I have an older Roland FP-8 that has an issue where the keys have a certain stickiness to them when you first play them. On the down stroke, the keys require a bit more pressure than you'd expect and there is a subtle sticky / tacky sound they make when you press the key that first time. Keys return normally and make all the right sounds when played.

If you play the same key again within about 2 minutes, there is no stickiness. But wait 5 minutes and its back.

I tried opening up the keyboard and blowing out all the dust, removing each key and lubricating the whole mechanism, but the issue still there. I didn't clean out all the old lube though, I just added a bit of fresh.

Has anyone seen this on other Roland's and have a fix? Do I need to scrape out all the old lube?

Doing the lubrication I did took a couple of hours and I really don't want to throw away another two hours of my life for a fix that doesn't work.

R

I got the same issue with a 1994 Roland HP-1700 model. The problem may not be as severe as your and it didn't bother me much. I just depress all the keys once before I play to eliminate the initial stickiness. However I gave away the piano a few years ago and have no idea whether the keys are still in good condition today.

As much as I love my Kurzweil, it does this too. Only difference is that mine only does it before each playing session. I can play for quite some time and the issue doesn't recur until the next time I go to play it. I do a full-keyboard glissando before power-up (or sometimes when its booting up) which eliminates the problem, but sometimes I forget and it is annoying.

I don't know this for sure, but it seems that the problem is more pronounced when the room temperature is lower. I'm pretty sure its a lubrication issue. You (and I) may benefit from finding out what Roland/Yamaha/Kawai are currently lubricating their keyboards with and replacing the old grease with that.