In this video I rip into my 4 day old $700 Yamaha DGX-640 to move the phono jack from the back to the front of the keyboard. So much for my 3 year warranty 
But it had to be done because it was not accessible in the back plus having the wire draped over the keys or roped between your legs was annoying. Another annoying feature was the easel being mounted at the very back of this large keyboard deck. It was so far away we couldn’t make out smaller notes or markings. So at the beginning of the video I show my swing away easel hack that fixed this issue nicely and was quite easy to make. (After the video is a bunch of hi-res photos)
photo gallery
CLICK PHOTO for gallery view and click a SECOND time for hi-resolution image. Click thumbnails on lower right and lower left of gallery to navigate gallery photos.
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- The easel is to far to read notes.
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- I welded a T from strap steel and riveted it to the plastic easel.
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- Then welded a 3 inch tube at 30 degrees to the T.
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- A bent rod inserts into the tube so the easel can swing out of the way.
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- This rod also inserts into a 2nd tube welded to C clamps which are clamped to a self behind the keyboard.
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- Now the easel is at just the right distance and hight.
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- The easel swings out of the way.
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- With the esael out of the way you can get to all the controls.
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- This is the C clamps which clamps to a self behind the keyboard and as the tube welded on it for a pivit point.
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- Now to open up the piano and get to the phono jack.
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- This is the phono jack I need to move.
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- The phono jack is going out the back and I need to move it to the front.
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- Control board photo
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- Control board photo
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- Control board photo
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- Control board photo
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- Power board is out and ready for hacking
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- If you ever have a power problem with such a keyboard remember there is a fuse on this power board.
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- Close up of the voltage regulators
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- LA4625 – 2 channel 13.5W BTL audio power amplifier
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- Speaker connectors on power board.
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- In the video I demonstrate how the phono plug controls the continuity to the speakers.
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- I use a solder sucker to remove the phono jack.
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- Ready to move the jack plug
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- I picked large wire for the internal speakers and ground and small 22 AWG stranded wire for the headset wires.
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- Solder these select wires to the power board
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- Shrink wrap and wire tie for strain relief
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- Power board is back in the piano and phono wires are going out the back.
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- These wires just need to go to the new location for the external jack
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- I used a simple Radio Shack project box for the enclosure.
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- Solded the relocation wires to the photo jack
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- Screwed it to the bottom of the MDF board.
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- Some extra shrink wrap and close up the box.
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- Some sticky tab cable hold downs to keep the wires up and out of the way.
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- Testing for the firs time.
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- Sounds good to me but nobody else in the house will be bothered now.
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- All good and thanks for joining.
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[...] Check out this brand new Yamaha keyboard. The fact that we’re seeing the guts means that [Todd Harrison] can kiss his warranty goodbye. But by now you should know that he doesn’t look to others when something goes wrong with his electronics. This time around he’s not repairing anything. He didn’t like having to plug in headphones on the rear of the keyboard. He cracked it open and relocated the headphone jack to a more convenient location. [...]
[...] Check out this brand new Yamaha keyboard. The fact that we’re seeing the guts means that [Todd Harrison] can kiss his warranty goodbye. But by now you should know that he doesn’t look to others when something goes wrong with his electronics. This time around he’s not repairing anything. He didn’t like having to plug in headphones on the rear of the keyboard. He cracked it open and relocated the headphone jack to a more convenient location. [...]
[...] He didn’t like having to plug in headphones on the rear of the keyboard. He cracked it open and relocated the headphone jack to a more convenient location. As you can see, there’s a ton of room inside once the MDF base which holds the speakers and some [...]
The under 1000 dollar pianos have the jack on the rear ’cause it’s on the amplifier board. The higher grades jumper it off to the left end on the skirt. You should mount it there, with a hot tool to melt dividers and epoxy it in place in a neat hole built in. There may be room enough already. Or use a hole mount jack with the cut-outs. Build it in, no wires to break in moving. Come to think of it Yamaha uses a pair of jacks on a metal plate under the left end in a hole cut in the “wood” bottom facing down.
@echodelta, I might just do that. Thanks. For now I wanted to be able to undo my hack just incase I had a warrenty issue.
Why would you Void your warranty if you didnt leave the jack internal on the front? You should have just used a headphone extension cable into a project box on the outside, leaving the original plug and warranty intact. To void warranty you should have made the mod as unassuming as possible. IE, leave the jack inside on the front.
@Bryan, It is not just a jack it is also a switch. When you plug in a phono plug the internals of the phono jack also disconnect the large speakers on the keyboard. So you see, you have to move the phono jack/switch to a new location. Just jacking in an extension would leave the speakers on the keyboard disabled until you unplug the extension. We sometimes want to play with headsets and sometimes with out.
Todd, I LOVE your site. My three favorite things: Your unapologetic geekiness, your rock-solid presence in front of the camera, and the thoroughness of your write-ups. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with the world. Your blog has inspired me to share my exploits in the geek realm via my own blog. Keep up the great work!