Yamaha p-130 disturbances

[Mainman]

In my classroom I have the above mentioned piano. All of a sudden I'm having a problem with the notes sustaining when I do not use the sustain pedal. When the pedal is not plugged in it's fine. As soon as it goes in the notes sustain. I have to jiggle the cord around until it stops, but it's not a permanent fix. I thought it was a faulty pedal but had the same problem with a brand new pedal. Does anyone know what's going on. It's very frustrating.

I thank you in advance for your consideration in this matter.

Mainman

 

[kanthos]

Plug the pedal in before you turn the keyboard on. Keyboards generally have issues with pedals being plugged in when the keyboard's already turned on.

 

[Mainman]

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[kanthos]

Sorry my reply was so short; I was heading off to bed last night when I posted.

Basically, a sustain/switch pedal sends a current to the keyboard. There are two types of pedals: those which have a positively charged current when the pedal is up and a negatively charged current when the pedal is pressed down, and those that are the opposite. I'd bet that the pedal you have has the opposite polarity to what your keyboard expects (keyboard expects negative when up but the pedal is positive when up, for example). Most keyboards can detect and correct that, but they only try to do so when they're turned on. Some keyboards don't automatically correct for that but will have a setting somewhere that lets you pick the polarity of your pedal: the Korg TR-61 I got yesterday does just that.

Another way you can tell what's happening is if all the notes are automatically sustaining, try to push the pedal down and see if that makes them stop. If so, it's definitely a polarity problem. In general, it's best to buy a pedal from the manufacturer of your keyboard, if possible.

Hope all this helps!

 

[Mourndark]

Most keyboards can detect and correct that, but they only try to do so when they're turned on.

If it still has trouble, try depressing the pedal and holding it while you turn it on, this will hopefully wake it up to the reversed polarity.