1. Remove the Drawbar Caps all 10 of them.

2. Get some thick foam like two of them, and lay your keyboard upside down.

3. Make sure the side where the pitch bender is there is no foam underneath.

4. Remove the screws with a Philips screwdriver on the bottom. There are 3 different screws look at the photo each color is a different group of screws. Work your way from the outside to inside when loosening. Than remove the plastic on the bottom.

5. Disconnect the two Keyboard Cables from the Jack Board. Be super careful with these, use both of your hands and both of your thumbs, be gentle as possible.

6. Remove the 8 screws from the keyboard assembly. Two screws on each side, be very careful with these when loosening, the plastic support is very flimsy.

7. Remove the Keyboard Assembly. Note! This is not a very sturdy assembly it’s made out of plastic and it’s bending like crazy, so use both hands, and don’t support it from the two ends. Put your palm under the keys like 1 foot from each end inward and place it on another table with a soft blanket.

8. Find the Harmonic Bar Printed Circuit Board (see photo) and remove that zip tie on the left. Cut the zip tie, but be very careful not to cut the wires otherwise you’re in big trouble...

9. Disconnect the Ribbon Cables A and B from the Jackboard.

10. Now, this is where the tricky part comes in. You have to remove 8 screws.

The 4 screws marked with blue arrows are a piece of cake, but the ones marked with red arrows... now that’s where things are getting crazy. The problem is that the Jackboard is right above the Harmonic Board, and in order to put a regular Philips screw driver on those screws you would have to remove the Jackboard, which has more connections, bells and whistles, and I don’t play that game, so I didn’t want to go down that route, and here is what I did, go to the next step…

11. For those 4 screws that are a pain in the #$%$ … beep… beep..., I used a Philips screwdriver bit, and a crescent adjustable wrench. You can use a smaller one, or anything else as a matter of fact as long as it fits between those PCB boards and you are able to turn that Philips drive bit and loosen those 4 screws.

NOTE! You must be very very careful, and patient, not to hit anything with that wrench. Those screws are not very tight, in no time they should come out. Be careful around that screw that is close to the ribbon cable “B”, DO NOT damage that with the Philips screw driver bit.

12. Congratulations! If you removed all of the 8 screws, now you can remove the Harmonic Bar PCB. Be careful with that Ribbon Cable “B”, as you remove the board, that Ribbon Cable “B” will also come along, so fish that out carefully from under the Jackboard, also take a picture and note its position, you’ll need it when you’ll reassemble it.

13. And it’s Finally Out!

14. Now, these are 10 K Ohm slider pots or linear potentiometers. You will need 10 of them! According to Roland these have the following magic part number:

RS301111A01G

Write this number down for future reference, and guard it with your life :)).

15. Question is where to get the parts from? Well, don’t worry, I did the leg work for you…

Go to Mouser Electronics (I don’t work for them), I included a link below to their website, and order as many as you’d like. A Roland BK-9 needs 10 linear pots, I would order some extra ones, in case you'll need them in the future.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Alps-Alpine/RS301111A01G?qs=6EGMNY9ZYDQJz7Y655fPIQ%3D%3D

16. Once you received the new parts you have to make a decision, you either do it yourself the installation (soldering the parts on the Harmonic PCB), or give it to someone else. If you are new to soldering, I don’t recommend you to do it! Give it to someone who has experience!

17. Once the slider pots are installed (soldered onto the Harmonic PCB), the installation of the Harmonic PCB back into the Roland BK-9 is the reverse of removal.

18. Enjoy your new sliders!

Wow, this is great! Thanks for doing all of that research and sharing it with us!!

You're welcome.

This is amazing, and a life saver for me. I’ve had the issue for three years or so on my gigging BK-9 (but not on my studio one, so I’ve still been able to set up Performances) and I was under the impression (given me by a Roland support technician) that the sliders were surface mount components and the only solution was a complete replacement slider board, which was out of production and completely unavailable worldwide! Yikes!

To say I was mad at Roland would be an understatement, a critical component with a high usage factor unavailable after only three years of product life is completely unacceptable… 😡🤬😤

So Dengizich’s work here has been a lifesaver!

I am curious why you bought 24 sliders for a 10 slider board, though. Was there a minimum order? Or you just wanted some backup?

Next thing you might possibly take a look at is the pitch bend lever potentiometer. You CAN still get replacement levers from Roland, but you have to buy the entire assembly, you can’t buy just a replacement potentiometer. I go through bend levers at a crazy rate (they last about a couple of years with high use!) and I’d sure prefer a cheap pot replacement rather that a $50 whole unit..! Any chance at taking a look at it? It’s generally the bend pot, not the modulation pot that goes, it gets a bit glitchy, and won’t do smooth bends…

Once again a huge shout-out to Dengizich for his diligence in sourcing this much needed repair procedure. Great to have such a knowledgeable member here! 👍🏼🎹😎

Edit: can’t believe I was stupid enough to get the name wrong! My apologies 😨😳🤯

I wonder who's Kabin?

I bought 25 pieces just for backup. With Mouser Electronics there is no minimum, you can buy one if you'd like. Mouser Electronics is a very good source for electronic parts.

By any chance, do you have the old Pitch Bender assembly?

I have two or three! I fixed my own gig BK twice and a friend’s gig one once…

You want me to send you one? Email me a mailing address, I’ll get one to you.

No worries, that was funny.