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As I've understood, synthetic Ivory shall absorb dampness from fingers. But now I encountered one review in Harmony Central which stated that on some (?) keyboards the synthetic Ivory wears down quickly.

I want to hear anyone with either a Roland (RD-700GX for example), Kawai or CVP/CLP Yamaha give their view on this matter. Does synthetic Ivory wear down and look ugly within one year of heavy use?

Discolored?

The synthetic ivory keys on the Clavinvos is the same material used on the keytops on the CFIII $150,000+ concert grand.

This issue was only dedicated the first deliveries launched by Roland

I just traded in my CLP-240 after 3 years of heavy use, and the keys looked like the day I bought them.

Marty, I notice that Yamaha use the term 'Ivorite' to describe the key surface material used on acoustic pianos (and also the Avant Grand), but 'synthetic ivory key tops' when referring to digital pianos. May I ask if you know why this might be the case? Are they really the same material?

Kind regards,
James
x

They may be trying to maintain a cache for their up-scale products. Looks and feels like the same stuff to me. The term Ivorite also refers to synthetic ebony sharps that are not used on the Clavinovas.

Hello Marty, thank you for your prompt response.

Without wishing to confuse matters further, in Japan the CFIII actually adopts real ivory for the white key surfaces.

Moreover, the terms 'Ivorite' and 'Synthetic ivory' are written as ニューアイボリーII ('New Ivory II') for acoustic instruments, and 象牙調 (translates as 'ivory-like') for digital pianos respectively.

Kind regards,
James
x

James, when you mention "real ivory", do you know from which animal the ivory comes? I guess it's not elephant material, but some kind of tooth from another mammal?

No, I believe it is real ivory, from Elephant tusks.

Kind regards,
James
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But isn't elephant an endangered species?

It seems the CFIIIS use Ivorite.

According to Internet knowledge Ivorite is a piece of plastic, just like my P-85.

Some companies are given special dispensation to use elephant ivory if they can certify it is pre-embargo. Other sources are different types of tusk or bone.

Key coverings are standard white plastic on P-85. Yes, Ivorite is in fact a plastic. However, it is treated and textured and colored to symulate the look and the feel of Ivory. Kawai has a similar developed product termed Neotex.

I had the same concerns before I bought my RD-700GX, I read a number of reviews (many on this site) of people talking about their keys deteriorating and becoming rougher and discoloured over time. It's only been 3-4 months for me, but so far so good! No problems at all yet

The only thing I guess I'd add is that, for every review you see on the internet of someone complaining about their key problems, there's probably 10 or 100 owners out there that don't have that problem! I rang Roland and spoke to a support/service guy before I boguht mine and he said he'd only heard of 1 keyboard ever coming back with that problem (take that as you will, he seemed genuine, but no doubt was probably a bit biased!)

Our company sells hundreds of Yamaha products with the Ivorite, synthetic ivory, key coverings each year. I have never heard of one single issue with this material in the last fifteen years.

30 or so years ago when Yamaha debuted its first generation of this material there were problems with discoloration and some cracking, never a wear issue. This has all been ironed out decades ago with subsequent iterations and evolutions.