

And: There also are RED ones

(As you can NOT see, this is my NL2X at the top)

All the best to you.

[stiiiiiiive]

Nice!!

[Keys+]

They sell fitted dust covers for keyboards.

[Mr_-G-]

Felt is made of compressed fibres, I think that it eventually may lose some fibres that could end up in the keyboard mechanism. A plastic cover seems to me the best option. It is beer-resistant too.

[RedLeo]

I wouldn't bother cleaning all the keys if they're not actually dirty and giving you problems, it would just be a lot of work for nothing. If they're clean, they're clean, and it won't really change anything or prevent them from becoming dirty in the future. They don't really become gradually dirty, they usually get a bit of dirt stuck in them from time to time, regardless of how clean they are now.

[Daniel Lumertz]

Red Leo is correct on that point -- no reason to bother cleaning contacts which are working correctly. However, what CAN be a good idea is to open up the chassis from time to time and clean it generally. Basically, the things which may eventually cause the key issues have entered the instrument by falling into the cracks between the keys. Every time you release a key, air is sucked into the key contact chamber and if there is crud in the vicinity there is a chance that some will get sucked into there. So cleaning out the inside of the chassis will reduce the available reservoir of dirt which can cause future problems.

The "highest-risk" area is the top face of the rubber contact strips. Once removed from the underside of the keybed, this becomes completely accessible to parts brush and gentle application of compressed air (don't want to be blasting your loosened dirt underneath there and fouling the surfaces which otherwise clean). And while the underside of the keybed is completely accessible, one can be aggressive application of compressed air -- probably want to take it outside before attempting this!

As Uncle Vito always used to say, "a clean keybed is a happy keybed."

Bless,

Pablo

[Ledbetter]

Is there a ready reference on opening the case of an Electro4?