Red felt strip?

[mrz80]

Greetings from Gator Country! Few months back i came across what I was sure was a typo - a QS8.1 on FB marketplace for $50.00 . Yeah, you read that right. Turns out it wasn't a typo - the seller's boyfriend had given it to her, it was in rough cosmetic shape (scratches, grime, some paint splotches, end panels all gnarly), and it wouldn't power up. Naturally I jumped on it. Got it home and aside from a dead key (cosmic alien snot on the rubber switch strip and the circuit board, easily scraped off), the jumper from the AC transformer board to the main board was disconnected. Reconnected it, held my breath, hit the switch, and lo and behold it all woiks! NOICE!

So, I'm really enjoying my bargain-basement 90s ROMpler here. Only thing is (aside from the instrument weighing what, 60 POUNDS?!?! ), the keybed is really noisy. Lots of thumping. Has anyone ever given thought to retrofitting the thing with some good old standard issue piano red felt damping tape across the bottom edge of the case top at the back of the keybed?

[parametric]

Nice result for 50 Bucks . . . 60 lbs? - Well, they made board properly back then i.e. METAL . . . . .

No harm in trying with the red tape . . . .

Never had a QS, only Fusions (3). . . .

For what it's worth, if the case top is not refitted "correctly", the Fusions can exhibit such behaviour . . . .

Q. - does it look like anyone's been inside? - That disconnected strap suggests "yes" . . . ?

Perhaps trying to stop an earth loop?

Let us know how the red tape turn out . . . .

ATB

parametric

[Jesse]

Awesome, yeah you have to watchout for that cosmic alien snot on the rubber switch strip

Take Care ... Jesse

[Jokeyman123]

Trying hard to stay off the boards here for awhile-but get pulled back in!

I installed red piano felt for one of my Fusion 8HD's, here is a partial picture. By the way, the key mechanisms for the QS8's and Fusions are almost identical-almost.....

Why did I do this you may ask? I noticed that even though the keys were not hitting the underside of the top edge-I reduced the "geometry" of how high the keys returned when released-in other words, the felt acted as a "stop"-and even by reducing this upward motion slightly, it quieted the key return clunk. Not that it was very loud-but this managed to make the keys even quieter, but only for the "upswing", which is where many of these mechanical 88-key actions can be the most problematic and noisy. I've done this with several 88-key workstations-discovering that the hammer return can be louder than the downstroke, since there is no escapement mechanism as in a real acoustic, the hammer will swing back pretty forcefully upon release. Since there is no large acoustic space to absorb the mechanical noises as in an acoustic, it can be quite distracting to a guy with sensitive hearing like me...what did you say????? I heard that!!! And the only real difficulty, I had to get alot of monkey snot to attach the felt-seriously, I used self-adhesive backed red felt strips, and of course had to remove the top assembly entirely to do this.

[mrz80]

Trying hard to stay off the boards here for awhile-but get pulled back in!

These things will happen...

Why did I do this you may ask? I noticed that even though the keys were not hitting the underside of the top edge-I reduced the "geometry" of how high the keys returned when released-in other words, the felt acted as a "stop"-and even by reducing this upward motion slightly, it quieted the key return clunk...

I rather thought something like that might be the case. When I had the unit apart before I didn't think there was near enough monkey motion in the keybed for a really accurate action emulation.

...and of course had to remove the top assembly entirely to do this.

That's not that big of an issue. I have to pull the keybed and take it apart again to do a more thorough contact cleaning. I only dealt with the one completely dead key, and after banging on it for a few weeks it's evident that there are a few other keys that are kind of "iffy", plus (and this is the weird bit) one key where the aftertouch just doesn't work right. So a proper cleaning is in order. When I get 'round to that I'll stick the felt in.

[mrz80]

... there are a few other keys that are kind of "iffy", plus (and this is the weird bit) one key where the aftertouch just doesn't work right. So a proper cleaning is in order. When I get 'round to that I'll stick the felt in.

I sort of back-burnered this issue 'cause it was working well enough for the arranging work I was doing, but it's starting to annoy me again. I had the thought to hang a midi snooper utility across the 8.1, and lo and behold that A key is sending note-on followed IMMEDIATELY by note-off when you really smack the key; a very light touch and I don't get the immediate note-off. *sigh* Time to rip the keybed apart and give everything a proper cleaning I guess!

[parametric]

Probably fair to say that felts will wear with age and use, the problem (apart from the ball-ache of doing it)

is FINDING where you can buy replacements . . . .

From my experience - Fatar only want to talk to corporates DESPITE the fact that they must OBVIOUSLY

have what you might require.

Next best I found is https://www.synth-parts.com/en/products ... /40?c=1845

Perhaps mail them and ask?

Unfortunately, the online "Utopia" we live in doesn't allow SHOPS - where you could physically

take in a sample and choose something similar from their stock . . . .

Perhaps some of that helps?

parametric

[Jokeyman123]

I'm debating listing my otherwise perfect TP-40 pulled from one of my Fusions, on Reverb and eBay.

My problem is an ethical one-and I would of course list this with a full description-this is the key assemble I heavily modified to try to eliminate the dynamic imbalance between the black and white keys, and was not totally successful, but did improve it quite a bit. The shame of it is, that this key assembly is otherwise in excellent shape. I suppose I could sleep well at night knowing someone with an even worse TP-40 would be able to install this, but still. It actually has a better action than the older TP-20 I kludged from a non-working QS-8, but I cannot source a new mainboard for the QS-8. My plan was to assemble this TP-40 into the QS-8 and at least have another weighted action 88=key controller. I'd be interested in feedback here before I do anything. I am posting in this thread being reminded of how remiss Fatar is, not making key assemblies available to us consumers. It certainly wouldn't hurt the majors who order and install the Fatars, and it would help many of us keep otherwise perfectly good equipment from becoming landfill. Same goes for Numark/Alesis/Akai for not supporting us on the "back-end" with gear that although older, in many ways is still being manufactured with identical (in the case of the TP-40 in particular) parts! Must be truly maddening for professional technicians, who must rely on parts supplies for a living, to professionally repair and upkeep working musician's gear. Ah well, my gripes are done, at least for now.

[Jesse]

https://www.google.com/search?q=piano+k ... e&ie=UTF-8