My fairly new SX-900 is at a local Yamaha Dealer/Repair shop. On another forum, a few members have (had) a noisy "clacking" sound complaint from their black keys. The 'fix' is to apply a special keyboard grease made by Yamaha. Evidently a certain early batch of SX-900's may have had this lack of grease problem. Yamaha, at first seemed to balk at my complaint, and wouldn't fully acknowledge my problem, but perhaps after a few other complaints, has agreed to cover the cost of repair. (It's only 7 months old) I'm sure they want to avoid a recall.

I would have never guessed lack of grease would be a problem in a new keyboard, in fact, I never knew grease was used at all. Upon doing some Internet research, I found out that indeed grease is used to quiet keys on almost all keyboards of all brands.

The shop is waiting for this special grease shipment from Yamaha, and if interested, I'll keep you all updated on the repair results.
(Hopefully not too long, I'm missing this keyboard)

Sorry to hear this Larry! Are the charging for the repair or is it under warranty?

I’ d totally hate being without a keyboard! I hope you get quick service, and good results. Best of luck, and keep us posted

Paul, Yes, Yamaha has agreed to pay the dealer for the repair. I've had it for only 6-7 months of a one year warranty.

I have all the luck

You're right, I'm having keyboard withdrawal

Selfishly speaking,I hope the problem becomes apparent right away,and not something that slowly evolves. I don't want to find out mine has run out of grease after the warranty runs out.

Bernie

My PSR-S950 became noisy after about 4 years of playing, so I asked a repairman to refill this grease. I had learnt about the grease long ago when I had this issue with another keyboard but never got around to do something about that. The repairman fixed the problem, but said, that a keybed itself is not designed for this procedure and after disassembling it for 3-4 times it can be broken.

I guess he used some usual grease, nothing specific, because, as he confessed, in his long practice he had never performed this procedure on such keyboards. Weighted keys, he said, are much easier to disassemble. Well, anyway, it became much less noisy, although, I think, slowly the noise is coming back, but I'm not going to play this instrument forever.

It is dissapointing that brand new SX do not behave like brand new items. I also recently read that users have to deal with a lot of problems with Korg PA1000 - something wrong with a touchscreen or with a keybed. Stops me from buying anything without a warranty. Also, stops me from buying things with warranty from semi-official dealers: they offer good deals, but you can't be sure if the warranty would be accepted as a legit. Yamaha keeps minimal prices rather high and doesn't care for those who sell these products for 20% cheaper. Obviously, official prices stop me from buying anything as well.

Usually companies, when they move/build their factories to countries where manpower is cheaper, chaim that it does not affect the quality at all. But today you can't even buy some LEGO for a kid being sure that it has all the parts inside. LEGO will send the missing pieces to you if you ask, but the fun is ruined anyway.

Well, it's true that today we buy much more of these things than we used to and manufactures have to optimise the process in order to prodive us all with products.

In the same time, I believe, when you expect people to work like machines, treating them as such, you should expect that something will go wrong after all.

I actually did not notice the black key noise when playing through on board speakers. It's when I played with headphones on, that my granddaughter mentioned a little clicking sound. That, along with some other SX -900 users at PSR Tutorial pointing out the noise, made me aware of the problem.

Since I really never noticed the noise, I would have done nothing, but when I found out, it kinda bothered me, and since Yamaha was willing to pay for an evaluation and repair if needed, I decided to have it done.

Maybe sometimes you are better off not knowing. But if you're like me, once you're aware of it, ya gotta do something about it.

I would have done the same Larry. I just won't use headphones. Ignorance is bliss,they say.

Is it not just a white lithium grease?

Probably, but to keep the warranty, the shop is using the official Yamaha brand that they are sending him.

Eek! Casio's are widely known to have this problem, and the grease is a temporary "band-aid" kind of fix. The problem WILL keep coming back, and if the holes are allowed to wear wide it will only get worse. Just another example of cost cutting and the "disposable product" philosophy. :-(

Fair point Larry!

That's possible, but I think in this case, for a few SX-900 boards, the proper amount of grease was not applied correctly during production. As far as I know, all Yamaha arranger keyboards use grease with rare instances of a problem. So it's not really a band-aid kind of fix, rather a more permanent fix that was overlooked at the factory. It happens.

And to add, the Yamaha dealer repair shop did not hear any noise when he played it, and said it was fine, but he decided to double check it and add grease if necessary. Maybe it's just the way it is, we'll see. But since Yamaha was willing to pay the cost to find out, why not?

I picked up my keyboard, and the Yamaha repairman said he removed the old grease, (seemed thin) and applied the new grease supplied by Yamaha (seemed thicker) He noted that it could have been the wrong type of grease, or applied incorrectly at the factory, or simply not enough.

But anyway, it works perfect, and he said it should last for many years like a new one should.

Short videos BEFORE and AFTER grease repair

BEFORE: (Thanks Sam Hodgson)


AFTER:

Larry, glad things worked out for you ...

Getting ready for football?

That’s great news! Glad you got it resolved fairly quickly

I'm happy for you too,Larry

Thanks Tony, the key action just seems so much better, certainly quieter..

Yes, I'm ready for football, hopefully football will be ready for us. Your Giants should be better this year.

Thanks Bernie,
I was one of the unlucky ones with this problem. But, tot only is it quieter, it seems to have a 'smoother action' on the black keys.

I know you were a little confused, but I Hope you figured out Expansion Manager

Thanks Paul,
Even though I was initially not pleased with having a problem with a new board, I was happy with both Yamaha, and the local Yamaha repair shop for stepping up.

Thanks,I think it is sorted out enough.