Hi, does anyone know if the membrane cover on the K3 is replaceable? Mine has been cut away over one of the switches. I guess the membrane cracked and the previous owner decided to make a clean cut rather than have it split more.
Syntaur sells the membrane switches and the board they connect to, but not the membrane itself. The actual switch works for now, and there are no new splits forming. I could see it going south in a few years though, and wouldn’t mind having a replacement on hand, if it’s even possible to do.
Edit: I looked closer at the service manual and found the part name and number: Sheet Panel #802399
I checked with Kawai not too long ago, to see if the panel overlay was still available. Unfortunately, it is not.
The good news is that it is not an overlay with switches built into a membrane, like the Chroma Polaris for instance. When that fails, you’re pretty much done. On the K3, there is a physical tact switch, and a plastic button that snaps onto it, and then the overlay is just a flexible, pretty cover with graphics. In other words, if you have the plastic button snapped onto the tact switch you can use it just fine. The button is here: https://syntaur.com/Items.php?Item=2254
To avoid losing the button, maybe you can tape a piece of thin flexible plastic onto the overlay, just to cover that piece. It sounds terribly ugly - but it should work…
Thanks, Sam. The button is still functional and the membrane wasn’t cut away enough to create a danger of falling out.
If you get a nice used sheet panel in stock, please let me know. I understand it would be an awkard shape to ship - I can’t imagine rolling it up would do it any favors!
The membrane on my K3 has several small punctures above other buttons, I guess from previous users pushing too hard or using a hard object to push the switches. It’s usable, but I’d like to have a better dust and moisture seal over the buttons, not to mention a nicer playing experience.