All of the D keys and the high C key on my KeyLab 61 MKII have yellowed. It has stayed in my studio and has never been in direct sunlight. Seems really bizarre to me especially with a keyboard at this price point. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
Hi @Jazzpunk and welcome to The Sound Explorers Forum!
Hmm, yes that’s a strange on indeed, particularly odd is that only the D and highest C are affected.
If it is still under warranty i’d suggest contacting the vendor to discuss a repair/replacement/refund options.
If it’s out of warranty, please log in to your account to contact our support team to see if they can help you.
HTH!
In the worst case scenario, if it IS out of warranty and support aren’t able to help, it would be worth trying the UV Light and Hydrogen Peroxide method of cleaning and restoring, again though i’d check with support to make sure it won’t damage the keys.
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Thanks Mat. I reached out to support to see if they can offer any insight or possible solution. It’s not a deal breaker for me as I really like this controller.
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As it’s only all the D keys and the top key, and the others are totally fine, to me it looks like a manufacturing defect of some kind, as though Fatar used a different chemical makeup or forgot to add something on those keys.
Mind you, I would also expect others to have the same problem with just those keys.
Can’t see how you could do something that would cause just those particular keys to yellow, if all were yellow it would be a different matter, but just those keys doesn’t make sense.
Hopefully (well not hopefully, you know what I mean), others will report the same problem, then you have far more chance of successfully arguing that it’s nothing your end. And hopefully get them to replace those keys, regardless of whether it’s out of warranty.
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Fatar do not make the keyboards. Only the weighted keys on the KL88. The rest are PRC-sourced.
I suspect OP won’t unfortunately be able to resolve this issue via either Arturia nor their supplier because of the length of time involved (out of warranty). There are dozens maybe hundreds of videos online how to retrobrite yellowed plastics. But you do need a certain amount technical competence to get the keys out to start with (full disassembly of the keybed).
Thanks, I learn something new everyday.
I presume PRC is The Peoples Republic of China?
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Yeah, no response from Arturia support so assuming I’m on my own with this. Doesn’t effect playability so not the end of the world but it will make me hesitant to purchase future hardware from Arturia.
One solution is to find someone who isn’t scared of taking the whole thing apart, and learn how to retrobrite faded plastics using a bath of hydrogen peroxide in a clear plastic or glass tank, and UV light. There are dozens of retrobriting tutorials online to show you how. Now that Spring is here you might even be able to get away with using the actual sun as your source of UV. I live in NW England…so yeah…that’s barely an option except for about 6 weeks variably between May and July. I use UV lights.