Yamaha, Korg, etc  •  Key Contacts

This photo shows one of these keyboard assemblies installed in a Yamaha MOTIF6 synthesizer.

With just the synthesizer's bottom cover off, most key contact problems can be fixed.

Put a block at each end of the upside down keyboard so there's room to operate the keys from underneath.

In this photo, you can see five sets of key contacts.  The middle set has a bent leaf spring.  This spring is a moving electrical contact.

The spring gets pushed when you play a note.  It should rest firmly against a fixed, upper contact until it's pushed to a lower one.

Play the key from below and make sure the contact is actually moving from one closed position to another.

The amount of time between one contact opening and the other contact closing sets the note's MIDI velocity.

In this photo, the note with the bent spring might trigger early and have a different touch.

In this photo, the spring is stuck on the wrong side of the key's plastic pusher.  This note won't sound at all.

Notice the small gold wires bonded to the leaf spring.  These are the actual electrical contact points.

You can fix a bent spring without removing the whole keyboard assembly.

Position a small screwdriver or tool over the crease, then pull up on the spring's end with another small tool.

If you can't fix a contact from below, you might have to take the keyboard assembly out of the unit.

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