Repairing a Kawai CA 78 (clicking keys)

[@PianothShaveck]

I have had a Kawai CA 78 since 2019. I have never repaired it, partly due to lack of time and experience, but I have continued to play it, so it currently has an absurd amount of problems. In the pedalboard, a spring broke at the resonance pedal; the only work I did to the instrument was to move the spring from the middle pedal to the right pedal, so I only have two working pedals, but at least they are the two that are used most often (not that I never used the middle one, on the contrary). But the keyboard... Ah, the keyboard. It has so many problems, it's not even funny. Random hard keys, keys that click, a key that often doesn't play at all, keys that get slightly stuck... There isn't a single octave of the instrument that doesn't have some kind of problem. Before this Kawai CA 78, I had a very old Clavinova, and I had it for about ten years, if I'm not mistaken. That too was full of little problems, and certainly the mechanics of the instruments were of inferior quality, but it never reached such a state. I gather that there is definitely something deeply wrong with the construction of the Kawai CA 78. Either way, great job on the video: there aren't many guides like this, I've seen them mostly in other languages

[@Flea-Flicker]

I think the stuff you have at the ends of those keys is something Kawai calls SLIP TAPE.

[@cirkmannzirkel8229]

Yes, I learned that only in the aftermath. But so far, all works well with this fix, the keys have even less imbalance on playing them than with the originals.

[@MarkGroffod]

Please do proper research before butchering your expensive delicate instruments. The items on the key are called sliptapes, older Kawai are known for this problem. They need to be replaced by either original or classic felt tapes, there is a procedure on how to do this properly. The rings you are missing are for fine-adjusting every single key, you dont just put one here or there. Tape is not a proper material to repair a piano key. Why did you not ask in a piano forum first or at least try a search engine? This poor Kawai... 😢

[@cirkmannzirkel8229]

I did, and couldn't find the correct solution before. I did find it after completing this video though. You're totally right that there is a correct fix for this and mine is not. However, so far I couldn't find anything wrong with my fix when playing the instrument, and to me, that's what counts. And if it really causes a new problem down the road, at least now I know more than before on how to approach this. Having seen the original slip tapes, I don't see - yet, maybe! - how the duct tape cover wouldn't work as a solution against the stickiness without changing the dampening beneath (if you don't create too much tension). And from what I've read on other forums so far, this seems to be only one of many problems the Kawais get with age. And I'm far from a proper service, and too busy to put in more research and time. EDIT: I just found the official KAWAI service's guidance for replacing them (link at the end of the description), and since these guidelines offer a lot of freedom on the materials used for replacement, I don't see anything wrong with this simple fix anymore. So if this fix works for someone, that's good, and if you are able to do it better and more properly, good for you and go for it!