Hi, Everyone!
Just wanted to touch base and tell you that I found a great repair guy a short distance from where I live. I posted awhile back on the forum that I was having problems with buttons not performing well. They got so bad that about 8 to 10 of them started performing erratically. Pressing various buttons, the cursor would go crazy across the screen and would not stop. It got so bad that I just couldn't use the keyboard. I thought after so much use that it was ready for the dumpster. Years ago, I used a man that was a Technics repairman when I needed a repair on the KN6000 that I had at the time. That was about 9 years ago. He was 120 miles from me and did work on church organs in a city about 55 miles from where I live. I met him in that city, he picked up the keyboard and when he came back to that city, I met him and picked it up. You can see that it was an inconvenience. Anyway, at the time, the man was in his seventies. I doubt he is alive or if so, even doing any repair work. I called locally if anyone worked on keyboards and got a fast, NO. I decided to call a local TV repairman and he said that he didn't work on keyboards but a friend of his that was about 15 miles from both of us did and for me to call him. The guy was also a TV repairman. I called, he told me to bring over the keyboard and I also brought the repair manual (Thanks to Nigel with being able to download it.) and I explained what the problem was. He said that the manual would be a little help but he really needed to see inside the keyboard. As it turned out, his wife had an old Technics keyboard from the late 1980s that needed repairing and he worked on it for her. He decided to replace over 50 buttons. He didn't want to take a chance since I had used the keyboard so much and it was the best thing he could have done. He was easily able to get the parts from a place in Texas. I am here in the U.S. He even bought enough extra just in case I have any future problems.
He told me that he doesn't understand why the panic of not being able to get parts for the KN7000. He said that most of the parts in the keyboard are pretty standard and used in other electronics. Apparently, Japanese companies bought out Panasonic parts and likely continued producing them or they are basically standard that is used in other keyboards and electronics. I just thought that what I have experienced with the KN7000 needing repair would be of interest for you if you should have any problems in the future.
All the best,
Mark