Designing, verifying, and manufacturing a new injection molded part is extremely expensive and would be a pretty significant look and feel change to their current lineup. It would naturally cause people to ask “hey, the keys look different, what all is new?” and the answer is “Oh, just the keys” then people start asking “hey why did you change the keys but nothing else?” And then they have to be like “Oh yeah, we sold a whole fuckload of units with keys that like 6 years later we decided aren’t good enough” That is a bad look.
If problem is actually significant enough for Elektron to want to do something about it, they will probably wait for new devices to change the keys, that way they can change a lot of things at once and not highlight just the difference in the keys.
I was actually thinking a 3rd party could develop generic buttons made with a similar material and they’d probably make a lot of money because a lot of people would buy them.
That isn’t a bad idea, there is a decent market for custom keycaps for mechanical keyboards. The audience here might be a little limited though. We are awfully loud about the sticky keys here, but I wonder how many key sets you would actually sell?
The market includes every Digitakt, Digitone, Syntakt, A4 MKII, RYTM MKII, and OT MKII ever created. A small portion of this market would be a lot. I think the business would be viable kind of like how this business is viable: https://www.mpcstuff.com/
Yeah, but basically every key needs to have it’s own custom injection mold (at least doing it the really nice double shot way). You could reuse the 1-16 buttons for a lot of things, but many of the other buttons are specific.
Custom key-caps for mechanical keyboards are quite expensive and that market is much larger than the elektron user market.
So I snagged a used AR MK II grey which is in overall great condition. But … the buttons are sticky as fuck. I actually find it really disgusting and don’t want to play with this instrument. The 1-16 trigs are the worst. It was disclosed before buying, but having never encountered the issue, I didn’t know this would bug me as hard.
Sorry for not reading the whole thread, but what’s the consensus at this point?
Is this only a cosmetic thing or does it also hint at technical issues?
Does Elektron replace them or offer a new set of buttons if I contact them?
If not, what would a set of buttons cost and is it difficult to replace them?
Contact elektron support, reference this thread, and they should hopefully sell you some at a discounted rate. When you get your new buttons, never use any cleaning priducts on them (like alcohol, wet wipes, soap, nothing). Just dust them off.
See if your new AR MKII is still inside of the 3 years of warranty coverage, and then I agree, you should contact support. At worst they’ll sell you the button caps which are pretty inexpensive, and at best (if inside of warranty) you’ll get a discount or free replacement.
Does not seem to be an indication of technical issues from what I’ve read, but using solvents to clean the buttons like alcohol or even wipes etc seems to accelerate the breakdown of the coating in some batches of buttons. Some even seem to naturally degrade. Others are fine for years, so it may have been nothing the previous owner did to cause the issue.
Thanks for the quick help, @matteblacksmoke and @shigginpit! I guess I‘ll see about the warranty when registering it, if the previous owner(s) haven’t already done that.
The warrenty is three years from the date of manufacturers. The date is the serial number so you can easily see it without registering it It shows the year and in what week it was made.
How about some lukewarm water? The e25 line are such fingerprint magnets and thats how i get rid of it. Of course, no way to remove fingerprints without touching the buttons as well
Read through this topic a couple of times prior to tackling the sticky button issue on a 2017 era Digitakt. I have a recommendation and a couple of comments.
Recommended approach: Remove the buttons. Large ones can be removed from the front. Small ones you’ll need to open of the box. Use a plastics safe adhesive remover, like Goo Gone (US Product, Europe likely has something similar). Apply to the surface, let sit 30 seconds and use a plastic card or other plastic scraping tool to scrape back and forth. Coating will appear white and act like glue from the back of a sticker. Repeat until majority is gone then use a disposable cloth rubbing back and forth to remove the remainder. Wash in mild detergent, dry and reassemble. 39 buttons; took about 5 hours. No paint was removed in the process, buttons appear the way it was sold.
A couple of comments that I’ve read that don’t make sense.
Hand oil or dirt on hands caused this issue. - No, if that were the case the coating on the sides of the buttons would not be in the same state as the surface you touch. I don’t touch the sides of the buttons, however they are a gooey mess as well.
Environment caused the degradation of the button coating. - No, my Digitakt was kept in a climate controlled environment in a dry area of the US. Given my experience it started around year 6 and made me not want to use the device for the past couple of years.
I was going to buy new buttons, however Elektron said they were out of stock. Likely supply needed for the Digitakt 2, which I would not buy given this issue. btw, I have an A4 Mk1 from 2013 with nice uncoated plastic buttons that work fine without this issue.
Yep. Despite 1 in 3 Elektron users having this problem, Elektron uses that coating on their entire product line (except models:). And has recently released another new thing with it (DT2)
Still no response from Elektron from the ticket I raised in November, nor the follow up emails I sent.
I think I have the best solution if you want to completely remove all paint and end up with completely white/clear buttons…
Remove all buttons and submerge in isopropyl alcohol.
Wait about 10 minutes.
Wipe off the gunk with an old cloth. It comes right off.
Scrub the bottoms with an old toothbrush and alcohol to remove any paint stuck in the crevices.
Now someone just needs to sell (or create a template for printing) transparent stickers to put on top of the buttons.
I slid a thin credit card under the buttons to pop the keys off.
One of the new ones that’s half as thick as they used to be.
I’ve seen people suggest using guitar picks too.
! I guess I‘ll see about the warranty when registering it, if the previous owner(s) haven’t already done that.
It shows the year and in what week it was made.
