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Accordion repair manual download
Why is there so little information available about repairing and tuning accordions? Why haven't experienced repairpersons and tuners shared what they know? Could it be because they want to guard the source of their livelihood? Could it be because they think repairing and tuning accordions is a trade that must be learned over a lifetime or through an old world style apprenticeship under expert supervision, and that sharing a little knowledge with novices would only get people into trouble?
Could it be that even though they are good at repairing and tuning, they are not so good at communicating what they know? Could it be simply that there are so few of them and so few of us that they seldom meet anyone who wants to know what they know?
If so, then they may sense that the market for their knowledge is so limited that it is simply not worth the time and expense to put what they know into a cohesive, coherent, communicable format. It seems to me that all of these reasons are valid, and that with so many good reasons for the existing information void, it could continue indefinitely if I don't do something about it. The information posted on this website will endure only as long as I continue living and paying the rent on the website server.
When that ends, it will all disappear with a click of the server owner's mouse unless I put it into a more lasting format; hence the book idea. I don't expect the book to be a big seller volume-wise, because it will serve only this very tiny niche market that you and I occupy, but to make it even remotely possible that I will be able to recoup the expense of publishing it, I am reserving all copy rights to all the material posted here. Please use the information you find here to educate yourself and to rescue as many old accordions as possible, but do not duplicate any of it for commercial purposes.
Thank you for your consideration. I have had no formal education or apprenticeship in repairing and tuning. I'm quite certain that I do not know everything there is to know about repairing and tuning accordions. I have learned some things about repairing and tuning by reading what others have written, but unfortunately, until now there has been very little available. I have learned primarily by experimenting, and that means often making mistakes and correcting them.
I have made many mistakes and I have learned enough from correcting them that I am now quite comfortable doing most repairs and tuning dry and light musette LMM and LMMH accordions. Even though it is still very much a work in progress, I think writing down what I have learned so far may be of value to others taking a similar path.
It also provides an opportunity for those who know more about tuning than I to critique what I have written, should they be so generous as to do so. The internet provides a wonderful forum for disseminating information, and for discussing and revising that information. It puts all our heads together, and provides unprecedented opportunities for learning from each other. I have learned much about repairing and tuning accordions by doing it.
I learned some more by organizing what I have learned into what I hope is a cohesive, coherent, communicable format, presented here. Since publishing this website I have learned still more from several of my readers who have shared their knowledge and experience. I hope to continue learning by hearing other people's reactions to what I have written. If you see some way to improve or expand upon on what I have written, then I am eager to hear what you have to say.
George Bachich gbachich accordionrevival. Reeds go out of tune for many reasons, and filing the reed is not always the best remedy. It is best to understand why each reed is out of tune before trying to correct its tuning by filing or scratching the reed tongue. Always look for clues that might indicate the cause of the problem and correct any such problem before tuning.
Tune the reed only as a last resort. If you tune first, and correct the original problem later, the reed will once again be out of tune because of the filing or scratching you did.
Dirt - For instance, dirt and grime add weight to the reed tongue, throwing it out of tune. Dirt can also increase friction and drag. Cleaning a dirty reed will often put it back in tune, or at least closer to it, so whether or not you see any dirt, wax, or grime on the reed tongue, clean it thoroughly before attempting any tuning but not before you establish your tuning bellows base reading and tuning bellows target for that reed.
See the chapter on cleaning reeds and the chapter on using the tuning bellows. Rust - Rust on the reed tongue throws it out of tune by adding weight to it iron oxide is heavier than iron. You should brush off all the rust using one of the small brass wire brushes described and shown below. However, after the rust is removed the reed will still be out of tune because it will now be lighter, due to the loss of the iron bound up in the iron oxide.
Whenever rust is involved, cleaning, then filing the reed is the only way to get it back in tune. See the chapter on Putting File to Metal. Cracks - Metal fatigue cracks throw reeds out of tune, and filing will not help, at least not for long, because the crack will continue to develop, throwing the reed farther out of tune as it develops. Discard any cracked reed. Loose rivet - If the steel rivet sometimes a screw holding the reed tongue to the reed plate is not extremely tight, more of the reed tongue can lift off the reed plate as the tongue swings, effectively increasing the length of the tongue, thereby flattening the pitch.
If a reed is difficult to tune because its frequency wanders more than that of its neighbors in response to changes in bellows pressure, try resetting the rivet before tuning.
Misalignment — A loose rivet can also allow the reed tongue to drift out of perfect alignment with the vent. Misalignment of the reed tongue in the vent will usually silence the reed, but slight misalignment can sometimes allow it to keep working, while causing a metallic ringing noise as the tongue brushes lightly against the side of the vent on each oscillation. The friction caused by this metal on metal contact slows the reed significantly, throwing it out of tune. Very slight misalignment can cause the reed to go flat without making any ringing noise.
The best remedy in all these cases is to correct the misalignment. See the chapter on Aligning Reed Tongues. Bad Leathers - A stiff, curled, loose, or missing leather can throw a reed out of tune by up to ten cents or more. Surprisingly, until you think it through, the reed tongue that is thrown out of tune is often the one alongside the defective leather, rather than the one under it.
The best remedy is to replace the leather. New leathers - A new leather anchored differently than the original glued along more or less of its length than before can also throw a reed out of tune this time the one under it , by up to five cents or more. The easiest and surest way to correct this once you have replaced the leather and rechecked the tuning in the accordion in order to determine the actual tuning error with the new leather is to retune the reed with a scratcher or a file.
Cracked wax - Cracked wax can throw a reed out of tune by allowing the reed plate to vibrate relative to the reed block rather than transferring all its vibration energy into the reed block. This usually also causes a significant decrease in volume relative to neighboring reeds, and often creates a buzzing sound, but sometimes, in the early stages, the only symptom is the reed being out of tune on the flat side.
If you scratch or file such a reed to tune it, your victory will be temporary at best, because the reed will continue vibrating itself loose, going farther out of tune until it finally goes silent and falls out. Then when you wax it back in, it will be out of tune because of all the filing you did. Especially if both tongues on the same reed plate are sounding flat, check for cracked wax by pressing the reed plate against the reed block with your thumbnail while the reed is sounding on your test bellows.
If the finger pressure causes the reed pitch to sharpen, you will know that the wax has separated from the reed plate, allowing the reed plate to vibrate around the reed tongue. In this case, remove the reed from the reed block, clean all the old wax off the reed and off the reed block, and wax the reed back in with fresh reed wax. Then put the reed block back into the accordion and check the tuning again.
A change in the weather - Changes in t emperature, humidity, and barometric pressure all impact air density, which is one of the factors determining the frequency at which reed tongues vibrate. Changes in air density affect all the reeds in a similar manner, though, so if all the reeds were tuned under approximately the same atmospheric conditions , the accordion should at least remain in tune with itself as atmospheric conditions change.
However, if the tuning job is not completed under the same atmospheric conditions under which it was begun, the reeds tuned under one set of conditions will not be exactly in tune with those tuned under different conditions.
For instance, a 20 degree Fahrenheit change in temperature can change the tuning of a reed by 2 or 3 cents. Microphones, plugs, etc. The reed responds to changes in its surroundings by changing its frequency. This can easily be demonstrated by hanging your thumb over the edge of a reed block right over a reed you are sounding on your test bellows. Installation of microphone systems after the accordion has been tuned often result in one or more reeds going out of tune.
Register slides out of alignment - If the register slide is not in the fully open position, the reeds along that bank of reeds can be out of tune. In that case, moving the slide to the full open position will put them back in tune.
Normal wear — Sometimes no reason can be found, in which case we conclude that the reed has gone out of tune as a result of normal wear. This is a cop-out, of course, because there is always a reason, perhaps as simple as the wax being harder than it was at the last tuning, but if we cannot find and correct any of the above problems, we have no choice but to tune the reed.
In all the other cases, scratching or filing before solving the underlying problem would actually be counter-productive, so investigate before you file, and remedy any problems prior to tuning. Spot Tuning. Tuning a few problem reeds without re-tuning the whole accordion is called spot tuning. In this case, the amount of filing is usually minimal, if any, and most of the tuning is done with a scratcher.
It is far less work than a total re-tuning, because the reeds are generally left in the reed block while you tune. If just a few reeds are out of tune by more than you can comfortably correct with scratching or diagonal filing, you can take them out of the reed block individually after determining the magnitude and direction of the correction needed , tune them to within a few cents, then wax them back in for their final tuning.
Re-tuning, i. Re-tuning requires a lot of filing in the first stage, and while mounted in the reed block, adjacent reeds and leathers get in your way, making filing difficult. If you have a lot of filing to do, it is much easier to file a reed the same way the reed maker does, with the reed plate out of the reed block and firmly clamped in a vise, with the leathers removed. Setting reasonable standards of accuracy.
First, most human ears cannot detect pitch differences smaller than about three cents, so especially on the lower notes there is little reason to exceed that level of accuracy. Second, the tuning of a reed varies from day to day by up to a few cents due to changes in temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity all factors impacting air density.
You can spend a lot of time meticulously tuning only to discover the next day or even later the same day that all the frequencies are off again. Third, some reeds can vary by a cent or more depending on how long they play. A reed may start out sharp and slightly flatten after sounding for a second or two, in which case there is no rational basis for choosing one condition over the other as a basis for your tuning do you want your whole notes in perfect tune, or your quarter notes?
Fourth, the frequency of the reed varies with the volume bellows pressure because it flexes closer to the rivet as it makes wider swings in response to greater air flow.
This brings more of its length into play, lowering its pitch. It is very difficult to tune every reed at exactly the same volume level, or even to check the tuning of the same reed at exactly the same volume twice in a row, so even if you meticulously tune with great precision, you will find it difficult to duplicate or verify your results, even just a minute later. For a partial solution to this problem, see the chapter on Tuning With a Manometer, but the fact remains that extreme accuracy is nearly impossible and not necessary, except in the case of the highest notes in your musette reed set.
See the chapter on Tuning Musette Reeds. First, even though the instrument's absolute tuning will vary from day to day and at different volume levels, the various reeds in it will be influenced by the same external factors and will respond in very similar ways, thus keeping them more or less in tune with each other. So even though under certain conditions the accordion may be slightly out of tune with your electronic tuner or even with other instruments, it will be in tune with itself, which is the most important thing.
Accordion repair manual download
In fact, accordions are very low tech. But you don't even need that for most repairs. Nearly everything you will need accordion repair manual download do can be done with standard tools you can get at the hardware store and a few special tools you can easily make from steel or aluminum rods or in some cases, from hardwood.
If you have a hack saw, a bench vise, a bench grinder, a small drill press, a belt sander, and a couple of files, you can make all the special tools you need. The articles posted here on how to make specific types of repairs also include instructions on how to make the accordion repair manual download tools.
The most important things you need to repair your accordion are motivation, mechanical aptitude, some hand tools, a work table, a little coaching from someone with experience like meand good sources for the correct repair materials. Mechanical aptitude is really nothing more than the desire to fix things, the ability to remember or record how they came apart, common sense, and perseverance. The accordion repair manual download tools you need for simple repairs are pretty basic.
To get any accordion apart and the reed blocks out, all you need are a screw driver and a pair of pliers здесь best kind is a bellows pin pliers that you can make yourself from an inexpensive end-cutter pliers - see the short article below. For the most common repair, changing reed leathers, you will find a normally closed tweezers the kind you have to squeeze to open indispensable. You will accordion repair manual download need a razor to cut reed leathers to the proper length.
Your work table should be big enough to allow you to spread out the three major components of the accordion treble cabinet, bass cabinet, and bellows and still have room to work on a reed block or two. Good lighting is essential, and an LED headlight that straps onto your forehead is essential for looking into tight places.
Your work table should also include a tuning bellows, which you can easily make from an old accordion bellows. See the article on making a test bellows. To return to the table of contents, click here. It is best to remove the shoulder straps and the back pad if any before opening the accordion. Once that is done, locate and count the bellows pins on the treble side of the bellows.
There will usually be three or four on the back and three or four on the front, but there may also be one on the top and one on the bottom. Avoid marring the pins or the plastic finish on the accordion when you pull the pins. If you don't have the special pliers made for this purpose, you can wrap the jaws of any pliers with tape to pad them. Stand the accordion on its feet, that is, accordion repair manual download the bass plate and bass strap down.
Grip each treble side bellows pin with the pliers and pull it straight out, steadying the accordion with your other hand as you do so. Some accordions have screws in place of the pins, in which case you will spin them out with a screwdriver. To keep them in order, I stab them into a styrofoam block in the same order in which they are to be reinstalled, front pins in the front of the block, rear pins in the rear.
When you have removed all the pins from the treble side of нажмите чтобы узнать больше bellows, try lifting one corner of the treble section off the bellows. You may have to hold the bellows down while you pull up on the treble section.
If you meet significant resistance, check посетить страницу источник any bellows strap or snap mounting screws within a half inch of the bellows that might be penetrating the bellows frame and remove them also. Forcing the accordion apart while any screw or pin still penetrates the accordion repair manual download frame can damage the bellows frame, necessitating a costly repair.
In lieu of bellows pins, some aluminum bodied Hohner accordions have two lever latches under the treble grille that release the treble side from the bellows. On those models, remove the grille, rotate the levers degrees, and lift the front of the treble cabinet off the bellows, then disengage the hinge clips at the back. Do not remove the screws along the back. To separate the bellows from the bass side of these accordions, first remove the bass cover, then release the two thumb accordion repair manual download and remove the bass machine and bass button board as an assembly, and finally, remove the five screws that fasten the bass cabinet to the bellows.
The bass cabinet can the be lifted free of the bellows. When the treble section first separates from the bellows, peek inside to see if any internal /35447.txt wires must be disconnected before lifting it far enough to tear those wires loose from accordion repair manual download mounting, which is often very fragile. Once the wires are unplugged, turn the treble section over and set it on the table with the reed blocks facing upward.
Now you can inspect for bad leathers, cracked wax, missing reeds, loose reed blocks, etc. If your accordion has no tone chamber, the treble side will look something like this:.
If it has accordion repair manual download tone chamber, it will look like this: The bass side, with the bellows attached, looks like this: For better access to the bass reed blocks, remove the bellows from the bass section as well, accordion repair manual download not before noting how it goes back together.
If there are four bellows pins on the front of the bass section covid manual three on the back, then it will be obvious which way the bellows goes back on. If it adobe 9 essentials workbook pdf free not obvious, then mark the bellows frame with a pencil so you can be sure to put it back in the correct orientation, or the bellows frame will not seal and your bellows pins will not line up. Be sure to unplug any microphone wires before lifting the bellows too far.
If you are removing reed blocks, be very careful not to bend the register slides. In many older accordions, the slides accordion repair manual download mounted in the reed block rather than in the foundation accordion repair manual download. If this is the case, lifting the reed block приведенная ссылка first disengaging the slide from the switch mechanism can cause the slide to kink, rendering it useless. Once bent, they are very difficult or impossible to straighten well enough to work properly.
When reinstalling any reed block, make sure it is securely and rigidly fastened down so no accordion repair manual download can leak under it. When you have finished your interior inspection, set the bellows back onto the bass section being accordion repair manual download not to snag any bass reed leathers in the processreconnecting any microphone wires as you go, and install the bass side bellows pins.
Then set the treble section in place on the bellows, reconnecting any microphone wires as you go and making sure you have the bass buttons and treble keys all facing forward. Install the bellows pins accordion repair manual download their proper holes. If the pins are hard to push in, you can accordion repair manual download wear and tear on your fingers by pushing them in with a small block of wood. However, if you have to push very hard, you accordion repair manual download have the wrong pin in the wrong hole, or something misaligned.
Make sure you have the best fit for all pins before forcing any pin into any hole. Finally, reinstall any bellows strap screws you may have removed, and put on the shoulder straps and back pad. Access to the bass machine is easiest while the treble side is removed from accordion repair manual download bellows, because this allows you to set the bass half of the accordion down on its bellows accordion repair manual download the bass cover facing up.
You can make it out of scrap lumber and a few drywall screws. I used 1 x 1 boards I ripped from some recycled 1 x 4, but you can make yours from just about anything. You might want to pad it with felt, foam rubber, or carpet to help protect the finish on your accordion. Usually, you remove the bass strap by backing off the large knurled nut until that end of the strap comes loose.
Many really old accordions have the strap screwed directly to the bass cabinet, in which case you simply remove the accordion repair manual download. Others have a pair of machine screws mounted in the bass cabinet threaded ends facing upward that engage holes in the bass strap. In this case, a rectangular washer and small knurled nuts on those machine screws clamp the strap in place, so just remove the nuts and washer.
It accordion repair manual download usually not necessary to disconnect the other end of the bass strap. Just pull the strap out of your way to get access to the bass cover fasteners. The bass cover is usually held on by four screws near the corners, but sometimes just two screws, top and bottom, and sometimes with some sort of spring clips or sliding pins or push-button releases, and no screws at all. Watch out for accordion repair manual download tiny countersunk wood screws along the edges of the bass cover, especially near accordion repair manual download center of the front edge.
If there are any, you definitely want to remove them before pulling the bass cover off. Once you have the cover off, you can see the bass machine. When you put the bass cover back on, be sure to guide the air release button through its hole in the bass cover before you install any of the screws. Here is a typical bass machine: To return to the table of contents, accordion repair manual download here. Proper accordion maintenance includes periodically checking the reed leathers and replacing any not in perfect shape.
What is perfect shape, you say? Well, every leather should be soft and pliable and should return to position tight against the reed plate after each use. Reed leathers are small leather check valves mounted on the reed plates. There are two on each reed plate - one on the side facing into the reed block and one on the side facing outward, that is, out into the bellows.
Their function is to prevent bellows air from leaking through the reed vents slots accordion repair manual download which the reed tongues are mounted not in use. Leathers should close under their own power whenever they are not forced open by air coming ссылка the reed vent behind them. When the bellows is expanding bass section moving outwardthe reed tongues on the inside of the reed block are in use, as air is drawn into the accordion through any open note valves.
The leathers on the inside of the reed block adjacent to those reed tongues close off the adjacent reed vents to prevent air from leaking into the bellows through those vents and through the reed tongues behind them on the outside accordion repair manual download the reed block. When the bellows is being compressed bass section traveling inwardthe air flow is reversed, bringing the reed tongues on the outside face of the reed block into play.
In this case the leathers on the outside of the reed block remain closed to prevent air from leaking out past the reed tongues on the inside of the reed block. Air rushing out of the accordion through any open note valves forces the interior leathers on those particular reeds to open, while the higher pressure within the compressing bellows forcefully closes the leathers on the outside of the reed block.
This can make you think your accordion needs tuning, but simply replacing the bad leathers will probably bring it back into tune. Those reeds will initially sound out of tune until their leathers close, at which time they will suddenly jump accordion repair manual download into tune, resulting in an audible pitch change shortly after the accordion repair manual download begins to sound. This leaking air momentarily relieves the pressure on the adjacent reed tongues, slightly delaying their response.
Even though these marginally bad reed leathers may not vmware fusion 10 pro system requirements free bad, they will sap your accordion's performance, causing your reeds to respond more slowly and causing the accordion to use more air than necessary.
To get the best accordion repair manual download out of your accordion, you should keep all the leathers in perfect shape. Some people pay thousands of dollars extra for accordions with handmade reeds because подробнее на этой странице reeds respond just a bit more quickly at low bellows pressures, significantly improving accordion performance.
You may be able to get a similar adobe photoshop 2016 free download for pc in performance for much less money simply by replacing accordion repair manual download your bad leathers.
Make sure your glue joints are air tight. To facilitate anchoring it to your work bench with screws, bolts, or clamps, make these wooden end caps slightly larger than the outside dimensions of the bellows. A one inch margin all around should be sufficient. If your bellows still has its wooden bellows frame attached, as would be the case if the bellows had simply been salvaged from a junk accordion, you can use wood screws to attach your end plates to the bellows frames, then seal the joints with hot vauxhall zafira b workshop manual free download wax.
Alternatively, you can put foam weatherstripping or gasket material between the bellows frame and the end plate before screwing it together. This latter solution makes the most sense if you are going to put weights inside. If you prefer not to anchor the bottom end plate to your work ender feeder problem free, you can add enough weight inside to hold it down while you are lifting the top plate to expand the bellows.
A couple of bricks or a big box of bolts or a bag of sand placed inside the bellows should do the trick. A hole this size will minimize the need to silence adjacent reeds in order to hear just the one you want to test, and is best if you will be using your test bellows just to check the accordion repair manual download of reeds and leathers. However, if you will be tuning, it is essential that the hole in the bottom of the reed block be consistently placed completely over the hole in the top of the test bellows.
Accordion repair manual download.ManualsLib has more than 48 Hohner manuals
Whenever you see noticeable pillowing, you will be better off to re-valve, because the new valves will seal better and will also operate more quietly. If such a valve is off center and you try to center it, the waffle pattern will no longer fit exactly into the ports, and the valve will still leak. If one valve is pillowed, all the others are probably also pillowed, in which case it is time to re-valve the treble side of the accordion.
The bass valves normally have thinner felt pads which are much less prone to pillowing. You might decide to re-valve even if no valves are leaking. If any of your treble keys are higher than the ends of the keyboard cabinet, this is usually evidence of valve felt compression. Place a long straightedge lengthwise down the keyboard, extending past the keys at both ends of the keyboard. When the accordion left the factory, all the keys were probably level with the ends of the keyboard.
The extent to which you can depress keys with this straightedge is the extent to which compression of your treble valve facings has allowed the keys to rise. Compressed felt is less effective as a cushion, resulting in more noise when the valve slams shut under the pressure of its return spring.
The compressed felt also allows the key to return to a higher position, thus lengthening the key stroke and giving the spring more time to accelerate the valve, giving it more momentum to dissipate upon closing. Most of this momentum is dissipated as noise. Leveling the keyboard can eliminate this extra travel and the resulting extra momentum, but it does nothing to make the felt a more effective cushion. If you have a clunky noisy keyboard, re-valving is the best way to improve it.
See the article titled "Renewing Treble Valves" for tips on how to do it, where to get the felt and leather laminate, and other options for improving and quieting your keyboard action.
You sometimes need to raise or lower treble keys, either to correct one that has been bent upward by catching on a case or strap, or to compensate for different rates of deterioration and compression of the felt valve padding, or to compensate for a slightly different thickness of valve facing material used to re-valve, or to set up the keyboard for shallower action. Raising or lowering treble keys is accomplished by bending the key rods.
But let's start with how not to bend key rods, as some people are tempted to try shortcuts, which seldom work out as desired.
For instance, do not hold the key down while you press down on the treble pallet, and do not simply pull up on a key to raise it. Either of these actions will compress the felt valve padding, perhaps producing the desired result temporarily, but only until the felt lofts again to near its original thickness over the next few hours.
Using this "shortcut" could also loosen the treble pallet's connection to the key rod, which is often just a bed of wax.
If your "shortcut" over-stresses the key's hinge point on wooden keyboards, you may crack the key or the wooden boss on the keyboard cabinet that holds the spindle. On older accordions with the key rod driven into the wooden key like a nail, you also risk loosening the key rod's connection to the key, necessitating a time- consuming repair. The correct way to bend key rods is with two bending tools, one gripping the rod on each side of the point where you want to make the bend.
For raising or lowering the key, place the bend as close as possible to the key. If this puts the pallet out of parallel with the foundation plate, causing the valve to leak, then make the compensating bend as close as possible to the pallet. All this is explained in more detail in the article on setting up a treble keyboard. The main thrust of this article is to describe the bending tools and how to make them. The simplest tool is a steel rod with a slot cut in one side of it just the right depth and width to grip the key rod.
The problem is that key rods come in many sizes, creating the need for many tools unless you make a set of adjustable tools. We'll get to a couple of designs for adjustable tools shortly, but first let's cover the simple ones. If you are only working on one accordion, then a few simple tools may be all you need.
Here is a photo of some of the non-adjustable bending tools I have made from steel rods and bolts. The narrower tools are essential for working on short key rods. The first and second tools from the right, with large grip handles and with slots in the end, are for bending the key rod side to side in order to center the pallet over its ports.
The fourth and fifth from the right are for twisting the flatbar style of key rod in order to rock its pallet into parallel with the foundation plate.
Note that in each case pairs of tools are used together. The third tool from the right has small pegs through it to engage the key rod, and is useful in conjunction with one of the other tools for putting bends very close to the pallet. Here is a close up photo of it. Adjusting valves down inside a tone chamber requires special tools that reach down into the chamber. The seventh and eighth tools from the right in the top photo have worked well on some tone chamber accordions, but I expect to have to make different tools with different slot widths to fit other accordions which have different key rod widths.
My tool design is still evolving, and I expect it will continue to improve. If you come up with any better tool design ideas, I hope you will share them with me. When designing your bending tools, keep four considerations in mind. The first is that the tool must be narrow enough to fit down between adjacent key rods. This dimension varies with different accordions, but bulky tools just won't fit. The second is that wider tools with longer slots to grip the key rod do less damage to the soft aluminum key rods very narrow tools cause unsightly gouges in the aluminum.
The third consideration is that for the short key rods on the black keys, wider tools are not practical, since they do not allow you to put one bend close to the key and another bend close to the pallet. Tools wide enough to preclude any damage to the key rod are also wide enough to occupy the entire length of a short key rod when used in pairs, eliminating any choice on where to place the bend. For your black keys, you will therefore need narrow tools and you will have to live with the divots they leave in the key rods.
The fourth consideration is that when raising a key, you will have to move the tools toward each other, and their handles may need to bypass each other in order to make the desired bend, so slender handles work best. You can help minimize key rod damage by making your narrower tools from square rod, rather than round. For any given tool width, this maximizes the contact surface between the tool and the key rod, thus spreading the load.
You can also minimize the damage by making the slots just barely wide enough to receive the key rod. A tight fit helps maximize the contact surface between the tool and the key rod, spreading the load over a wider area, thus minimizing the damage. Making your bending tools about six inches long will give you sufficient leverage to bend the key rods.
Minimizing the amount of rod extending beyond the lower edge of the slot will help make the tool fit closer to the pallet, making it possible to get your two bend points farther apart, which is particularly important on the black keys and any white keys with short key rods.
Here is a photo of some adjustable bending tools I have recently made. The one on the right has a slot in the lower jaw to straddle the key rod extending down into a tone chamber. In the next photo the three on the right above have been disassembled so you can see how they are made.
The set screw threads into one half of the tool and rides in a slot in the other half of the tool. The one in the middle has an adjustable slot on each end. The two halves of that tool were made to different lengths to provide different adjustment ranges at each end of the tool. The three extra holes in the tool on the right are unnecessary. They were already in the angle before I converted it to this use.
The adjustment, of course, is to allow for gripping a wide variety of key rods of varying thicknesses. I am not a professional tool designer. Although these tools serve their purposes, I am sure more elegant designs are possible, and I encourage you to experiment. If you care to share your improved design, I would love to know about it. Treble keys sometimes stick open due to dirt or corrosion on the key or the spindle axle rod , due to warping of wooden keys, or due to bending of aluminum keys.
Repairing a key that sticks open requires removing the key, after first removing the grill and possibly the treble switch assembly. On accordions without individually removable keys, pull the spindle out far enough to release the sticking key.
Look for the ends of the spindles or spindle under a small metal cover on the bottom of the keyboard. If you remove the spindle or spindles without first securing the keys in place, the key springs will fling the keys off the keyboard one at a time as the spindle is withdrawn, so plan to catch them.
If they are not already numbered, number each key as it comes off to facilitate getting them all back in their proper places. The usual numbering system is 1 through 41 starting at the bottom of the keyboard if all keys are on one spindle. If there are two spindles, the black and white keys are numbered separately. If you prefer not to remove all the keys above the problem key, and if there are two spindles, you can tape the keys together so that one spindle will hold all keys in place, as described in the following paragraph.
If there is only one spindle, you can avoid removing all the keys by clamping them in place in accordance with the paragraph after that. If white and black keys have separate spindles, you can usually avoid removing other keys by taping all the keys except the keys to be removed to each other before pulling out the appropriate spindle.
Use 3M Scotch Brand plastic masking tape, as other tapes leave a sticky residue. Place one row of tape near the ends of the white keys and two rows over the black keys, taping to the tops of the white keys and to the sides and tops of the black keys. If you pull out just one spindle, the other spindle and the tape will hold all the taped keys in place. If there is only one spindle for all the keys, you can clamp in place the keys you do not wish to remove, using large spring clamps with extended jaws to hold rods and shims against the keys.
A single clamp can hold a wood ruler or similar shaped plastic or aluminum rod across the ends of the white keys, pressing them all down under the clamp's spring pressure. Two other long-jawed spring clamps bolt 6-inch wood, plastic, or metal extensions to the jaws can be used to press another similar rod down onto the white and black keys right where the black keys emerge to the level of the tops of the white keys, i.
Finally, a third rod is used as a shim between the extended clamp jaws and the tops of the black keys to help hold the black keys in place. Just make sure none of the rods or shims extends out over the keys you wish to remove.
Grip the end of the spindle with small vice-grip pliers, and twist while pulling. Pull the spindle out just far enough to release the sticking key. Lift the key out, carefully noting the placement of the key spring. The free end of the spring must point toward the outer end of the key not toward the valve , and usually rides in a tiny groove in the wood.
Note that this technique does not work on a few models in which both spindles pass through holes in each key. In this case both spindles must be at least partially withdrawn in order to remove any key from either spindle. While you have the spindle partially out, take a close look at it. If it appears dirty or corroded, remove it entirely and clean it with steel wool before reinstalling it. Inspect the key and the keyboard slot for any dirt or lint that could cause the binding, and for shiny spots that indicate where the key is rubbing.
For all-wood keys, sand away the shiny spot, finishing with grit sandpaper. For wooden keys with aluminum core, and for all-aluminum keys, very slightly bend the short aluminum tab on the bottom away from the side where it was rubbing to eliminate interference with the slot in the aluminum keyboard.
If this tab appears worn or scratched, you should also smooth it out with fine sandpaper and finish it with steel wool. Another option is to shift the key to one side by slightly bending the key hinge. Keep in mind that a very tiny bend at the hinge point results in a relatively large sideways shift out at the end of the key.
Reinstall the key and its spring and reinstall the spindle, taking care not to bend it. To avoid bending it, remove a drill chuck from a drill motor or buy a new drill chuck and slide it onto the rod, tightening it about four inches from the bottom of the keyboard. Use the chuck to twist and push the rod in, then loosen the chuck, slide it back, tighten it, and push again. If the spindle is brass, avoid marring its finish. You may have to press the keys slightly down into proper alignment to allow the spindle to pass through.
The end of the spindle is tapered, so you may be able to see the keys move slightly as the point enters the bore and forces the keys to center themselves on the spindle.
If your accordion has a tone chamber, you may find that some of the black key rods intertwine with some of the white key rods in a way that makes it impossible to take out just the black keys or just the white keys. Similarly, you may find that both spindles pass through separate holes in each key. In either of these cases you will have to pull out both spindles and when you put it back together you will have to install black and white keys and both spindles together, and the drill chuck idea will not work because the spindles are too close together.
To solve this problem you can make aluminum, plastic, or hard rubber jaws for your small vise grip pliers that allow you to grip each spindle from the side an inch or so away from where it enters the cabinet without marring the smooth finish on the spindle. I squeezed those jaws around a file spinning in my drill press to form a rounded groove across each jaw to better grip the spindle. Here is a keyboard going back together using those pliers.
If there is no cover on the bottom of the keyboard and no access to the bottom ends of your spindles, then the keys are individually removable. Individually removable keys have slots that engage a spindle that can only be removed after all the keys are out. There are five basic types. The most common type uses a short, stiff retainer spring to hold the spindle in the horizontal leg of an L-shaped slot in the bottom of the key, or more accurately, an L-shaped slot in the brass hinge assembly riveted to the bottom of the key.
You cannot see this spring or the slot until you get the key out. You remove these keys by pressing down hard and toward the valve end of the rod in order to get the spindle out of the horizontal leg of the L-shaped slot by overcoming the force of the retainer spring and into the vertical leg, then pulling up on the key to lift it off the spindle. Press on the key right where it rotates on the spindle, pushing down and horizontally, then lift vertically by gripping the key rod as close as possible to the key.
In this explanation, horizontal means parallel to the key top. Once you have your sticking key out, inspect and repair it as above. To reinstall the key, place it back in its slot with the stiff spring against the keyboard side of the spindle and press the key in the direction of the valve to compress the stiff spring in order to allow the spindle to enter the vertical leg of the slot.
As you press the key down, the stiff spring will force the spindle into the horizontal leg of the slot to hold the key in place. A second type of removable key is similar, except they have only a vertical slot no horizontal leg and a short coil spring to hold the key in place that must be removed first.
With the grille off, you can peak in under the backs of the keys and see these little springs. In these cases, there is often a little tool fastened to the underside of the grille or to the foundation plate under the grille. If not, you can make one from a small screwdriver or any slender steel or aluminum rod. Here are a couple of photos of one I made. The upper end of the coil spring stays connected to the key; you remove the bottom end of the spring from the aluminum tang by pressing the loop on the end of the coil spring downward and off the free end of the tang.
You can remove them with practically anything, but you will need the special tool to put them back on. There is a third type of removable key that has a simple aluminum fork on the bottom of the key that straddles the axle of a brass bushing that rotates on the spindle.
This type always has the little coil springs described above. After removing the spring, you just pull straight up on the key, using a good grip on the key rod. Some of these are really stubborn and you have to pull really hard with pliers. It is not unusual to have to pull so hard that when it finally suddenly releases, you are unable to stop before the pallet hits something and is knocked off the key rod, so you should have some reed wax handy to wax it back on.
See the article on waxing with a modified soldering iron for more details. See the article on "re-valving the treble side". If you have these forked keys and brass bushings, and if you conclude that your problem is high friction between the brass bushing and the spindle or between the brash bushing and its slot in the aluminum chassis, then you will have to take all the keys out and remove the aluminum keyboard chassis from the accordion in order to get the spindle out to clean it.
In this case, all the brass bushings will fall out as you remove the spindle, so figure a way to catch them. You can clean them in a little jar of WD, agitating it well, then blow them dry with compressed air. Test each of them on the spindle to make sure they all turn freely. Doing this may help clean additional corrosion and dirt out of the interior bore in the bushing.
As you put them back in their slots in the aluminum chassis one at a time, feeding in the spindle as you go, make sure each one turns absolutely freely on the spindle and in its slot in the aluminum chassis before installing the next one.
The bushings vary up to. In this case, either find a narrower bushing or file the slot a little wider, but not too wide, or the key may wander too much and interfere with a neighboring key.
Every bushing must turn absolutely freely in its slot and on the spindle in order for the keyboard to work smoothly. If some of the key forks are too tight to fit over the brass bushing with moderate pressure, check the sides of them for burrs or spalling and sand these off smooth.
If you conclude that the fork is too narrow, you can file it a bit wider, but don't file too much, or the key will be sloppy. You want a snug fit. Don't use any oil, as it will attract lint and dust, which will eventually gum it up and cause keys to stick.
This type of keyboard takes longer to clean and adjust, but in the end you will be rewarded, because once it is cleaned and properly adjusted, this design offers the smoothest keyboard action of all. The fourth type of individually removable key is held in place by a sliding clip on each key that slides in under the spindle.
Use a flat blade screwdriver to pry the clip away from the spindle that is, toward the valve end of the key , and lift the key straight up. To replace it, press the key down over the spindle and slide the clip back in. The fifth type has a slotted head twist-fastener right above the spindle on each key.
Use a flat blade screwdriver to turn the slotted head of the fastener 90 degrees left to release the key, then pull the key straight up. To put it back, press the key into position over the spindle and turn the fastener 90 degrees to the right.
In all cases, test the key for smooth action before returning the accordion to service. The hardest part is to positively identify which reed tongue is silent. You can always use your tuning bellows to test each reed in each reed block, in each airflow direction, out on the workbench. But there is a quicker way.
First determine which switch controls the problem reed, and in which bellows direction the problem occurs. Then open the accordion and take out the reed blocks to determine which slides are opened by that switch. This tells you which row on the reed block contains your problem reed. Now press the problem key to see which valve opens, and hence, which reed plate in that row contains the silent reed for example, the fifth valve controls the fifth reed plate in the reed block.
If the reed was silent only when the bellows was expanding air rushing in , then the problem is with the reed tongue on the inside of the reed block, behind the visible leather.
If it was silent only when the bellows was compressing air rushing out , then the problem is with the reed tongue facing you, on the outside of the reed block. If it is the outer tongue, you might cure it by simply plucking it lightly with a single edge razor blade slipped carefully under the tip to avoid scratching either the reed or the reed plate. Pluck it just enough to get it vibrating. If you can hear the tone of the reed at all, you have probably already cleared it. But if it sounds dull, you may need to take further measures to dislodge foreign matter from between the reed tongue and the vent.
Try passing a. Then pluck the reed tongue again to see if it seems to be vibrating freely. You can also test it on your tuning bellows if you have one. However, you should avoid blowing the reed like a harmonica, as this could get moisture on the reed, causing it to rust. If the problem was with the inner tongue, try the feeler gauge approach.
You will not be able to pluck the reed to check your progress, but you can test it on your tuning bellows, if you have one. If passing the feeler gauge around the sides does not clear it, check the tip. The feeler gauge is too wide to use to clean the narrow end of the vent, but you can use it to clean off the tip of the reed tongue and also to lift the reed tip out of the way not too far, as you do not want to bend it permanently while you clean the end of the vent with a tiny brass wire brush, or a straight pin, or even a toothpick.
If cleaning fails to solve the problem, then check for misalignment of the reed tongue that causes interference between the reed tongue and the vent. You will probably have to pry the reed plate out of the wax to do this, then wax it back into the reed block after you have repaired it, so if you are not prepared to wax it back in, you should take it to a repairman.
If you proceed on your own, hold the reed plate up to a bright light to verify that you have the tongue centered. If the tongue is out of center, pry it back into position. If it moves at all easily, you may have to reset the rivet with a light hammer blow on an anvil, naturally after you have the tongue centered.
Voicing is setting the tip clearance of the reed tongue above the plane of the reed plate. If the tip is set too high, too much air will escape under it, delaying the onset of vibration, requiring more air to get it started. If it is set too low, it will choke under high bellows pressure. That means it will refuse to vibrate, perhaps because it closes off the reed vent too soon, before it has achieved enough velocity and momentum to travel far enough to cause a rebound powerful enough to start the oscillation.
Changing the tip clearance obviously requires permanently bending the reed tongue. You can't voice the reed just by lightly flexing it or by gently stroking it, or it will simply spring back to its original position. If you want it to take a permanent set at a new level relative to the reed plate, then you have to bend it far enough to exceed its elastic limit which by definition is the bending limit beyond which it will not spring completely back to its original position.
However, you also want the reed tongue to remain straight and parallel with the top of the reed plate or angled slightly up from it, but not having any curvature, so you have to make sure the permanent bend occurs very close to the rivet.
You can't just grab it by the tip and push or pull, or the bend might occur somewhere midway along the reed tongue, or perhaps even close to the tip, especially on the smallest reeds.
To get it to yield close to the rivet, you should apply the force at least half way down the tongue. This is where the reed tongue is wider and possibly thicker, and where you have the least leverage, so you have to push or pull pretty hard, and there is the rub.
If you push or pull too hard, the permanent deflection may be greater than you want, in which case you will have to bend it back the other way by exceeding the elastic limit again. There is a limit to the number of times you can do this, because each time you exceed the elastic limit, you raise the elastic limit of the steel in the area of the bend so that even more force will be required to exceed the elastic limit at that location next time this is sometimes called "work hardening" - you can see it in action by repeatedly bending and straightening any steel wire, such as a paper clip.
As the elastic limit increases due to bending beyond the previous elastic limit, by definition the area of the bend becomes more resistant to permanent bending, so the next permanent bend tends to occur somewhere else, where the elastic limit has not yet been raised, and where it will therefore yield under less applied force.
In practice, this means that if you want your permanent bend right next to the rivet, you have to get it right the first time, or at least very soon after that. If you exceed the elastic limit very many times, your bend might end up farther away from the rivet. If you somehow force it to bend at the exact same spot each time, then its elastic limit at that point will eventually be raised to the ultimatum yield point, at which point the reed tongue will break, rather than bend.
This is not to say that there is a limit to how many times the reed can flex before it breaks. As far as I know, there is no such limit, as long as it does not flex beyond its elastic limit.
Reeds flex millions or maybe billions of times during the life of an accordion, so you can try as many times as you like to bend the reed short of reaching its elastic limit, and you will not hurt it, but of course, you won't change its voicing, either.
This all suggests that the best way to voice a reed is with several attempts, starting gently, and gradually increasing the applied force with each trial, checking each time to see if the latest attempt has succeeded in making a permanent bend. There is no penalty for applying too little force, other than a slight delay in reaching your objective. With experience, you will learn how much force to apply the first time, so you can avoid wasting a lot of time working up to the elastic limit, yet still be reasonably certain that you will not exceed the limit on your first try.
I say "reasonably certain" because reeds vary in hardness and in their elastic limits, and even after you have experience, you will undoubtedly encounter some reeds that are much softer and with lower elastic limits than most, and which take a permanent bend much sooner and farther than you expect. When this happens, you should reduce the force you use in subsequent trials, and try to work gradually up to the lower elastic limit of that particular reed.
The tools used in voicing are very simple. For lifting an exterior reed tongue to increase its tip clearance, you just need a thin piece of metal to get behind the reed tongue and evenly support the upper half to two thirds of it while you bend it upward. I use a dull single edge razor blade on small reeds, and a. For lowering an exterior reed tongue to decrease its tip clearance, you apply force in the lower half of the tongue, forcing it down into the vent.
I use a flat blade screwdriver with a tip narrow enough to pass through the vent without scratching the sides. Clarinet reeds A set of reeds one octave higher than the bassoon reeds. On a standard accordion this set includes all 41 notes on the chromatic scale from piano F3 to A6. Choking Balking. The refusal by a reed to begin vibrating at the sudden onset of air flow, typically caused by inadequate clearance of the reed tongue tip above the plane of the reed plate.
Converter bass A bass machine that can be switched back and forth between the Stradella and free bass systems. Dry tuning No tremolo. All reeds tuned to concert pitch. Duraluminum A hard aluminum alloy used in the manufacture of the best reed plates generally used only in handmade reeds. Foundation plate The flat wood or metal plate that separates the reed blocks on one side from the valves on the other, and which contains ports under each valve, and aligned with individual reed chambers in the reed blocks through which air is allowed to flow when both the register slide and the valve are open.
In most accordions the register slides are mounted on the foundation plate under the reed blocks. On the treble foundation plate, one port for each of the treble reed sets is located under each valve. Thus, the number of reed sets can be determined by counting the ports under any treble valve except in tone chambered accordions, where each key has a second valve in the tone chamber, with one or two of the ports located under that valve.
Free bass A bass machine in which each bass button operates only one note in only one octave, and in which the buttons are arranged in chromatic scale order through up to five octaves. Glissando Sliding a finger up or down the keyboard to sound a series of notes in rapid succession. Grille The metal or plastic cover over the treble valves, often incorporating openings for air and sound, which openings are normally covered from the inside by a decorative grille cloth.
Hand fitted reeds The second highest grade of reeds, with some of the features of handmade reeds, most notably tight clearances between the tongue and the vent.
Handmade reeds The highest grade of reeds, made from the best materials and incorporating design features that tend to make them more responsive to less bellows pressure, while also remaining more stable frequency-wise under higher bellows pressure.
Handmade reeds are the hallmark of the best quality accordions preferred by professional musicians. Fewer than one percent of accordions have handmade reeds.
Hertz Cycles per second. Individually removable keys Treble keys that can be removed without first removing the axle rod. This allows removing any single key without having first to remove all other keys between that key and the end of the axle rod. Many accordions with individually removable keys have a small tool for removing or replacing key springs mounted under the treble grille.
Keyboard The part of the accordion to which the treble keys are mounted. The term often also includes those keys. Key rod The metal extension on the back of each treble key which extends out over the valve port, and to which the pallet is fixed with either plastic or wax.
LM An accordion with 1 set of bassoon reeds and 1 set of clarinet reeds. LMH An accordion with 1 set of bassoon reeds, 1 set of clarinet reeds, and 1 set of piccolo reeds.
LMM An accordion with 1 set of bassoon reeds and 2 sets of clarinet reeds. LMMH An accordion with 1 set of bassoon reeds, 2 sets of clarinet reeds, and 1 set of piccolo reeds. LMMM An accordion with 1 set of bassoon reeds and 3 sets of clarinet reeds. LMMMH An accordion with 1 set of bassoon reeds, 3 sets of clarinet reeds, and 1 set of piccolo reeds. MM An accordion with 2 sets of clarinet reeds. MMM An accordion with 3 sets of clarinet reeds. Musette tuning A tremolo effect achieved by playing two or three reeds for the same note, each of which is tuned to a very slightly different frequency.
Mute To soften or mellow the sound. Mute chamber An enclosure under the treble grille that mutes the sound of the treble reeds. Hinged doors or sliding doors can typically be opened to unmute the reeds. Pallet The wood or metal foot on the treble key rod or bass valve which lifts off the port when a key or button is pressed, allowing air to flow over the reed behind it.
The pallet is fitted with a leather seal, often with a felt cushion between the leather valve face and the pallet. The pallet is connected to the key rod or valve lever with reed wax, or sometimes with a plastic sleeve fixed to the pallet which fits snugly over the key rod. Piccolo reeds The highest frequency set of reeds available on a standard accordion, one octave higher than the clarinet set, and incorporating all the notes of the chromatic scale from F4 to A7.
Ports The round or square openings in the foundation plate which allow air flow to be directed over the single reed aligned with each port. A valve opens its ports when the key or button for that particular note is pressed. Reed An assembly comprised of 1 reed plate, 2 reed tongues, 2 rivets, and usually 2 reed leathers. Reed blocks The interior wooden racks that hold the reeds in place over their respective ports and valves. Usually, each full set of treble reeds 41 in most accordions is split across two reed blocks, one mounted closer to the treble keyboard to house the black key notes in that set, and another mounted farther away to house the white key notes, although space limitations in some designs require two or three of the white key notes to be located in the black key reed block.
In some older designs, the register slides are mounted in the reed blocks, while in later designs they are mounted in the foundation plate to which the reed block is mounted. On the bass side, each reed block holds one full set of 12 bass reeds on each side of the block, so each bass reed block can contain up to two complete sets of reeds. Each reed block is divided into small chambers, with one chamber per reed, each chamber being proportional in size to the reed that is mounted to it. Reed plate An aluminum or duraluminum plate with two long narrow slots in it and with rivet holes for the attachment of two reed tongues, each free to vibrate in one of the slots in response to air flow.
Reed tongue A spring steel blade riveted to a reed plate. The reed tongue vibrates at a certain frequency when air is forced to flow through the reed. Reed vent The slot in the reed plate. Reed wax A mixture of mostly beeswax, but also containing some rosin and a bit of linseed oil, which is used to anchor and seal the reed plates to the reed blocks. It is also often used to fasten the pallets to the treble key rods and to the bass valve levers. In response to switch movement, the slides slide end-wise to align all the holes with their ports to enable air flow through that set of reeds, or alternatively to close off the ports to disallow air flow through that set of reeds.
Spindle Treble key axle rod. Stradella bass The most common type of bass machine, in which the buttons for root notes and their chord families are arranged according to the circle of fifths, and in which each individual note button plays that note in up to five octaves at once, depending on bass switch settings. Tone chamber A resonant box of wood or metal to which one or two reed blocks are mounted for the purpose of enhancing the sound emanating from those reeds.
On tone chamber accordions, a second set of treble valves operates inside the tone chamber to control those reeds mounted to the chamber. Thus, on tone chamber accordions there are two treble valves attached to each treble key.
Treble cabinet The usually celluloid covered wooden case work on the right hand side of the bellows from the reference point of the player , to which the treble keyboard, the treble reed blocks, and one side of the bellows are attached.
Treble key One of usually 41 piano-like keys on the treble side of the accordion. Treble keyboard The usually 41 piano style treble keys and the wooden platform that supports them. The keyboard assembly also includes metal axle rods that run through the keys and the platform, as well as felt cushions under the keys.
Treble switches Buttons or levers that operate the treble register slides to control the air flow to each complete set of treble reeds. Often, one switch moves two or more register slides simultaneously to enable the selection of various combinations of reed sets.
Treble valve A wood or metal pallet, usually with felt padding and a leather seal that closes two to four ports for an individual note the number of ports depends on the number of treble reed sets in the accordion and whether some of those reed sets are mounted to a tone chamber. The pallet and its felt and leather seal are attached to a treble key rod and are lifted off the port when that treble key is pressed.
Tremolo beat The slow harmonic frequency generated by two reeds vibrating at nearly the same pitch. The frequency of the tremolo beat is equal to the number of hertz of difference between the two primary frequencies. Thus, if two reeds are tuned n Hertz apart, they will generate a tremolo beat of n beats per second when played together. Ventilli Thin flexible plastic reed valves. Voicing The adjustment of the clearance of the tip of the reed tongue above the plane of the reed plate to the optimum clearance for rapid response to air flow without choking.
Chapter Smaller accordions tend to weigh less, so you might want a smaller accordion just for its lighter weight, especially if you play standing up. The weight difference can be significant if you play standing or strolling for long periods. If you always sit down to play, the accordion rests on your lap, making instrument weight much less of an issue. Naturally, 2-reed accordions tend to be lighter than 3-reed accordions, which in turn tend to be lighter than 4-reed accordions.
However, this is not always the case, so you should actually compare the weights. The really old accordions tend to be lighter than more recent models. However, the later models were made heavier for good reason. Some of the older ones were so light and flimsy that they did not hold up well, and tended to warp and flex, sometimes causing air leaks around the valves that are difficult to seal.
The really old ones prior to also have very deep key action and nearly square edges on the keys, making them difficult to play. They require extensive keyboard modifications to make them easier to play and to give them a more modern feel. Nevertheless, once these modifications are made, playing one of these antiques can be very satisfying for people who appreciate old instruments, and they offer the additional advantage of lighter weight.
When comparing accordion weights, be sure to understand whether strap weight is being included. Finally, notice that balance can be as important as weight. An accordion that hangs comfortably can feel lighter and actually be less of a strain on your back than a lighter one that does not feel so well balanced. The bottom line is that rather than just weighing it, you have to try the accordion on and play it standing up for a while to see how heavy it feels compared to others.
We all want an accordion that weighs under 15 pounds, but we have to compromise in order to get other features we want. Some 48 to 96 bass accordions now being manufactured mostly 2-reed fall within or close to that weight limit, but offer limited switching options, smaller keyboards fewer keys , and unknown durability. Some people like the sound they produce, and some don't. If light weight is important to you, then one of these accordions might be the right choice. If you assume these deviations are caused by specific notes being a little out of tune, you can ignore them in order to plot a smooth curve or a straight line as a model for tuning your other accordions.
However, for some of the wider tunings that you might encounter in some full musette MMM, LMMM or LMMMH accordions, you might not be able to count the beat near the upper end of the keyboard range, because it is too fast. In this case, unless you can hear the beat in terms of its pitch as an overtone can anyone do this? I don't know!
BPS versus cents - Although I think it is most informative to speak of musette tuning at least light musette tuning in terms of beat, most people still speak of it in terms of cents.
For instance, I once saw a list that showed American musette as 10 cents sharp, Italian musette as 15 cents sharp, French musette as 20 cents sharp, Irish as 25 cents sharp, etc.
I have seen some sources suggest tunings as wild as 32 cents sharp. Aside from the fact that these wider tunings would sound awful to me, I think their descriptions are misleading, because they seem to suggest that the entire range of notes should all be tuned to the same cents deviation, which is never the case. But it never refers to the deviation at the highest A.
Regardless of the cents of deviation used at the low end of the keyboard, the deviation is always reduced as we progress up the scale. If it were not, few of us would like the sound. Tuning the high end or even the middle of the keyboard of an LMM or LMMH accordion to large deviations creates a beat so fast that to most American ears it sounds more like fingernails on a blackboard than a beat, and it definitely grates on our nerves. I plan to do some experimenting on this in the near future as I develop tuning plans for my LMMM acordions.
The beat frequency is extremely important to the quality of the sound. When tuning musette reeds, we most often tune them to the beat, rather than to some nominal number of cents sharp or flat. Our tuning plan is based on a desired beat progression. What we hear and what we really seek to control is the tremolo beat frequency measured in beats per second. It therefore makes much more sense to describe musette tuning at least light musette tuning in terms of beat, rather than cents, and to specify how the beat changes as we progress up the keyboard.
Unfortunately, that relationship is different for each note. Generally, one cent of difference in pitch has less impact on the beat frequency at the lower notes and more impact at the higher notes. This is because the beat frequency is exactly equal to the difference between the two note frequencies expressed in hertz, and because each cent represents more hertz at the higher notes.
F or instance, at the lowest clarinet F on our keyboard The mathematical formula for determining the number of cents equivalent to one beat per second at each note boils down to the following:.
Since we are comparing two notes exactly ten cents apart, this beat frequency is the number of tremolo bps that result from ten cents deviation at this particular note. To get the number of cents deviation required to generate just one tremolo beat per second, we must divide 10 by this number. Subtracting F from Since each hertz of difference generates one beat per second, we know that these two notes played together will generate a beat of 2.
In other words, ten cents of difference generates a beat of 2. Dividing 10 by 2. The cheat sheet - This formula may appear difficult to evaluate, but in fact it is quite easy on an Excel spreadsheet, and I have done it for you and posted the results below. The chart shows how many cents difference are required at each note to achieve 1 bps tremolo beat.
Double that many cents will generate a 2 bps tremolo beat. If you want to generate a 3. This chart is an essential aid when we are tuning to the beat. Let's say we hear a beat of 2. Assuming this particular musette set is tuned sharp, the chart tells us how many cents we need to further sharpen this particular reed in order to increase the beat by one more bps.
If we are tuning a set that is tuned flat, it tells us how many cents we need to flatten it. If the beat of a particular note needs to be raised or lowered by 0.
This is your cheat sheet. It allows you to quickly calculate how many cents correction you need to apply to the current tuning in order to alter the current beat pattern to fit your tuning plan for each individual note. It is the single most essential ingredient for successful musette tuning, yet I have never found it published anywhere.
As far as I know, this is its first appearance. With this background information in mind, we can now recap in outline form the proper procedure for tuning a musette accordion, which is the most complex type to tune. Details for steps 1, 2, and 3 have already been provided. Details for steps 4, 5, and 6 are provided later on.
For a dry tuned accordion, skip steps 5 and 6. Set your electronic tuner to this standard, and save the setting or the next time you turn it on, it may revert to the default setting. Step 2: Check all reeds for security and condition wax, leathers, rust, grime , and remedy any defects.
Step 3. Identify and label each reed set. Step 4: Tune dry reeds as necessary. Step 5: Develop your musette tuning plan in terms of the beat progression you want. Step 6: Tune your musette reeds, one musette reed set at a time. Step 4: Tuning dry reeds. Using the tuning bellows - When tuning, it is important to understand that each reed tongue will vibrate at a different frequency in the accordion than on your tuning bellows.
This is due to several factors including reversed air flow on the tuning bellows and differences in physical surroundings. Although the reeds will have to be tuned outside the accordion on your tuning bellows, you will want them to be in tune when installed in the accordion.
You must establish a tuning bellows target value for each reed tongue that will put it in tune once it is back in the accordion. For your dry tuned reeds, measure how many cents each reed tongue is out of tune, and in which direction, while the reeds are installed in the accordion. Unless you are using Dirk's Tuner, which can listen to more than one reed at a time, you must turn off all reed sets other than the one you are measuring.
Express any deviation you find as a correction factor. For instance if you find that a reed is three cents flat, then your correction factor will be to sharpen it three cents. Use the tuning bellows to measure and determine when you have achieved your correction factor. For the sake of efficiency to avoid opening the accordion hundreds of times measure the tuning of all the reeds in one set bassoon, clarinet, or piccolo at one sitting and make a chart showing the amount and direction of the required correction for each reed tongue.
Then test those same reeds on the tuning bellows still mounted in their reed blocks, naturally, and with leathers still installed , and note on the chart how far out of tune each one appears to be on the tuning bellows and in which direction. You will not be tuning to eliminate this indicated error, as it will probably be different from the real error noted while the reed block was in the accordion.
You will use this tuning bellows reading only as a base line for calculating your tuning bellows target value for each reed tongue. Calculate the desired tuning bellows target value by applying the correction factor determined while the reed block was still mounted in the accordion, and note the tuning bellows target value on your chart.
Then tune the reed tongue to that target value on the tuning bellows. Use the tuning bellows just to measure the amount of correction being made. The tuning bellows target value will not be zero zero cents out of tune unless the reed happens to have the same frequency inside the accordion as it does on the tuning bellows, which is uncommon. In that case you will note a required correction factor of minus - 6 cents flatten it by 6 cents to bring it to zero cents out of tune in the accordion.
When you put it back in the accordion and test it again, it should be exactly in tune. As a final check after tuning to make sure your allowed dry reed tuning tolerances are not too great, play each possible dry pair of reeds a dry pair being the one you are tuning plus its octave mate from another dry reed set together and listen for any beat that would indicate one of the reeds is out of tune, and retune any problem pairs to eliminate the beat.
For instance, if your tolerances allow the low F in your bassoon set to be up to 3 cents flat and the low F in your piccolo set to be up to 2 cents sharp, and if both happen to be at opposite extremes of their tolerance ranges, this 5 cent difference might result in an audible beat when they are played together. In this case, one of those reeds will have to be tuned closer to the value of the other to eliminate the beat. Only if one of the reeds is near one limit of the tolerance and the other reed is near the opposite limit will you have a problem.
Have a clear, well organized worksheet where you can post the current tuning bellows reading, the correction factor to be applied, and the resulting tuning bellows target value for each reed tongue. It helps to color code the worksheet columns containing your inner reed tongue readings, correction factors, and targets to help prevent inadvertently reading the value for an external tongue while trying to tune an internal tongue.
Constantly double check to ensure that you are looking at the correct target value for the reed tongue you are tuning and that you are tuning the correct tongue on the correct reed in the correct reed set, and that you are tuning it in the right direction i.
Organization, focus, and perspective- Skill, dexterity, and judgment are all required to successfully tune, but of equal importance are organization, focus, and perspective. It is important to be organized and focused, yet always keep in mind the big picture in order to avoid inadvertently tuning the wrong reed, or the wrong tongue, or tuning in the wrong direction, or by the wrong amount.
Many pitfalls - There are many opportunities for error, confusion, or distractions to ruin your tuning job.
Or you could misread the tuner readout and write down that the reed must be sharpened, when it really needs to be flattened. You could accidentally enter the value for the inner reed tongue in the column for outer reed tongue values, or on the line for a different note, or accidentally write a minus sign when you meant to write a plus sign, or misread your own handwriting. Once you have the values written down, you could miscalculate the correction required or you might calculate correctly but use a wrong value in the calculation, perhaps due to reading it from the wrong column on your chart.
Even if you avoid all measurement, calculation, and tabulation errors and produce a perfectly accurate chart of all the reeds and their required corrections and tuning bellows target values, there are still plenty of opportunities for error during the actual tuning of the reeds. You might inadvertently tune the inner tongue to the value desired for the outer tongue, or tune the wrong reed altogether, or be on the wrong reed block, or sharpen a reed when you should have flattened it.
You might be closing the tuning bellows sounding the interior reed while thinking you are checking the tuning you just did on the exterior reed. Whatever the reason for the error, I know from experience that it is very disheartening to find that you have taken metal off the wrong reed tongue, or off the wrong end of the right reed tongue. You should never take your eye or hand off the reed you are tuning. If you must look away to pick up a tool, then keep your finger on the reed plate you wish to tune.
If you don't, you may find yourself tuning the wrong reed. Practice on accordions of little value in order to learn to systematically avoid all these pitfalls before tuning an accordion of value. Even if you have got everything right so far, and are tuning the correct reed tongue in the right direction toward the correct target value, you are still not out of the woods.
It is very easy to accidentally take off too much metal and overshoot your tuning target. Most often this happens when light filing or scratching is apparently not changing the tuning or maybe even changing it in the wrong direction so you get a little more aggressive with it. This frequently occurs when your scratching or filing is displacing relocating metal, but not actually removing it, or perhaps displacing enough metal to cancel out the tuning impact of any metal you remove.
For instance, filing the tip of the reed tongue to sharpen the pitch can actually flatten the pitch by shifting burrs of metal mass or weight toward the reed tip rather than removing them entirely.
Similarly, scratching the lower third of the reed to flatten the pitch can sometimes sharpen the pitch by plowing up tiny burrs and shifting them toward the fixed end of the reed rather than removing them entirely.
If the next pass of the file or scratcher finally removes these burrs, you will get a sudden jump in the reed frequency, perhaps well beyond your target value. Then you are faced with taking metal off the opposite end to correct the overshoot.
You can avoid this trap by carefully and thoroughly scraping off all burrs before taking each measurement. In any case, the important thing to remember is that you sharpen pitch by shifting the reed tongue's center of gravity toward the fixed end, and you flatten pitch by shifting the center of gravity toward the free end. You can shift the center of gravity either by removing metal or by shifting metal around. For more details on how this is done, see the chapter on Putting File to Metal.
There are many other tuning pitfalls to avoid. If you let your thumb or any part of your hand hang over the edge of the reed block above the reed while sounding that reed on your tuning bellows, the proximity of your hand will flatten the pitch of the reed.
This effect may overshadow the effect of your most recent scratching or filing, providing erroneous feedback and leading you to erroneous conclusions about whether or not additional filing is required. Not having the opening in the bottom of the reed block fully over the opening in the top of your tuning bellows will also give erroneous readings.
Gripping the reed block tightly while filing or scratching a reed can compress or displace or wrinkle the leather on some other reed, which can change that other reed's tuning.
Similarly, replacing a leather can change the tuning, especially if the length of the glued-down portion of the new leather is not exactly the same as on the old. When you begin tuning that reed, blindly applying the previously determined correction factor may produce an undesirable result.
If rough handling or replacing leathers has changed the tuning of any reed, a new correction factor must be determined for that reed before attempting to tune it. Naturally this requires putting the reed block back in the accordion and checking the tuning of that reed again. Great care must be taken not to damage the reed tongue or the reed plate while tuning. This is especially important in the highest pitch reeds in the piccolo reed set, say, from the highest A down to the C below. It is very common to find these reeds silent due to being damaged by excessive force during a previous tuning.
I have found them arched, cupped, twisted, even kinked. Reeds with any of these defects are impossible to voice properly, and should be replaced with new. Reeds can be ruined by removing too much metal in one place. Creating thin spots can theoretically change the timbre and encourage cracks.
Reeds can also be ruined by bending them too far while getting them in position to file, or by pressing too hard with the file or the scratcher, or by filing or scratching without providing proper support behind the reed tongue the smaller the reed, the more vulnerable it is to this kind of mishandling.
Inadvertently narrowing the reed tongue or shortening its tip can ruin a reed by increasing the clearance between the reed tongue and the vent. Scratching or nicking the reed plate at the edge of the vent can similarly ruin the reed. Occasionally the file will drag a metal burr or metal filing to the edge of the reed tongue, where it will wedge between the reed tongue and the vent, preventing the reed from sounding properly.
These can usually be removed by passing a. However, don't push the feeler gauge too far into the vent, or you may damage or dislodge the leather on the opposite side. And don't pull the reed too far up to pluck it, or you may alter its voicing.
More insidious is the effect of a tiny burr on the edge of the tongue that serves to slow the reed just enough to put it slightly out of tune rather than stopping it entirely.
This can mislead you into thinking the reed must be sharpened in pitch, when all it really needs is to be wiped clean. If you file it again before wiping it clean, you may overshoot your target value. Similarly, the file or scraper or your finger can drag soft wax or other contaminant to the reed tongue and deposit it there, which will alter the center of gravity and thus the frequency until you wipe it clean.
It is important to remove all wax from the top of the reed plate before tuning any reed, in order to minimize the possibility of dragging that wax onto the reed tongue during tuning. Occasionally, your efforts to support the interior reed tongue from below will dislodge or damage the interior leather, throwing the interior reed tongue alongside of it suddenly out of tune and skewing your readings for it.
Once you discover and correct the problem, you may find that you have significantly overshot your tuning target and that you now have to tune that same reed tongue back in the opposite direction.
One major difficulty in checking the tuning and determining correction factors is the fact that reed frequency decreases flattens under higher air pressures, especially on the lowest frequency reeds. You might have a reed perfectly in tune at one bellows pressure, yet the next time you test it you will get a different reading if you use a slightly different bellows pressure.
This makes it impossible to tune efficiently, as you cannot tell whether the change in reading is due to the scratching you just did, or to differences in bellows pressures. And if you have one reed perfectly in tune at one bellows pressure and another reed perfectly in tune at some other bellows pressure, then whenever you play those notes together, they will be out of tune with each other. Tuning at constant pressure with a manometer - This problem can be avoided only by tuning and testing at least all the low note reeds at the same bellows pressure the low notes are the most sensitive to pressure changes.
A simple home-made U- tube manometer can be used to measure bellows pressure and to provide a reference that allows you to apply the same bellows pressure to every reed. I used some old clear plastic medical oxygen hose for the tubing, food coloring to color an ounce or so of water, an eye dropper to put the colored water into the clear tubing.
I mounted the tubing on an empty white plastic gallon jug to hold it in the proper U-shape, to support it in an upright viewing position, and to provide a white background behind the red liquid.
To work properly, one end of the tubing must be open to the atmosphere and extended a few inches above the liquid level to prevent any liquid from being blown out under bellows pressure. The other end must be looped to a similar height and connected to the bellows through some convenient length. To connect the manometer to the tuning bellows I drilled an oversized hole in the top cover plate and used a piece of foam rubber as a stopper to seal around the hose.
Before installing it, I made a hole through the foam stopper and forced the hose through the hole. To connect the manometer to the accordion I remove the bass plate and the air release button and valve, and insert the manometer hose into the air release valve port, again using a piece of foam rubber as a stopper to seal around the hose. I route the hose out through the air release button hole in the bass plate and reinstall the bass plate so I can play the accordion while it is hooked to the manometer.
I mark the level of the liquid at rest in the manometer on the plastic jug behind each leg of the U-tube with a felt pen, then while playing the accordion normally, I note the fluctuations in liquid level with varying bellows pressure and sound volume. Based on those observations I select an appropriate liquid level bellows pressure to use in tuning and mark that on the jug behind each tube, one for each bellows direction.
When measuring the tuning of any reed in the accordion or on the tuning bellows, I can now hold constant bellows pressure at the appropriate level using the manometer as a reference.
Atmospheric factors - Even at constant bellows pressure, the tuning of any reed will vary from day to day due to changes in air temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure, all of which impact air density, one of the important determinants of the frequency at which any reed will vibrate.
Expansion due to temperature changes also minutely changes the length of the reed tongue and hence the location of its center of gravity relative to the fixed end, another major determinant of the reed's vibration frequency. We intuitively expect to see reeds slow down due to an increase in temperature, as the reed tongue expands, carrying its center of gravity away from the fixed end.
I would need more data points to plot a curve that would reveal at what temperature the trend actually reverses for each reed. I can offer no theoretical explanation of why this reversal occurs. Tuning variations due to temperature changes are not a problem if all the reeds are tuned at about the same temperature, because they will change together.
But if you tune one reed set on a 60 degree day and another on an 80 degree day, you may have to compensate for the temperature difference. The lowest notes often seem unstable - The lowest note bassoon reeds are more difficult to tune because they tend to drift in frequency, even at constant bellows pressure. The higher notes vibrate at a consistent frequency that your tuner can reliably measure to within one tenth of one cent, but on the lowest notes the tuner readout fluctuates, sometimes by several cents, sometimes eventually settling down to one value, but more often oscillating through some range of values.
After you file or scratch, you can't know for sure how much of the change in readout is due to your tuning and how much is due to drift, or to measuring at a different phase of the oscillation cycle.
You have to take an average, or decide to always use the value showing after some arbitrary but consistently measured period of time, such as two seconds after the reed first sounds. Whatever the reason, you will not be able to tune these reeds to the degree of accuracy that is possible at the higher notes. Final check - Once all the reeds in a set have been tuned, check the operation of every reed in both directions on your tuning bellows in case any have become jammed by tuning debris then put the reed blocks back in the accordion and check the tuning again.
This will highlight any errors or discrepancies that you will need to correct in a second round of tuning. Also check for proper voicing, as the forces imposed on the reeds during tuning can upset the voicing especially on the smallest reeds , and you will want to correct any voicing problems at the same time you are correcting any final tuning discrepancies.
Voicing the reeds - Voicing involves setting the free tip of the reed tongue to the optimum height above the reed plate.
The optimum height is that which will require the least possible amount of air to get the reed tongue moving, yet not so close that it chokes balks under sudden high bellows pressure. The proper height is typically about one reed thickness, but this is really just a starting point. The actual optimum height must be determined by feel and by ear.
If the clearance is too great, the reed responds slowly and sluggishly, especially under light bellows pressure, because too much air leaks through the resulting excessive clearance around the reed tongue.
If the clearance is too narrow, the reed will not sound at all under sudden high bellows pressure, presumably because its initial stroke is too short to accumulate enough spring energy to overcome the air pressure and bounce back, as would be required for it to begin oscillating.
Finding the sweet spot can be tricky because if the clearance is ever so slightly less than the optimum, the reed can partially choke, that is, it can refuse to sound immediately, but eventually get going, which can sound a lot like a reed responding sluggishly because it has too much clearance.
This can fool you into reducing the clearance some more, which will cause it to choke completely on the next trial. Generally, if a reed's threshold of response under very light bellows pressure is identical to its immediate neighbors, it is probably properly voiced. Any reed that requires more bellows pressure than its neighbors probably needs voicing. For detailed instructions on voicing reeds, see the article on page "Accordion Repair 1".
Step 5: Developing your musette tuning plan. Developing your musette tuning plan involves several tasks:. I usually complete steps a through d for the whole reed set before going on to e and f , which I complete for each reed tongue just before I clean and then tune it.
I tune each reed tongue to match its tuning bellows target value before going on to e and f for the next reed tongue. Here is a more detailed explanation of each task:. To be useful during tuning, it must be in the form of a list of the desired beat frequencies to the nearest 0.
To that I can add a few tips: With the reeds in the accordion, and with the treble switches set to play just the dry clarinet set and the single musette set you are tuning, play each note in both bellows directions and make a list of the current beats for each note in each bellows direction.
If your accordion has more than one musette reed set, repeat this for each of those sets individually paired with the dry clarinet set. It has 12 columns and 45 rows. The 4 top rows are for labeling and grouping columns, and the other 41 are dedicated 1 row for each treble note.
The first column contains the names of the notes, the second and third columns are for entering the beginning bps for each bellows direction as measured with reeds in the accordion , and the fourth and fifth are for listing the correction required in bps for each bellows direction in order to match the desired beat progression.
The sixth column is just a reproduction of my cheat sheet, listing the cents per bps conversion factor for each note, and the seventh and eighth columns are for listing the calculated correction factor in cents for each bellows direction.
This much I complete before taking the reeds out of the accordion. The last four columns are for listing:. To help keep the data properly organized and prevent errors, I use yellow highlighting to denote all columns pertaining to inner reed tongues.
The completed chart constitutes a complete formulation of my musette reed tuning plan for one musette reed set. Step 6: Tuning Musette Reeds.
Tune your musette reeds one musette reed set at a time. Establish the tuning bellows base line and the tuning bellows target value for each reed as you go, as detailed in e and f of step 5, above, then carefully clean each reed before you tune it.
Check it on the test bellows again to see how much it improved due to the cleaning. Then tune each musette reed tongue to its tuning bellows target value, just as you did for the dry reed sets.
Correcting errors and newly discovered problems — After all the musette reeds are tuned, put the reed blocks back in the accordion and check every musette reed pair again, in each bellows direction, making note of any needed corrections to the beat frequency on a fresh Musette Reed Tuning Worksheet. Use the cheat sheet column to convert each bps correction factor to cents.
Establish a new tuning bellows base line for each reed tongue needing additional tuning, apply the cents correction factor to arrive at a new tuning bellows target value for each reed tongue needing additional tuning, and tune each of those reed tongues to its target value, just as you did the first time through. Occasionally, you may discover that the beat frequency for one of the pairs increases or decreases with changes in bellows pressure.
Even though the higher note reeds are generally less prone to frequency drift in response to changes in bellows pressure, in the case of musette pairs the beat is so sensitive to minute changes in frequency that if one member of the pair drifts ever so slightly more than the other, the beat will change noticeably. If your final check reveals a reed pair whose beat varies noticeably with bellows pressure, then one of those reeds may have a loose rivet.
I mean just barely loose enough to allow a tiny bit more of the reed tongue to lift off the reed plate right next to the rivet whenever you get the reed tongue swinging wide by playing it at high volume. This increases the effective length of that reed tongue, lowering its pitch.
In this case, you will have to identify which reed tongue is causing the problem and reset its rivet. If the musette set you are tuning is sharper than your clarinet set, a slower beat under high bellows pressure indicates the musette reed is going flat, while a faster beat under high pressure indicates that the clarinet reed is the culprit.
If the musette set you are tuning is flatter than the clarinet set, then a slower beat implicates the clarinet reed, while a faster beat implicates the musette reed.
In either case, if the problem occurs while opening the bellows, the inner tongue is causing the problem. If it occurs while the bellows is closing, the outer tongue is the one to repair.
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