Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Bought my first DP, now how do I take care of it?

After a long and exhausting search, I finally found the DP for me. I am now the proud owner of a Roland RD300s. I know she's an older model, and she came used, but she is still near flawless and sounds great. I paid $35o for the Roland, a stand, padded bench, sustain pedal and dustcover.

So now that my search is done, what are some handy tips for keeping her healthy and in great shape? There is some dust in a few crevasses - what is the best way to take care of that? Also, does humidity in a room matter for a digital like it does with an acoustic?

Any info you can give will help - I am so new to this, there's still a lot left for me to learn! ((Also, if anyone can give me recommendations on a nice low-cost amp for when I want to play aloud, that would be great! Right now I am just using my Sony studio headphones.))

No advice but congrats on your new DP!

I eat while I'm playing so I drop a lot of food. I keep a small dustbuster type vacuum right next to the piano and use it a lot to suck out dustbunnies and crumbs from between the keys. I keep a container of damp cleaning towelettes handy and use them to wipe the keys off every week or when they get gooky. Humidity by itself won't hurt a DP, but be aware that sudden changes in temperature could be a problem because it can cause moisture to condense on the electronics and metal parts. So if it's by an open window on a cold night and the hot air starts blowing out a vent underneath in the morning, it could cause a problem. Or if it's out on a 3 season porch that has large swings in temperature.

It's essentially a computer, so treat it similar. Keep liquids off of it, and if you want to clean it, don't use chemicals. A damp cloth that's well wrung out so that it doesn't drip and you don't get tons of water out of it when you squeeze it should be all you need to clean it and/or wipe down the keys. I cover mine with a large cloth to keep the dust out when I'm not playing. As for removing the dust that's already in it, as suggested, a dutbuster or vacuum cleaner should work well.