Sticky keys Yamaha s08

Synth Repair
1

Hello all,

I bought a Yamaha s08 used several years ago off a buddy. He gave me a really good deal because it had one key that stayed depressed after releasing it. Over the years and touring with her across the country, other keys have become sticky in this fashion as well.

I have opened her up two or three times and switched the plastic key with another from a super low or high octave that I rarely use and this usually, surprisingly fixes both keys. So now she has several more staying down and before I spend the time taking her apart again, I figured I’d look into actually replacing some of the parts.

I guess my question is which parts should I order? I really have no idea which specific piece of this key mechanism is failing. I’m thinking of ordering a bunch of new plastic keys and the metal forks which seem like they are the spring mechanism that return the key to its normal position after the player releases said key. Does that sounds like a good use of my money to try and rectify the issue?

Also, opening this thing up all the time to fix it is definitely not super enjoyable compared with sitting down and playing her so I’d really like to avoid that going forward. If there is more stuff I can replace now that will last longer and avoid this issue going forward I would be super interested in exploring those options.

Any feedback or comments appreciated!!

Thanks!

2

It wouldn’t hurt to have a few extra parts on hand even if you don’t use them. I like to keep spare parts on hand for my older keyboards so that I can make a quick repair if needed.

From the sounds of it, some of the keys have worn so that they can move sideways, and that’s causing the hammers to stick.

I’d guess that you stumbled on his “trick” when you swapped the two keys around. Later in the video you can see that he can make the keys stick again. You can try it, but if the real fix is replacing the keys I’d do that instead.

1 Like
3

Ive never had any luck replacing/repositioning the fork springs. I have moved the keys with success. I can send, need maybe e-mail me and i can send it pdf