Gremlin Anglo air leakage

[gcoover]

I recently purchased a G/D Gremlin Anglo that wheezed excessively, and on closer examination it had obviously been doing so for all of its 30 years.

 

The Gremlin is an interesting instrument (the first hybrid using accordion reeds?), even more interesting when comparing what they did really well to what they did really poorly. Had it been an even amount of effort across the board it would have been a very decent instrument!

 

For some reason, they decided to mimic the traditional removable concertina reed pan, with accordion reeds screwed to the underneath side. Most hybrid builders today make the reed pan and action pan in one piece since there is no advantage to having two pieces when using accordion reeds.

 

Upon closer inspection, I could see a lot of light between the wooden partitions of the reed pan itself, which is not a good thing. I could also see a lot of light around the sides of the reeds themselves where they were screwed to the reed pan due to poor cutting of the holes in the wood, and even light around the screws and screw holes.

 

The fix? Elmer's Glue for the reed pan partitions, and a thin line of hot wax around every reed. An easy fix, and now it plays much much better!

 

 

Gary