I recently had a customer reach out to me reporting that her Yamaha P-155 would not power on. When I inspected the piano, I found a destroyed power adapter and a burned power inlet. I’m not certain what caused it: Damage like this could be caused by not fully inserting the plug, by a power … Read more
Are you having problems with stale cookies? I recently assisted a customer via email who was having trouble using his Disklavier Piano Radio. I discovered the solution on Kevin Busse’s website; he in turn learned the solution from Yamaha’s Noah Jolly. You can read more about Noah Jolly on his website, Ground Grown Circuits. The … Read more
Look closely at the photo above. Your P-525 detects which key you play, and its velocity, with those little rubber contact strips. You can read more about them on my digital piano troubleshooting page. Those tiny white flecks mean the contacts no longer work correctly. The smallest debris—or even a single cat hair—can cause significant … Read more
So you’ve decided to back up your Yamaha Disklavier floppy disks. And now you need a floppy disk drive that can read them! So what’s the best USB floppy disk drive for our purpose, and especially for reading those earlier, pesky 720 KB double-density (DD) variants used by early Disklaviers? This article explores various options, including … Read more
This article is an updated approach to connecting Yamaha Disklaviers to Wi-Fi. Previously, I used Powerline adapters to connect Disklaviers. In those cases, you weren’t technically connecting the Disklavier to Wi-Fi, but were instead bypassing the problem altogether by using the house’s wiring. However, I believe this updated approach is quite simple, somewhat less expensive, … Read more
If you own a Yamaha Disklavier Mark I, II, II XG, or Mark III, you’ve probably noticed that official upgrade paths are limited. The DKC-900 upgrade doesn’t support these models, and the DKC-850—once a lifeline—has now been discontinued for years. But now, PianoStream can offer your older Disklavier renewed life! PianoStream is an easy, affordable … Read more
If you own a Yamaha Clavinova from the early 2000s and you’re noticing some sticking keys or sluggish response, you’re definitely not alone. I get this call a lot. Unfortunately, it’s a design flaw from that era that eventually affects these otherwise excellent instruments. In fact, it’s so common that one person even designed a … Read more
When it comes to digital piano repairs, especially on Yamaha’s P series models, one thing’s for sure—there are a lot of screws. To open the plastic shell of a Yamaha P series digital keyboard, there are no fewer than sixty screws. And it can easily reach down between the hammers to unscrew the keyboard assembly … Read more
A blank LCD screen can render your Yamaha MX100II Disklavier nearly unusable. You can replace these with brand-new LCD screens, which are still available. In the MX100II and DKC5R, this is Yamaha Part #VN635201. The screens are available on Yamaha 24×7, or for a bit cheaper on SynthParts. But the issue is often fixable with … Read more
In short, you probably want to download my blank virtual disk file for the Nalbantov or other emulators. These work on your Disklavier—specifically the Marks I and II—and on your computer. If you have an early Disklavier model like the DKC5R or DKC100R, you might have decided to install a Nalbantov floppy emulator in place … Read more