Digital Piano Repair

[Dean May]

  Paul wrote:  DISCLAIMER:    The foregoing is my personal experience only.
If yours is different, I'd like to hear about it.
 
Mine's a little different. Granted I don't like working on digital pianos.
But I have worked on Kurzweils and Clavinovas. At least 80% of the problems
I've been called on to fix were mechanical in nature, most of them dealing
with cleaning or replacing the little contact pads under the keys or pedals,
or replacing key weights on Kurzweils. I've had to replace some switches
which involved de-soldering them from the circuit board, not something I'm
comfortable with, but I did it. The other electrical problems were solved by
hand holding with tech support over the phone, or for Kurzweil PC88s, you
can remove the electronics and send them in to Kurzweil for repair, a lot
cheaper to ship this way, weight wise, as opposed to sending the whole thing
in. 
 
I find myself forced to do these repairs sometimes, mostly because no one
else in 70 miles will do it. But I try real hard to get out of it whenever
possible. I like to stay in my comfort zone (don't we all) and I don't need
the extra work.
 
I've not had any trouble getting parts from Yamaha or Kurzweil. I've even
gotten service manuals from them.
 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Paul McCloud
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 11:18 AM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: RE: Digital Piano Repair


Hi, Michelle:
    Your question seems to be, should I try repairing these electronic
instruments?  If this is your aim, you would indeed need specialized
knowledge in this field.  Before I got into piano repair, I had taken a
course in electronics.  I live in San Diego, which is a military town.  Lots
of ex-military electonic techs live here.  I couldn't land a job to save my
life, because I had no experience.  Out of desperation, I took a job as an
apprentice piano technician at a local store.  I'm still at this same store
almost 20 years later.  It happened  that there was an organ repair shop in
the same warehouse where we had our pianos.  I used to imagine myself
working in their shop, but no openings were available.  As time went on, I
observed the difficulties of electronic repair, and was glad I never went in
that direction.
    First of all, you have to understand electronics, so you go to a school,
pay thousands of dollars for that, and then graduate.  
    Ok, so  you have the skill.  Now, you get one of these glorified organ
things (digital whatever), and it's time for repair.  You have to
disassemble the whole thing, just to get to the part that's ailing.  Then,
you look up the part number, and order it from the electronic part supplier.
Or so you think.  Hold on, partner!  THE PART NUMBER DOESN'T MATCH ANYTHING
IN THE PARTS CATALOG!  It's marked with special numbers at the factory,
which are proprietary.  You have to order the replacement parts from the
factory.  No problem, I'll order them from the factory, right?  NOT!  They
won't sell to you unless you are the "Authorized Repair Facility".  In order
to become such a repair shop, you have to stock thousands of dollars of
parts, so you can do these repairs in-house.  Ok, ok, so you shell out the
bucks to become the "Authorized" repair shop.  You have to do the warrantee!
repairs for the company (I'm talking about just one line of products here),
so you'll have your phone ringing off the hook for these.  And, guess what?
They don't pay very much to do the repair, and it takes a long time before
you get paid!  
    Now, not all brands are like this.  But, many are.  The repair shop has
since moved, but the repair guy has branched out.  He's now doing- PIANOS!
Kind of gives you the idea which way you should go.  If their electronic
keyboards need repair, leave it to those who do that sort of thing.  If the
school can't afford to have them repaired, that's a shame.  But, I wouldn't
try to get involved unless you know what you're doing.
    DISCLAIMER:    The foregoing is my personal experience only.  If yours
is different, I'd like to hear about it.
 
    Good luck.
    Paul McCloud, RPT
    San Diego
 
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