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[TomBom]

I sent my 4 year old Welty for repair and retuning. The main issue is the keyboard: two springs suddenly were too soft so the pallets do not close fully and leak some air. In addition to that annoyingingly almost all the button levers have some lateral travel in their slots. For example when waggling a finger up and down a bit when pressing down a button the pallet has considerable play. There are even a few levers where pallets clash when pressing down two adjacent buttons (e.g. in the attached foto 4th & 5th pallet from the left).
Shimming a lever with paper helps a lot. So it seems the levers were sanded down too much.

I tried to get a new keyboard from the Weltmeister factory. They said I'd need to get it from one of their dealers. So I contacted the dealer where I bought the box - they told the dealer the best thing would be to send in the box for repair. So again phoning the company to clarify and to get a price assuming them to change the keyboard. The only way I could get a price is to send in the instrument and pay for a cost estimate. Considering they are in administration (insolvency proceddings) and only working three days a week I gave up.
So in theory I could get spare parts - next time I would rather buy a chinese Hohner.

Is there any other possibility than shimming the relevant levers with paper? And how durable would that be?

[savantuk]

Hi,

It's difficult to be exactly sure what the problem is, but over the years, I've found that removing the spring and stretching it restores the required amount of tension to the springs.

Whatever the problem, I'm fairly certain that the problem could be easily solved by sending the keyboard to Theo, Rees, or any of the other esteemed builders/repairers that ingabit these pages.  I have no doubt whatsoever that one or the other will rsolve any issues you have.

Please don't send it back to Germany, particularly if the company is having insolvency issues.  You my never see it again!!

Harmona is the new parent company for Weltmeister, but the UK importer's website is no longer available.  Thomann.de is selling to UK from their German base, so they may be able to help.  Thomanns is a great company to deal with.  Good luck.

[Theo]

From the description I don't think it is just weak springs, the Le levers an pallets seem to have much more sideways movement than they should. This is by easy to fix with this type of keyboard because it means that the holes that the axle rod passes through have become enlarged. If that is true then the solution is to remove the axle rod and team purge holes to take a thicker axle rod.  Quit a lot of work, and night cost more than could be justified.

[pgroff]

Hi TomBom,

Among my spare parts for repairs I have a new & unused keyboard/button/lever/pallet assembly for their 4 stop, 1-row box. This one is black. Located in Miami, Florida, USA. I don't think it would be expensive (will have to check the price) but postage might be prohibitive depending on your location.

Paul Groff

[TomBom]

Thanks to everyone for your helpful replies.

I should have mentioned that I am located in Germany. Unfortunately Harmona is the company having insolvency issues. I heard they sharpely decreased production and concentrate on selling what they already have in stock. So I am likely to come away empty-handed.

If that is true then the solution is to remove the axle rod and team purge holes to take a thicker axle rod.  Quit a lot of work, and night cost more than could be justified.

Yes it feels totally worn out. I suppose repairing would be costly.

Paul, thanks for your offer. I will PM you on Monday. There is a small chance I could get a replacement by a repairer from Klingenthal. If not I'd rather have a black keyboard on an instrument with natural beech finish.

[pgroff]

Hi Tom,

I understand! I saw from your photo that your keyboard is natural.

Best of luck finding the right replacement part, and let me know if my black one (unused replacement part, including the keyboard housing, levers, buttons, pallets, springs all assembled and in new condition) might be useful. 

I'd sell it for $50 US plus shipping, which would probably cost $15 US.

Best regards,

Paul Groff
Miami, FL, USA

[invadm]

Hi Tom,

I understand! I saw from your photo that your keyboard is natural.

Best of luck finding the right replacement part, and let me know if my black one (unused replacement part, including the keyboard housing, levers, buttons, pallets, springs all assembled and in new condition) might be useful. 

I'd sell it for $50 US plus shipping, which would probably cost $15 US.

Best regards,
 
Paul Groff
Miami, FL, USA

I will buy your key board if it's still up for sale  I will also PM you

[pgroff]

Hi invadm,

Thanks very much! TomBom was going to get back to me after consulting with his repairman.  I hope you'll agree it's fair for him to have the option to buy it for another week, but if he passes I'll offer it to you next.

Thank you,

Paul Groff
Miami, Florida, USA

[invadm]

Yes of course,  I agree..if TomBom passes than I’ll buy it..did not mean to step on his toe  ..standing by   

[TomBom]

I can pass it on, I will get some kind of repair with replacement parts from the Weltmeister factory or some kind of replacement construction.
We are all happy now, I hope!

PS: And thanks to Paul for the offer and holding it back.

[invadm]

OK than it is mine  all happy indeed

[TomBom]

I finally got a new keyboard installed by a Klingenthal repairman.
Not too much improvement, though. The levers' holes (where the axle rod passes through) were a bit too large, so again lateral movement of the levers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbEgpvb20E.
In addition to that the levers were sanded down too much so they were too thin.

The repair cost me 242 € for the keyboard and 60 € for adjusting it to the box. After getting it back from repair the box was heavily leaking air, so I sent it back for rework. So IMO it#s quite pointless trying to get replacement parts from Weltmeister.
Finally replaced the axle rod (2 mm) with a thicker one (2.5 mm) and tried to narrow the keyboard slots by gluing in some veneer. It's working perfectly well now - better than ever.

In the end all I needed was:
bicycle spoke (2.34 mm) - used as a drill
a piece of veneer (1 mm thick)
steel rod (2.5 mm)

It took 8 months for delivery and rework. Hey ho