Sustain pedal

[Erica]

Okay, please forgive me for my lack of knowledge here. Been playing acoustic piano for over 20 years, so I have no idea what I'm doing. I bought a Yamaha p60s off some guy because my acoustic doesn't fit in my house. Somehow, during transport, the sustain pedal jack (on the actual piano) got broken. I called around and it's almost as much to fix the jack as I paid for the piano. I have no idea what MIDI does. All I know is somehow you can hook your computer to it and make wonderful sounds? I found MIDI controllers online that have a sustain pedal input. Can I somehow rig one of these up to my piano and computer to make me have a sustain pedal? I have a macbook with only a usb c connection. If this isn't possuble, is there ANY work around for getting a sustain pedal to work with it? I'm so upset. I have been without a piano for over 3 years because my acoustic won't fit. I was so excited to get this electric piano and now I can't even have a sustain pedal work with it.

 

[Biggles]

Welcome.

Sorry to hear of your problem, can I ask you to clarify if the Piano is working at all?

If the transportation of your P60 was via a paid for service then they are liable for the damage and hence should pay for the repair.

If it was DIY transportation then to damage the jack would have required quite an impact. Without further research quite possibly if the jack socket is attached to the electronic circuit board then that in turn may be damaged to some degree, hence hymI asked if the Piano is functioning.

Your Macbook has or can have the free Apple App called Garage Band, if you do not have it, then if you install it and then plug in using a standard USB cable and you are good to go. I will leave it for others with more knowledge of the MIDI connection interfaces to answer that part of your post.

BTW. There are plenty of Youtube tutorials on using Garage Band.

If all works fine then yes, add an interface, but I would not get an interface yet, just make sure things work first.

The sustain pedal on a digital piano is only a simple switch, and if you know anyone handy at DIY then could always open up the piano and solder up a flying lead with a socket on the end of the lead to the circuit board where the existing jack socket connects, then your sustain pedal will function by simply plugging in the pedal into the socket on the end of the flying lead.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

The Service Manual is available for free at ElektroTanya:

http://elektrotanya.com/?q=showresult&what=Yamaha "P-60S"&kategoria=&kat2=all

I don't recommend trying to repair it yourself unless you're knowledgeable and experienced with such things and have the right tools, but you might want to grab the Service Manual anyway, especially if you happen to know someone else who might be knowledgeable, experienced, and equipped with the right tools.

I haven't looked at the Owner's Manual yet to see what connections and MIDI implementation the P-60S has, but it might be possible to turn the sustain on and off via MIDI.

 

[Erica]

Welcome.

Sorry to hear of your problem, can I ask you to clarify if the Piano is working at all?

If the transportation of your P60 was via a paid for service then they are liable for the damage and hence should pay for the repair.

If it was DIY transportation then to damage the jack would have required quite an impact. Without further research quite possibly if the jack socket is attached to the electronic circuit board then that in turn may be damaged to some degree, hence hymI asked if the Piano is functioning.

Your Macbook has or can have the free Apple App called Garage Band, if you do not have it, then if you install it and then plug in using a standard USB cable and you are good to go. I will leave it for others with more knowledge of the MIDI connection interfaces to answer that part of your post.

BTW. There are plenty of Youtube tutorials on using Garage Band.

If all works fine then yes, add an interface, but I would not get an interface yet, just make sure things work first.

The sustain pedal on a digital piano is only a simple switch, and if you know anyone handy at DIY then could always open up the piano and solder up a flying lead with a socket on the end of the lead to the circuit board where the existing jack socket connects, then your sustain pedal will function by simply plugging in the pedal into the socket on the end of the flying lead.

Biggies,
I did transport it myself. It's just a little piano (probably weighs 40 lbs at most). I have no idea how I broke it. Sometimes things happen to me that I could not do if I wanted to, and tried to do. -_- All I know is, it was working fine in the home of the person who sold it to me. I took out the cord for travel and when I got home, the jack was broken. Audio out works fine. Power cable jack is fine. I haven't tried the MIDI connections because, again, I really have no idea what I am doing with that. I took off the outer shell of the piano and figured out that what I believe to be the circuit board the input is attached to, is completely broken off and severed from the rest of the circuit board, which has all of the other inputs and outputs connected to it.

There are only 3 shops that repair these things within a 2 hour drive and all want well over $400. I just do not have it right now. I do have a friend that is handy with electronics and knows how to solder circuit boards but I'm guessing at this point I would probably need a whole new circuit board for all of the inputs and outputs since they are connected to the same piece? I don't think it would work to solder the pieces back together? Where would I get a new one?

I'm sorry I sound so uneducated right now. I can figure out computer codes, tell you in detail about any world history event, excel at math, fix any computer software issue, but electronic hardware.... that's about where all that intelligence comes to screeching halt. I took apart an almost new iPhone once to replace the screen and couldn't get it back together. I was scarred for life after that when it came to hardware issues so I refuse to touch this and I'm almost afraid to have someone else even do it for fear of making a bad situation worse.

I think I'm going to download garage band and see if the MIDI works first. My computer ONLY has a USB C connection (Apple's way of making us pay more money for connectors) so I ordered a USB-C to USB connector cable today. I am hopeful that there is nothing wrong with MIDI connections since they are on the same side as Audio out and power and those work fine. (The sustain pedal is on the far side and that is what broke off). I guess I will find out when my cable gets here.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Erica]

The Service Manual is available for free at ElektroTanya:

http://elektrotanya.com/?q=showresult&what=Yamaha "P-60S"&kategoria=&kat2=all

I don't recommend trying to repair it yourself unless you're knowledgeable and experienced with such things and have the right tools, but you might want to grab the Service Manual anyway, especially if you happen to know someone else who might be knowledgeable, experienced, and equipped with the right tools.

I haven't looked at the Owner's Manual yet to see what connections and MIDI implementation the P-60S has, but it might be possible to turn the sustain on and off via MIDI.

SeaGtGruff,
THANK YOU! As I was telling the other poster, I have a friend who can solder circuit boards back together and when I was talking to him last night, he was asking me to get him a service manual so he could look at it. I looked all over the web and had no luck. I'm still not sure if he will be able to do it, but this is a step in the right direction.

I haven't done too much tinkering in the ways of messing with MIDI. My computer doesn't have a USB input, only USB-C so I had to order a USB to USB-C cord today so I can even hook it to my computer. (Thanks for that design, Apple). I can tell you, literally all I know is that it has MIDI output and MIDI input jack in the back. I found the manual online, but since I don't really know what I'm doing, it kind of sounds like a foreign language to me. When I get the right cable, I'm just going to plug it in and mess around with it until I become more comfortable. What I found online was this https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...xALF3dZpyME6mDjDt3nQKm0dYm6fOWOxoCxPUQAvD_BwE Could I somehow just hook this thing up to the piano with the sustain pedal, without the whole computer set-up, or no?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

The ElektroTanya site can be a little confusing to download from the first time you use it, so let me explain the process. After you click on the link I posted, you'll need to click on the link for the manual. Then you'll need to wait a little bit-- less than a minute, but it might seem like half a minute-- until the word "processing" below the document preview window changes into the words "Get Manual." That is what you must click on to download the manual-- the words "Get Manual."

I'm not sure about that MIDI Solutions Pedal Controller, because the ad says it's for an expression pedal, not a sustain pedal. Most sustain pedals are an on/off type of switch, whereas an expression pedal puts out a range of values from 0 to 127. It might work, but I'm not sure.