Pianet Sticky Pad Issues

[theseacowexists]

Has anyone else ever had issues with their 'sandwich' style Pianet replacement pads?  I'm having trouble with a brand new set where the foam itself is tearing apart.  Could they be too sticky?  Keyshafts sitting too low?  Just wanted to see if anyone else has had these issues, since I have not read about anything like this happening with brand new pads. 

On a slightly related note, what methods are there to adjust the height of the keyshafts, short of buying the clavinet.com tool?

[OZDOC]

On the foam failure - you should talk this through directly with the supplier to sort out whether it is a material failure or something in your instrument.

Pianet pad shafts should always be perfectly straight. If they have been bent by a previous owner to accommodate plastic pads then they should be straightened back to their original condition.

Bending shafts was never part of the original instrument requirement and has only come about in recent years as a result of non-foam pads. Non-foam pads are known to cause static discharge issues in Pianets.

[theseacowexists]

So if the shaft is straight, is it acceptable for the foam to compress as the pad rests on the reed?

[OZDOC]

Yes, that is what it is supposed to do.
Can you post a photo so that we can see what you are concerned about?

[theseacowexists]

The first image shows the first few keys on the bass side of the keyboard.  The shafts seem to be straight for the most part.  All across the keyboard, the black keys seem to sit a bit lower than the white keys.  The pads first started tearing on the black keys, but now it seems to have been happening just as much with the white keys.  The second image shows my finger on a key that sits particularly low, I was trying to get a shot of how compressed the foam was.  The final image shows two of the torn pads.

Below is a link to a video of one of the black keys being played.  When I depress the key slowly, you can see how the foam kind of stretches before the pad releases from the reed.  Not as noticeable when I depress the key quickly (normal playing style). 




https://youtu.be/pGefP1qbW30

[OZDOC]

Firstly, the shafts should be straight - so don't alter this.
Because they are made from aluminium they are relatively easy to bend - so there is some chance that a previous tech has slightly bent rods to align with reeds - rather than adjusting the reed.
When this was new the blue felt would have been uncompressed under all the shafts and held the pads a little higher - but this should not be an issue.
The copper wire that has been laid on the felt is not part of the original equipment - and because it has the effect of preventing the rod from sitting as low on the felt as it originally would it may be that someone has pressed heavily of each rod to get them to embed in the felt so that each pad makes contact with the reed again.
This earthing wire and the copper ribbon on the rods are both things that became part of Pianet servicing while the only commercially available replacement pads were solid silicone (similar to the Pianet T pads). These solid plastic pads in the Pianet N cause tribocharging - the generation of an electrical spark as the pads rise. The copper earths were a way of reducing the severity of this and should not be necessary with authentic replica foam and leather pads.
In your video the compression and stretching of the pads on lowering and raising is exactly what is supposed to happen.
I have Ken Rich pads from the first batch he made and replica pads I made myself from before this that have lasted several years.
So you need to talk directly with Ken as it may be that they changed the supplier of the foam and the current batch is of a material that is too mechanically weak for the job. If so you will not be the only one that is having trouble.
The silicone oil that is the wetting adhesive on the leather is available in various strengths but I'd talk to Ken about the foam first.

[theseacowexists]

The copper ribbon on the keyshafts was added by me.  It reduced a ton of noise, regardless of what kind of pads I was using.  It doesn't appear that it ever had silicone pads on it, since the original (deteriorated) pads were still on there when I bought it. 

Ken sent me a few replacement pads.  The only visible difference that I can tell is that the replacements have a much thinner piece of leather than the "defective" set.  Otherwise the foam appears to be identical.  I guess I will wait and see how they hold up and report back here later on.

[Rumi]

Yes, please report back about how it's going with the new batch. Thank you!

[theseacowexists]

I've put several of the replacement pads in the Pianet, and after about a month of regular playing, they have held up just fine.  I think it took about a month for the foam on the last batch to start tearing, so we shall see how it goes over the next few weeks.

Oddly enough, this was not the first defective batch of pads that I got from Ken.  On the first set I bought, the leather was not secured to the foam, and would fall right off!  This happened as early as when I first tried taking them out of the package.  Neither the leather nor the foam was damaged, the adhesive between the two just wasn't working.  Apparently this was a flaw that he knew about, so he sent a replacement batch for these - which ended up being the "tearing foam" batch!  He's been really helpful through this process, and I'm grateful that he builds and sells this product.

I've experimented with rescuing the first batch of pads (the ones with the bad adhesive) by gluing the leather and foam back together using Elmer's Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive.  I've done a total of 5 so far and have had them in the Pianet for about a month now without any problem!  So on the bright side, it looks like I may have enough replacement pads to last me a while.

Side note - has anyone else here ever played a model L?  That's the model I have, and there doesn't seem to be too much information out there about this one, aside from the Kingsmen's famous use of it.

[theseacowexists]

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I've continued to have issues with this and have given some thought about a solution.

I have a Pianet N that has been fitted with KRS pads since I got it about 6 months ago. Recently it seems like I'm repairing a torn pad at least once a week. Most of the time it is the foam itself tearing, sometimes it's just the leather coming unattached. Many of the pads are super compressed as they rest on the reeds.

Ozdoc notes that the felt strip the the keyshafts rest on would have been originally uncompressed. The felt strip, especially on this model, is extremely compressed under the keyshafts.

Here's my thought - why not move the felt strip about 1/4" left or right? The felt in between each keyshaft is unaffected by a keyshaft resting on it for 40+ years. The sticky pads would need some time to decompress to the correct height, and I'm sure I'd have to do some minor adjustments to certain keyshafts. Ultimately, the sticky pad would not be doing the felt strip's work of keeping the keyshaft at it's proper level, and I hopefully won't have to worry about breaking a pad every time I play the darn thing.

Has anyone tried anything like this? What were the results?

On a positive note, the pads that I started repairing with spray adhesive nearly a year ago have a 100% success rate!