Hi all,

Anybody played their arranger close to or at the coast for a long period of time? If so, did you experience any serious rust issues? If so, did you do anything to prevent this?

In this instance, is a arranger in a plastic case like i.e a S950 better suited than for instance an arranger in a metal casing like i.e. the Audya?

Thank you for any feedback,

Henni

The steel frame of my keyboard stand and stool both rusted within a month, however, this was only where the paint had worn and bare metal was exposed. I removed the rust with steel wool, then painted the exposed areas with Rustolium paint and never had the problem again.

I've always considered metal keyboard housings archaic. Not only are some plastics much more durable, but additionally, they are lighter and far more manageable for full time entertainers that must set up at different locations on a daily basis.

All the best,

Gary

Hi Gary,

No salt related problems to your Yamaha at all?

Henni

I wasin Cape May Nj for four years and had a small studio in my garage. I was 7 blocks from the ocean. Its tough on everything there. Homes, cars kept outside, etc. Had heat/air in the studio so mostly kept the window closed and didn't notice any equipment problems. Sometimes just ran the air unit on "dry" setting to get out the humidity.
Just did an outside gig here in the Lowcountry ( translates to super humid ) of South Carolina and the evening mist was so bad I kept wiping my keyboard off and covered it during our one break.
The BK9 is a plastic case but I worry more about what happens inside. I guess all you can do is be as careful as you can and keep all you gear in cases or bags when not in use.

Never had a problem with the keyboard with corrosion of any kind, inside was clean as a whistle. A few nights, though, I actually place sheets of Saran wrap over the keyboard to keep the dew from settling on the keyboard. You would be amazed at how effective that was, and I was able to still play the keyboard, though sometimes I hit a bad note because the Saran wrap pulled down an adjacent key. I had a couple nights when I was playing beneath a Tiki Hut and the humidity was so bad that water dripped off the thatch roof as if it were raining.

All the best,

Gary

I have a 'heat stick' in my Yamaha acoustic piano to control humidity. Has worked great for many years now. There must be something similar for electronic gear. My 'studio' is humidity controlled so no problems but I would be very concerned if I were in a coastal region and my gear was unprotected.

chas

Chas, the PC boards are all coated to protect them from corrosion, something that has been done on micro-electronics for two decades or more. The reason behind this is the extremely low voltages and currents that these systems operate on, thus the slightest amount of moisture would provide a conductive track that could trash the system. I think the only thing that could corrode would be the solder joints, but now these are pure tin, so they shouldn't corrode either. Lead was eliminated from solder a decade ago (EPA requirement).

A lot of the micro-switches are hermetically sealed, so no chance of corrosion on them, and one of our dearly departed members, HankB, had a Yamaha PSR-2000 that he frequently joked had a drinking problem. Someone dumped two gin and tonics in the keyboard one night while he was playing. You would have thought this would have destroyed the keyboard. He turned off the keyboard, dumped out the liquid, then opened it up and dried it with a hair dryer. It's still working to this day, and that was nearly 20 years ago.

Now, I do my best to keep everything bone dry, and while living aboard the sailboat, I ran the AC every night when I came back from playing an outdoor job. I left the gear in the cases, but kept the cases open for at least 8 hours in the AC. However, it only took about 20 minutes in the AC for the outer shell of the keyboard to be bone dry.

All the best,

Gary

Hi all,

Thank you for the feedback. I'm a little less concerned about it now. My gear always look like new, even after many years of use, hence my question.

Cheers,

Henni