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PX-350 keyboard mod, success at last!


Jokeyman123

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Are you sure it is damaged? Sometimes the key can be pulled or jarred out of position, or the hammer mechanism can get stuck-it can jump out of position and will seem stuck. Google Casio keyboard parts you might find what you need. i fdon't think Casio tech sells the parts for DIY repair. But again, I would study the mechanicals carefully to see if you can put the key back into position-if you don't see any broken parts there might not be any. Good luck. Post how you do if you can, I'd be interested myself since I do alot of repairs myself and have several Privias I keep in one piece as best I can.

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  • 10 months later...

Jokeyman 123   I have just purchased a used Previa PX 400-R which is in great condition, except for the noisy key action.  I could not find your previous Post on how to dissemble Your PX350 and would appreciate you directing me to it.  I'm hoping that the procedure will be the same for my PX 400-R? ....both the dissembly  and the placement/fitting of the insulating material. Are you familiar with the PX 400-R? if so, what is your opinion of this model?  

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The procedure is not the same, I also own and play the PX575/410 which is almost identical in construction to the PX400 from what I can tell. I had no luck completely disassembling my  PX575, except for the underside, I'd have to study that again to remember what I did. I do recall taking the bottom panels off-from the 575, not the PX350-and I was able to add some cushioning felt to the underside part of the key assembly-quit a bit different from the PX350, but if that's all you do, it was fairly easy and did make  some difference in the noise level and playability. Mine was also 2nd hand, but in excellent shape. Opinion compared to the later 350 and my 560-I have a review of my PX575 here somewhere here, I'll see if I can find the original post with my detailed description.

 

I believe the 575/410 has additional programmable features, but lacks the midi din ports of the 400, I'd have to study the 400 manual to make a valid comparison. Soundwise-despite having the new PX560 which is fantastic in its own way, I have kept the 575, I still find it a pretty amazing board considering it is at least 2 generations behind the new Privias. Keys are a little less stiff than the 350/560 but still give me a pretty nice acoustic piano "feel". Certainly no noisier than the newer keys, once I did the mod. And the newer bread and butter pianos, organs and electric pianos have more "depth" than the older tones, but still a huge variety of very playable tones.  I think the GM banks sound almost identical-I don't hear a significant improvement with the newer Privias re GM tones. A little more clarity overall with DSP settings on the newer Privias.

 

One fun advantage-the PX575 can design and play sampled wav sounds using the IDES 4.0 editor designed for it, and has virtual organ drawbar/leslie/percussion panel, although I'm not sure the 400 can duplicate these functions. I've designed a few samples and have a complete drumkit, sampled multi-voice patch, a soprano sax and jazz flute. the sample ram shares with other internal programs, but still managed to save a few bigger samples in user memory. and it can play any ckf rhythms, including many I've designed and uploaded here for the other Privias.

 

The IDES 4.0 is quite a powerful software and sample editor which can access every programmable function on the 575 and has a built-in ckf rhythm converter, for converting midi files to playable accompaniment rhythms.. Although the song recorder is nowhere near as programmable as the PX560, I have been able to work around some of its shortcomings to create decent sounding (IMO) mulitrack compositions and it also can save and load smf midi files. The sound system is quite comparable (again in my opinion, everyone's ears are different) to my newer Privias, which is always a pleasant surprise as I switch around from my 3 Privias. I have been tempted to buy a 2nd 575 since the prices are so low lately, and I consider this a classic Casio-or soon to be-it is the same design as the WK-8000, 3800 and 3300 from what I understand. Not quite up to the MZ-2000 classic probably but pretty close I think. Great fun.

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Vic-sorry I had composed the previous lengthy reply and somehow in haste did not post it! To make a long story short-after looking over my 575 again, and pictures of the 400-it looks like you can at least get the one plastic panel completely removed from underneath-alot of screws, but it is one simple plastic piece which will now expose the full underside of the key construction. From here, you can study the way the action works, see if the felt under the keys is worn, and if you are up to it, you can add felt directly from this vantage point without taking apart the rest of the 400. Unfortunately there is another felt bumper strip up above the keys, buried inside the top panel and as I said, I have had no luck tearing this completely apart, it is much different than the PX350 and 560 apparently. Adding additional felt underneath my 575 did quite the keys alot though without doing anything else. 

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19 minutes ago, Jokeyman123 said:

Vic-sorry I had composed the previous lengthy reply and somehow in haste did not post it! To make a long story short-after looking over my 575 again, and pictures of the 400-it looks like you can at least get the one plastic panel completely removed from underneath-alot of screws, but it is one simple plastic piece which will now expose the full underside of the key construction. From here, you can study the way the action works, see if the felt under the keys is worn, and if you are up to it, you can add felt directly from this vantage point without taking apart the rest of the 400. Unfortunately there is another felt bumper strip up above the keys, buried inside the top panel and as I said, I have had no luck tearing this completely apart, it is much different than the PX350 and 560 apparently. Adding additional felt underneath my 575 did quite the keys alot though without doing anything else. 

 

Thanks for the prompt and detailed response. I'm really impressed with the sound/tone of the 400 as well as the action of the keys. If I can just reduce the "clutter" of the keyboard somewhat, I'll be a very happy owner! Before purchasing the 400, I tried a number of different brands and models (all used) and most of them were at least as noisy, many worse. Sound-wise, I preferred the PX-400 to all of them.  A very under-rated instrument.

I'm going to attempt the installation tomorrow and will let you know how it went. Thank you again for your kind assistance!  

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You are most welcome-I agree, despite having the newer Privias-I still love the PX575/410. I still play and teach, and decided to go with Casio after having the XW-P1, was so impressed with its piano-and other-sounds, I bought the PX350. Then I came across the PX410 and realized this was something special for an older model-there are a few Casio fans here who love their older Casios, and I am one of them!

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Jokeyman.   I've struck a snag in the disassembly of my PX 400-r. With the instrument bottom up,  I first removed the black stabilizing bar and a small 4-3/4" wide plastic panel which spans the width of the unit., I am left with the large cover panel which covers the entire underside of the instrument . It is secured by a multitude of screws, all of which I have removed (including the eight deeply recessed ones). At this point I expected to be able to simply lift off the back cover, there being no more visible screws holding it. It won't budge.... leaving me to suspect that there might be some additional screws securing it from the top. Turning the unit over, there are no visible screw-heads so, if they exist, they must be under the top back panel that houses the speakers . Problem is, I have removed both side panels of the unit and cannot see how to remove the top back panel!  It can't be that difficult...I'm sure there is some simple two- second step that I'm missing! I'm hoping that you or one of your followers can solve this?

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  • 3 months later...

This is a response to this old post about disassembly-still have the PX575. I still have had no luck trying to get the PX575/410 apart completely. Frustratingly so, never had any other keyboard I couldn't take apart. Anybody else have any ideas/solutions? I must be missing something very obvious-or not.

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I used to have a PX575 and dissasmbled it many times. I used to take both sides off first then flip it over. As I recall there was a removable plastic panel that had to be taken off held on by a dozen screws. You could see part of the underside of the action but once off you had access to all the screws that needed to be removed. The speakers were attached  to the top panel which could be lifted off.

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OK, thanks for the info. I have gotten as far as removing the bottom panel, but had trouble from there. I will have to look at this again. Does it take much force to get to the rest of the insides-in ohter words, does the rest of the case structure take much effort to get apart once all the screws are removed from the bottom? I seem to remember having trouble getting the rest of it apart even with all the screws removed from the bottom. 

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  • 7 months later...

I have a few posts here re the 350 and CDP230-I think I had even posted pics of my repairing a few loose keys from within the XW-P1-but no videos-takes so long to do the work, would need a videographer to document my work.... Coming to think of it-I think I have pics of the inside of my PX560- needed to repair the control knobs-don't even remember-I keep pretty busy practicing, and only do these disassembly projects out of sheer necessity-not for fun! And because all my instruments are almost always out of warranty.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 Good for you and your resourcefulness.  I'm sure your keys are much quieter.  I happened to see a video- several actually- comparing the px-350, with the 360 and 560 I think and then later the newer models- 1000, 3000 ?.  I won't search them at this hour, but one point seemed to be was that the keys were getting more quiet all the time.  I was tempted to pick up a newer model when I got my corona relief check, but my playing around on the keyboards I had already, and diverting more back towards guitars had me deciding to keep the money in the bank for awhile.  Last week I found a PX350m very reasonable on Facebook Marketplace, at $300 it was a hundred less than one listed at Guitar Center would have been with shipping.  And so I've been playing that quite a bit- through headphones mostly too the past few days.  The key noise hasn't bothered me as yet, but I'll probably listen more critically now.  It's really a great machine, and I still have a WK-6600 76 key board if I am in need of more voices-  I think you're right about the 17 track recording on the other thread I was asking about this machine- it might be a little easier on the 6600- if I ever get it down!.  Been doing some tracks on even older boards.  It's time to sell my older boards and leave the '80's and 90's finally behind I guess.

 

      Though they are about the same vintage- I think the 350 definitely has better voices, than the wk-6600, but not the voice editing either.  Between those two I think it's all pretty covered for now.  

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This has the AIR sound engine-definitely better sounding acoustic pianos than the WK/CTK pianos which are AHL. More depth and sustain as well as the 3-sensor action for better dynamic response. I've kept my PX350, it is holding up well. Keys feel pretty similar to my PX560, same gerat piano samples and 3-layer response, but huge difference in features, programmability and DSP-the recorder is alot easier to work with.

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  • 9 months later...

Vic I owned a PX575. The 400 is similar. With that bottom access panel off you should see the screws that hold the top panel. You need a long screwdriver but look carefully there are screws that go through the keybed that hold the top panel. You also need to disassemble the end caps and take the inner side panels off. Lots of screws to take out.

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  • 10 months later...

Really interesting thread but what amazes me is some of you were waiting until your warranty runs out .. surely Casio should be fixing this for you under its warranty and in some cases they fit a totally new keyboard frame. It has to be cost effective to do this by taking it back to where you bought it (if not long distant posting - which could have damaged the assembly set up even before you started using it from new) .. lets face it - it arrives in a large cardboard box and the key parts are only taped down not bubble wrapped but the inners are not extra packed at all. Normal long distant handling and trasport shake can do quite some damage and we would not even know.

Cushioning strip parts are available from Casio although the largest one of the 4 is quite expensive (about $25) the next largest around $10 .. the smaller 2 are about $1 then comes tax and posting. In my case in the Uk it was around £35.

Personally I think the Casio research team should be doing more to make their keyboard system more reliable or if not - make it in a way that it can be easily repaired without a lengthy timeframe .. it is one or the other if they want market share against the likes of Roland and keyboard leader by far - Yamaha

I had a quote from a casio engineer recently and they want £150 call out min plus parts but didnt say how many hours that included in the deal or if it includes the return when replacement parts are known and ordered for 2nd fix. It's a recipe for customers to be conned for sure.

I have a PX-850 which has noisy key syndrome on some keys which I would love to get fixed and all this information is helping me decide to try do it myself. I also have a PX-760 which is still working fine and no key noise .. obviously the 760 is younger by a couple of years but they both have the same keyboard set up and frame as confirmed by Casio UK although the part numbers are different. My wife uses both pianos in 2 local schools for Covid distance teaching by using 2 pianos which she will continue to use as the children are used to having their own piano. Both the other pianos are Roland HP's since 15-16 years and are still playing nice and no key noise. That has to say something. Hp's are not that more expensive that the top PX Casios yet they seem to last far longer. One word of warning from a call to an engineer - it seems Roland will not be stocking parts for DP's over 10 years old or so he says ... I cannot believe this so have pinged off an email to their HQ to find out if true and wait to see thier response - thats assuming they will be honest to a customer. 

Amazing how Casio Roland and Yamaha are all Japanese yet they have such a different quality build level between them. Seems Casio are great until they have noisy key syndrome and are destined for the plastic dump because it is too hard to repair them with any ease. hats off to all of you that have tried and suceeded.

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  • 10 months later...

Okay, so here's my experience with my PX-160. You can use Yamaha GH3 NL2 88 (V8468201) to replace the upper felt. I think it's a bit thicker than the original Casio one (the original is about 18 mm thick), but I so far haven't noticed any adverse effects. For the lower felt I used Kawai RH88 Upper (816722), the thickness is just about perfect. The replacements consist of several layers of compressible bumpers that shouldn't lose their shape over time, and only a very thin layer of cotton, so I think they should be more durable. Haven't noticed much of improvement in regard tojust from that alone, but if you stick a thin layer of automobile thermal- and sound-proofing sheet on the lower case underneath the keybed (or at least on the area under the lower felt strip), the noisiness goes away almost completely. I used a 2 mm sheet, but it was a bit too thick, and it felt like the keystrokes became shorter, so I ended up removing it. Probably something about 1 mm thick would be ideal. I also noticed that a lot of clunky noise came from the lower case vibrating when you drop a key. So probably having something rigid to fix the underside of your piano in place or maybe something shock absorbing against that area could also help.

 

On a sidenote, my piano has been disassembled for three years, when I first opened it up to clean up beer that I accidentally spilled into it and ended up washing everything up and wiping clean the old lubricant. In short, I overdid it. Had to replace the lubricant after that and made a hasty choice to use medical Vaseline because it was readily available. DO NOT DO THAT, PEOPLE, EVER! Not only is Vaseline horribly temperature-sensitive -- it melts and drips in summer and thickens in winter -- but it also soaks all the rubber parts. They absorb the oils and swell up by nearly 10% of their original size. ONLY USE RUBBER- AND PLASTIC-FRIENDLY LUBRICANTS! Vaseline nearly ruined the rubber bushings under the black and white keys, and I was ready to scrap the whole piano because the replacements cost like a new one. But turns out, you can restore the rubber after -- just soak it in kerosene (or white spirit, which I used) for a couple of days to let it dissolve the oils, then let it evaporate over the next couple of weeks. You can use it to degrease all the other parts as well, but be careful, because kerosene can damage some plastics. In particular, the Polystyrene (PS) of which the keybed, the case and the keyspacers are made. Though it is safe for the keys themselves which are made of ABS, and the hammer hinges which are made of Polyoxymethylene (POM). Don't expose parts made of PS to kerosene for longer than a minute.

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