Kawai Synthesizers

If it is like mine and I remember correctly........

You should have a cone shaped hole with the stick in the center...

Inside under the casing there is a free moving plastic, rubber, or metal square plate (I forgot what it is made of). A hole is drilled in the center of it, and the 'stick' pokes through this center hole. It is to works as a 'splash-guard' or to try to keep garbage out of and away from the inside of the joystick.

First: I'd go with the dry cleaning... take a vaccume and move the joystick all over while sucking any crumbs or hairs that might be floating on the pad/plate. See if it dose the trick?

Third: While your waiting for it to dry USE IT... and play with it a lot!!!! UP/DOWN/Left/Right/ top corners/ bottom corners, in an 'X' pattern, and don't forget the ever fun 'Round-About' over and over for a long time... heheh sit and watch TV and just keep moving it around for an hour or so. IF it is carbon perhaps you can ware it off. If it dry and that’s a no GO!

........Next would be to open the case. YUK! If you have a way to dump your patches to card or computer, dump both the banks, and the single patches. Some where on here there is a posting on how to change the battery, and which one to buy. You might as well get a new one, and replace it if you going to open the thing up! If you do open it up keep the vaccume handy... you'll be amazed as to how much crap gets inside those things. If I remember correctly the bottom unscrews (a copple on the back) and it lifts off. And for some reason I remember it being a pain in the butt to get to the 'top' side of the circuit board. I don’t remember why, but it just was not as much fun as it sounded when I started my project. There was something that I just didn't expect and it was not fun... maybe it was ribbon cables or all kinds of connectors I forgot what it was. Ohh.. it was cleaning the key pad rubbers! When your looking in the phone book for a place that sells the correct battery, also look for an electronic supply store. When your there ask them for there best advice as to what they have or what you can use to 'spray' inside a POT (or potentiomiter) that will clean off the the carbon with out needing to take apart the joystick or the 'potentiomiters.' You want something that is NON=CAROSIVE and will evaperate clean and quickly. A long time ago in the USA they sold a product called 'BLAST'. I'm not sure if they sell it any more. It was liquid eathely-nitrite, and when sprayed into a rag and inhaled causes one hell of a high, at least until the head-ache set in . Kids were using it to much and I think it was outlawed..... but you can now find it behind the counter at sex shops (sex world), that along, with rush, jungle juice, and all the other 'poppers' from the 70's. But get it from a real electronic store or what ever they recommend is the best stuff to use... Get the best stuff because you don't want to have to take the synth apart again unless you have to.

WHAT IS A JOYSTICK, and how the heck do I clean it???: Once you get inside the synth, unscrew the stick and lift off the plate. vaccum out anything that may have fallen under the plate. The joystick itself will more then likely be a plastic cube. Stick coming out of the top, and two round metal things attached to it. These will be 90 degrees from each other not across from each other. These are the 'POTs' (potentiomitors), and what are causing the problem. The spray you have should come with a small straw, find a hole around the casing of the pots, and spray the heck out of it... then quickly start moving the joystick around and all over. The stuff will usually evaporate very fast... so repeat it often with each of the 'pots' one at a time.

Replace the battery, put it back together, and hope that it's clean enough. not to cause any further problems. IF this don't do the trick... you can opt to get the specs on the joy-stick and replace it your self if you feel comfortable with a soldering gun. -or- 2. if you can figure out if it's the up/down 'POT' or the LEFT/RIGHT 'POT', and it bothers you enough to go back in.... I can explain how to dismantle the actual 'pots' and use the spray and a ladies fingernail file or a match book strike pad to polish all the carbon off the contacts.

To tell you the truth, if the joystick only acts up in one very small area.... and the first 3 options don't fix it.... Id be to lazy to worry about it... as long as you can move it to a location to not cause the problem while setting the banks/sound patches.... Is there any reason to use the joystick? when actually playing the synth???? hummm... I don't think I have ever used it for anything other then to move/jump around the menus while changing the settings

TO ANYONE OUT THERE>>>>>......... Please add anything to THIS post if you have any other quick fixes for our friend from Italy.

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In addition; TO ANYONE OUT THERE>>>>> I have really started to wonder...... Is there a use for the joystick on a k1 or k1-][ other then for jumping through the settings/menus??? I’m talking about during playing/using the keyboard?????? hummm this really has me wondering what other functions can be assigned to it??? If you have any experience on this please post it in a new thread... I'd really like to know how, and what you have done with it. I'd post it in a new thread myself, but frankly... it's been years since I have been to SpamY-AHhooooooOOOooooooo I'm not even sure what my log in is, password, and how I would even find this kawai site anymore.... I read every posting that finds my mail box, but I kind of gave up on the place when no-one could/would recommend a great patch/bank/tone editor for the K1-][ and the PC. I did have one YEARS ago that you could actually use the mouse to create the wave forms for the sound patches. Dump the multi banks, all the patches, or a single bank or a single patch, rename, move, copy, edit effects, etc..... It did it all and it was slick...... but that program crashed and My bars and pipes (MIDI software) also started acting up when I upgraded my Old amiga 2500 from work bench 1.3 to OS 2.0. I was very sad that day! It must have been in 1992 or around there.