Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Roland "Ivory Feel" key top wear - still an issue?

No one can be certain (as of yet) that anything has been done to correct this, among quite a few Roland digitals that have the ivory keys.

I sent an e-mail to Roland and here was their reply:

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"All of the issues that owners have reported with earlier generations of ivory feel key tops have all been resolved under warranty.

Each generation of Roland products has both major and incremental improvements over previous products. This includes the various keyboard mechanisms that are an integral part of our keyboard line-up."

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So, don't wait too long if you see your keys getting scratched up. Be sure to get the standard plastic replacements which appears to be the alternate option for now, and, do it within the warranty period.

I would quite happily live with standard plastic, the ivory feel is nice but until you could be 100% confident it would last indefinitely the standard stuff is preferable if you have an eye on long-term ownership. Some top-line acoustic grands use standard plastic. It's a non-issue for me.

If Roland have promised to replace ivory feel with standard plastic if the customer requests it following problems then I applaud that.

Does fp7f model also has these problems?

All that this means is they have fixed every single problem that has arose by replacing the discolored/flaked off keys. I did not know they are willing to replace with plastic keys, that is good to know. Seems I should get some money back from them as the plastic keys are probably much cheaper to make than the ivorite ones. But then again, that may not be true either..lol..



Now the question is will they replace the keys out of the one year factory warranty?

The fact that Roland mentions in their e-mail "earlier generations of ivory feel key tops" proves they have at least two generations of ivory they have used for the V-piano. At least that is how I would like to interpret their e-mail response. lol Hopefully that is true.

Wow, nice playing!! What piece is that...I know it but I'm going blank. Great playing.

Thanks, Zachary...

Was it the Rachmaninoff Concerto that caught your ear?

The two pieces performed (as played in listed order), are:

1) Rachmaninoff: First Concerto, Op. 1 (first movement, opening)
2) Chopin: Scherzo No. 2, in B-flat minor, Op. 31 (excerpts)

And, the last thing I play are the chromatic octave scales in both hands.

Hello,

I'm new to Piano World and lurked across the site when I was deciding which digital piano to purchase. I ended up with a Roland RD700NX and three weeks in I noticed the keys starting to wear and flake. Very disappointing.

Emailed Roland and they said it "might need service" but did not indicate that the service would be covered by warranty. The service guy seemed to think not when I called him, which was not very comforting.

I hear of people getting the keys replaced with plastic ones, but I really like the Ivory-feel keys and is one of the reasons I selected the Roland.

In short, can anyone comment on the feel of the plastic keys and/or comment on the wear to the ivory-feel keys over time - does it reach a point where it doesn't get much worse or do you end up with a long-term issue? I can ignore the current scratched, slight grindy feel in certain spots, I just worry about what will happen over time as I've had the piano for only a month or so.

Thanks!

My V-Piano was the first generation model and it developed roughness on its white keys after some months, but never bothered me (I've played lots of old acoustic pianos with ivory keys that are far, far worse - but the roughness helped my fingers to stay on the keys in the heat of performance ), but when Roland took it away to install the Evolution upgrades, I mentioned the wear issue, and they replaced the keytops with what looks like identical 'Ivory-feel' material but which doesn't seem to wear at all, though I've been playing lots of harder stuff since then.

Thanks for the reply. Roland's latest response to me was that they need to see the keyboard before they could determine if it is covered by the warranty. All I've done is play it, so I'm a bit perturbed. But I suppose I will go through the steps and see what happens. I'll report back in case this information is helpful to others.

I have to say, my V-piano is a newer version shipped July 5, 2011 to Musicians Friend when I bought it and it has no issues with the keytops and I play pretty hard. I do try and wash my hands with regular soap before I play and I do keep my nails cut short..lol.. I don't have any Volcano's nearby so pumice isn't readily available lol. I do believe Roland has been able to find a supplier for the Ivory Keytops that don't wear as quickly as the originals.

So if the shipping date from Roland is after July 5, 2011, you can at least be assured that you have an updated ivory keytop that shouldn't wear as fast as the older ones. However Roland will still replace them if they do later on with another ivory set or plastic keys since this is a legitimate problem.

Hello! New user here. Not much of a pianist, but I use one regularly.

I've been in the market for a good stage piano for a while and have been strongly considering the RD700NX. I like the feel of the keybed and it has the right kind of features for my needs.

I finally had an opportunity to play one at GC and was able to compare it to similar keyboards in this range. I noticed the keys of the floor model were dirty, scratched, and had small "hairline" fractures everywhere. They also had a V-Piano (which apparenly has the same keybed) and I noticed the same thing, which prompted me to look into it a bit more. Glad I did because lo and behold, complaints of key wear seems to be fairly common with RD700G/NX keyboards.

So I just wanted to resurect this thread to see if any pianoworld.com RD700NX users are still experiencing this issue? Some posts that say the issue still exists, while other say that Roland has addressed it... Also, if the issue does still exists, is it more of a cosmetic thing? Or does it affect functionality too?

Any advice you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated! This is the one thing that's keeping me from taking the plunge and purchasing this keyboard. Everything about it seems to fit my needs, but I just know I would be pretty disappointed if the thing slowly disintegrated beneath my fingertips over the years...

Thanks in advance for your time!

I have been playing my rd700nx at least four hours a day (often triple this) for a few years now, and nothing.

Seriously therev is nothing to worry about

+1

No wear on my RD700NX or LX-15 either.

I would not say there is nothing to worry about. I had my RD 700 NX keyboard replaced in October under warranty. I wash my hands regularly. 4 months later there are again signs of wear. I have never had this problem with any other keyboard since 1974. Roland has not resolved this issue as far as I am concerned.

I bought mine somewhere in 2011, IIRC.

It had issues and developed scratches, so I got the keybed replaced. Roland here are really offering top notch service; I drove in and got it fixed while they were serving me coffee and biscuits and let me loose in their demo room :-)

I was able to chose to have it replaced with a version having different keytops. They are not as open as the original ones.

They have not shown similar signs of wear during the last year or so; they just look like slightly more shiny due to finger oil.

The surface does indeed feel slightly different (I was told so before Roland did the swap), but it plays equally well ;-)


-- Per.

You should get them replaced with keys that don't have the 'non-slip' coating, which is what abrades off (depending on how you play, how much your fingernails protrude beyond the pulps etc). The original 'ivory-feel' off-white coating feels nice, but frankly the replacement Roland gave me feels just as good, though it looks whiter and, I suppose, less ivory-like.

But we want to save our elephants, don't we?

So I brought the RD 700 back and Roland will be replacing the keyboard a second time on warranty. I was told by the tech that the keyboard was replaced the first time by a new upgraded plastic. I am one of the unfortunate few that this new plastic reacts to. No one mentioned that I need to do a better job of clipping my fingernails.
I am getting second replacement keyboard on warranty and I am thinking I need to sell the Rd before I melt the next keyboard.

I have ordered a Yamaha Cp1 and will be trading in the Roland RD700. The Cp1 should be in next week.

My HP 305 keyboard got wear only 4-5 months since I purchased it. As it was still on warranty I asked for a replacement (I waited some months before calling the tech support staff, only God knows why...). In less than one day I had my piano back with a brand new keyboard. I think this was almost 4 months ago and today there isn't any sign of wear so I guess Roland solved the problem completely. As Bennevis noted, the surface looks to be a little different, it looks brighter and without the non slip coating. Other than that, it feels very good too.