Youtube Video On Making Accordion Reeds

[Don Taylor]

Of interest for those with accordion reeded concertinas, but I imagine that a similar process must have been used for concertina reeds.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgYYyn72HLI

 

Presumably these are 'a mano' reeds.

 

I find it interesting to see how apparently roughly they handle these reeds, tuning them with a belt sander!

 

Don.

[David Barnert]

He spends a lot of time flattening rivets. Concertina reeds have screws.

 

[Greg Jowaisas]

Thanks for the link. There were a couple of ideas and tools I might incorporate in my workshop. I think I'll stay away from the belt sander though!!

 

Greg

[Chris Ghent]

A lot of the tapping and banging is not appropriate to concertina reeds. The way I read this video, initially he sets the rivet loosely and then shifts both the rivet and reed into a better position by holding the rivet against the metal block and tapping the frame. These are the tiny taps. He tightens the rivet a little and repeats. Once he has the reed in place he rivets it harder. He can see the clearance by holding it up in front of the bright piece of paper behind the vice. All the time while doing this he bangs quite hard on the side of the frame a number of times. I think this is to tighten the gap between the frame and the reed by bending the side of the frame in. If you were to do this to a concertina reed you would upset it's fit in the reedpan. You can also see him adjust the side clearance a few times by bending the reed out and filing the side of it. He adjusts the tip clearance on the little fold out strip of metal withe the fancy end.

 

It would seem the reed is preground and he uses the linishing belt just to tune it to somewhere closer to pitch, leaving the fine tuning to the installer. I'm not so sure this is a rough process, if the grit was fine enough it would leave almost no burrs. It seems very controllable.

 

While you can never underestimate the abilities of a worker who has repeated one job thousands of times I find it hard to imagine these are the best reeds being made. I can imagine them being as good as the ones in my Castagnari. Every single reed is off centre and the tip clearances are erratic.

[Geoffrey Crabb]

Thanks for that Don, really interesting to see an actual 'hands on' procedure.

 

Geoff

[Bruce McCaskey]

David mentions above that concertina reeds are held in place by screws. I've certainly seen this in the many instruments made by the old masters over the years. In light of this thread and the video, it does make me wonder though.

 

I've always heard that one should never loosen the screws on a concertina reed, so I have the impression that once assembled, it would make little difference whether the reed was held in place by a clamping bar and screws, or by rivet. Understand that I'm only referring to how the reed is held in place, and not addressing other material and construction differences.

 

Any opinions on this point?

[DDF]

David mentions above that concertina reeds are held in place by screws. I've certainly seen this in the many instruments made by the old masters over the years. In light of this thread and the video, it does make me wonder though.

 

I've always heard that one should never loosen the screws on a concertina reed, so I have the impression that once assembled, it would make little difference whether the reed was held in place by a clamping bar and screws, or by rivet. Understand that I'm only referring to how the reed is held in place, and not addressing other material and construction differences.

 

Any opinions on this point?

Hi Bruce,I guess if the reeds were not screwed down you wouldn't be able to do what this chap is doing in this video.Another interesting youtube offering, bit radical though.David.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3G38JJgqZ8

[JimLucas]

I've always heard that one should never loosen the screws on a concertina reed, so I have the impression that once assembled, it would make little difference whether the reed was held in place by a clamping bar and screws, or by rivet. Understand that I'm only referring to how the reed is held in place, and not addressing other material and construction differences.

 

That "never" is a warning to the enthusiastic tinkerer. Loosening the screws is a drastic measure and far too easy to screw up. (Pun acknowledged.) Why risk a superb yet delicate instrument?

 

Obviously, someone had to position and clamp down every reed tongue when the instrument was first made, and an expert restorer will have learned to do it. Even I have learned, but I've never found it easy or quick, and I wouldn't loosen a reed clamp unless absolutely necessary.

 

If it becomes necessary to realign or even (gasp!) replace the reed tongue, I'm sure that loosening and re-tightening the clamp bar is far easier than loosening or removing and replacing a rivet. However, I've only had to do that on a few reeds out of the few thousand that I've handled.

[JimLucas]

...I guess if the reeds were not screwed down you wouldn't be able to do what this chap is doing in this video.Another interesting youtube offering, bit radical though.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3G38JJgqZ8

 

Radical? Sure seems so to me. I'd like to hear what our various experienced restorers have to say.

 

And have I overlooked something? Where in the video does he align the reed tongue and tighten the screws? The one at the end where he demonstrates the sound is not the one he was working on just before.

[Theo]

 

...I guess if the reeds were not screwed down you wouldn't be able to do what this chap is doing in this video.Another interesting youtube offering, bit radical though.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3G38JJgqZ8

 

Radical? Sure seems so to me. I'd like to hear what our various experienced restorers have to say.

 

Seems completely bonkers to me.

[samper]

I've always heard that one should never loosen the screws on a concertina reed

 

Umm...'never'..well I have done so, especially to replace a broken reed tongue etc. It's really nowhere near as scary as I once thought.

[Bruce McCaskey]

I acknowledge that the "never loosen the screws" advice is a warning to the inexperienced. I can see where someone with the experience might be comfortable with doing that for various purposes, but it doesn't seem likely that I'll ever find myself doing it. I'm fine with clearing a fouled reed, adusting the set, even aligning an off-center reed tongue, but if a reed breaks or goes much out of tune, I'll likely be engaging a professional to assist with the repair/resolution.

 

I understand the mechanics of reed pitch adjustment, but I'd be quite reluctant to take my first steps in practical application of that knowledge with the reeds of my own instruments. Maybe if I run across some loose reeds some day I'll experiment with them and see how it turns out...

[Chris Ghent]

The second youtube video video had me laughing, perhaps because I was imagining the soundtrack to be something like the Chef on the Muppets, ie. not serious. Surely it is a spoof!

 

I am not one of those who would ever say "never undo a clamp"; its your concertina and you can make your own mistakes. I might say, if you undo a clamp you may have difficulty getting the reed back into a satisfactory position afterwards. When I see something like that video, given the way he is working, my first thought is, these are not great reeds. Great reeds have little room for compromise in position. Putting a Lachenal reed back in 1 thou (.025) out of position and you will get away with it. Do the same to a Linota with Class A reeds and you won't.

 

Taking a reed out holds no fear for me but if there is little or nothing to hold onto in the way of reed extension behind the clamp then it can be time consuming. When new there is a long extension making it easy to position the reed. It is not feasible to use hard thin objects such as feeler gauges to position a reed (perhaps I should say, I failed) but I have come across harmonium reeds with the remains of loops of thin thread which may have been used for this. I think it would have worked on the principle, lay the thread across the frame opening in several places, position the reed on top and push down gently, then tighten the clamp. The thread, though too big to fit through the gap between frame and reed, would have a tendency to even the gap on each side.

 

It is important to have the gap even on the sides and close at the tip. If you have the sides even but the tip has a clearance of 5 or 6 thou (.15mm), then the reed will not work nearly as well. Imagine if you had a leak in your bellows 2.5mm long and .15mm wide. The concertina would be slightly soggy. So will this reed if it has a similarly large clearance. I refer to large clearances as leaks. I might add, the VA reeds on my newish Castagnari Dinn II had gaps this size at the tip on some reeds, and the tongues were often quite off centre. An off centre tongue will be affected in its operation; one side will generate more higher partials than the other, air will be trying to flow across the reed at the compression point to try to equalise pressure and the reed may not swing straight.

 

The easiest way for an amateur to reposition a reed is to use a stereo microscope with under and over lights and a magnification of about 7 times, the sort of thing often owned by people who are into gemstones and minerology.

[gcoover]

So, the guy in the Italian video goes to all the effort of acid baths and emery cloth polishing and is more concerned about shiny polished reed frames and screws (that are inside and never visible) than he his about the setting and performance of the reeds?!? That poor EC - may none of us ever buy it by mistake on eBay!

 

Gary

[Chris Ghent]

I regret sounding off without finding out what his intention was in the video. I doubt he was saying, don't do this, but you never know. Perhaps someone here knows enough Italian..? Or is it Spanish. He may say something like, I have accurate methods of repositioning, don't do this at home.

[David Barnert]

I regret sounding off without finding out what his intention was in the video. I doubt he was saying, don't do this, but you never know. Perhaps someone here knows enough Italian..? Or is it Spanish. He may say something like, I have accurate methods of repositioning, don't do this at home.

It is Spanish. I know some Spanish, but not enough to catch the fine points of what he's saying. I does seem, however, that the point of what he's doing is to shine the reed shoes that are never seen.