David Hornett

I put a slider on mine which holds the end frames firmly in place, so any size can be made by sliding the slider so making the jig long or short, up to eight fold. Depending on the depth of the bellows, if I want them more shallow I wrap slivers of bellows card around with Glad-wrap, the Glad-wrap also stops any glue adhering to the jig, especially when placing gussets. On mine the shaft has been extended with turning 'knobs' added, one on each affixed to the end, this makes life very easy because when the linen is being hot glued I ask one of the family to sit on the other side of the table and turn the jig (and also for the leather coverings) while I run the linen around and clean up, makes for very quick work. All the best David. David

Michael, Looks clean, light, and accurate. I made my two jigs from solid pine blanks of the right width and hand planed the other 4 sides, not as hard as it sounds but it did make for heavy jigs. David

Thank you Chris, I think I am being a little overcareful with the thicker reeds, they peel off the cutter with a more abrasive side to the cut than the thinner steel, so although I cannot see the dimpling you mention I leave enough material to remove just in case. Are you going to Nariel this year? We shall be there, hopefully in the usual spot near the river. David.

It is an old toggle levered cutter, made from cast alloy, used for heavy card and sheetmetal. It cuts .8mm tempered steel into 6 inch strips, and .45mm (and thinner) into foot long strips. I could send a photo if you wish but I have never seen another. I still have to file a goodly amount too -- the thicker metal (.8mm) also gets stress fractures on the edge from the pressure of the blade passing, so I leave enough to file these out. I cut my bellows card with a 12 TPI bi-metal blade band saw into long strips, clamp all the strips together (18 all up) and run the electric planer over them, remove the outer cards on both sides, and there we have the cards all the same width. David

Adding to Greg's advice, don't forget to look at the air button adjustment. If you are in the habit of riding the air button, then its pad not opening, or only fractionally opening will give the impression of sized bellows. David

Remarkable! I use an old paper cutter with high speed steel blades and rare earth magnets to set the reed width by holding the steel sheet: very cumbersome, I can't use the whole sheet width ('cause of the magnets holding down the edge) and it's followed with a bit of filing to size. I so wish I had seen your invention first. David

Yes, and the Tasmanian government is still at it, they have just earmarked 400,000 acres of absolutely prime native forests for logging in the next few years, despite massive resistance, and life is not that much of a struggle in Australia/Tasmania anymore. Greed that motivates here and short term gain: thank God we have characters with the courage stand in front of dozers bull dozers and automated loggers, both figuratively and metaphorically speaking. The Tassie government has made it a crime to protest at a logging site -- you are carted straight off to the cells if you do, an option some tough characters have already taken. David

Don't get them in Tassie. So a thylacine, (Tassie Tiger) had to suffice, but we don't get them anymore either, the government paid for them to be exterminated last century. David

Concertina cases for the Tassie tiger concertinas, made from Tasmanian sassafrass and coastal casurina, french polished. The big button in the front activates the catch. The wooden boss on each end prevents standing the instrument up and getting valve sag. Nicely holds 7 fold bellows. Hopefully the below will take you to the images on photobucket. David http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2419_zps3qgz58fp.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2412_zpsbtq7tdoy.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2416_zpsuyyudwil.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2413_zpsz4ofwwl0.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2411_zps6t5ebvlq.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2418_zps7uayjuac.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2415_zpsoczvhlwv.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2417_zps3fml51tc.jpg http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/DavidHornett/IMG_2414_zps7jmfmovh.jpg

It was tuned on the plate out of the instrument, sounded different there also. The bandoneon I tuned last year was also tuned out of the instrument, then fine tuned within: in both instances the instrument had the harmonica sound, before and after tuning, the sound I associate with tango music, very different to when tango is played on accordion. Sounded like this on youtube: Astor Piazzolla - Bandoneón

Hi Julie, I thought it was for your own instrument you were asking and was giving the reeds to you: however, should your client wish to pay $5 a reed and $10.00 packing and postage they are his for $20 all up. David

Steel reeds, alloy reed plates 2mm, so contrary to what I wrote above the plates are the same thickness as the shoes. Plates nestled on leather and held in place with four elbow screws. The sound board/reed board is 2,2 mm light pine. It is a light, 520 grams, fast little instrument, fairly loud 135 across the flats. Of the type one sees on eBay for $50. Made in Saxony, the poor man's concertina at the turn of last C. Sounds like a harmonica.

BW77, Thank you for your comments, What most interest me is: Why is there such a difference between reed plates and reed shoes in sound production? The little steel reeded German 'D' instrument with reed plates i have, broke its C5. I used the same tempered steel as I use for my concertinas to make a new one and replaced it, riveting it to the plate. It sounds just like a harmonica reed when played, yet on the bench when I had it in a shoe to profile, it sounded like a concertina reed AND, the shoe I was using had at that stage not been undercut,-- but it was 1mm thicker than the plate??? David

Julie, Yes Hobart, Tasmania: we feel a little more special down here at the bottom of Australia. You will need to pay postage. If you are happy with that give me your address and I will send them and you can send the postage in Canadian money, i.e. post, for my daughter's foreign currency collection. Are yours from an anglo, or English? You may be interested to know that from the English reed board I am taking these reeds, all the other reeds are alloy, held with a single rivet, these two reeds are the exceptions, being brass and screws, so for some reason it must be a common fault with the two Es to break. Interesting. David deannadevers@bigpond.com David Hornett PO Box 308 Lenah Valley 7008 Tasmania

Hi BW77, I thought I would run with the efficiency of your approach: "sounded different because the plate transmitted to other of the reeds on the same plate which possibly responded" I wonder if that is possible really...*what* do you mean might be transmitted in such case? Maybe incorrect, but reed plated instruments: melodeons, some early german concertinas, of which I have one, harmonicas and bandoneons, are very different in sound to instrument with a single shoe for one or two reeds. Some of this may be due to thickness of the plate, although I once had a bandoneon with very thick plates, some may be to do with the profiling: but I have, and I must admit with no research into the matter, thought the sound to be carried more easily along the metal, allowing it all to speak, and with its rigidity possibly vibrating others of the reeds in short waves along the reed so generating the distinctive sound. I once owned a maloedion collection, 27 instruments all up made prior to 1939, most had reed plates, and sounded like harmonicas, two had single plates of two reeds per plate, blow and draw: these instruments were in no way different to the others but in this regard sounded like accordions. "as accordions got reeds put into chambers,.... the reeds became more mellow, and often louder" Just some terminology nit-picking: The*reed* sound likely does not change but the *tone* outside the chamber/instrument: Yes, thank-you. " These cassotto chambers made the reeds more mellow," Again....the *reeds* are not affected. The cassotto influence acoustically probably is a combination of "formant resonance" and absorption of higher overtones. There is possibly some debate about this, of the only two people I have ever spoken to about cassotto ('box' in Italian), one argued that the back pressure changed the shape of the reed and thereby changed the sound, the other that the cassotto absorbed the upper partials. The first said a cassotto, was a trial to tune because the reed's pitch changed considerably and unexpectantly when tuned on the bench and replaced in the instrument, and this was due to the 'back pressure'. Malcolm Clapp, although not one of these two tuners, may be able to help here as he'd tunes concertinas and accordians. I have just done a net search and again have come across both explanations. "has anyone experimented with a concertina and noticed what difference the cupped hands held either side of the instruments makes: I believe it changes the sound" Probably have many such experiments been carried out but reports seem to be few. Concertina maker George Jones is said to have tried increasing the volume underneath the endplate. That probably would work in a similar way as the said accordion cassette to achieve an "organ-like" sound.. I'm sorry I did not make the point clear, it was: when playing a concertina the hands are shaped like cups around the concertina, so in the few I have made there has been an attempt to accentuate this shape by curving the hand rest to further increase the cupping, and I like to kid myself it has a small effect on the tone by mellowing it. David.

Some accordions / melodians also had their reeds fixed immediately below the pad, without any chamber, these reeds were generally fixed to plates, like a harmonica, and sounded different because the plate transmitted to other of the reeds on the same plate which possibly responded, and the plate did not dampen a discordance at the higher pitch: my guess anyway. As soon as accordions got reeds put into chambers, which allowed them to be taken of the reed plate and given twin shoes, (only two reeds to the shoe) which were about twice as thick as the plate, or even more, the reeds became more mellow, and often louder. There chambers were only sized to meet the reed length, and the opening width of the reed (so it would not hid the side of the chamber when fully open, they also allowed the reeds to be more easily stacked with them having longitudinally into the instrument, there was no tuning of the chamber. Following this, accordions introduced 'tone chambers', 'the cassotto', on some low and medium reed banks, and rarely on the bass and bassoon reeds. These cassotto chambers made the reeds more mellow, on some of the longer bass reeds it also allowed them to respond faster (?), and moved the instrument from Hitler's derogatory "pig organs", into the classical stream because of the uniform clarity of mellow sound (the 'classical accordion dirge' I think of it as: the liveliness of the folk instrument and vibrato being somewhat dampened). But in all of this, as far as I am aware, there was no tuning of chambers, reed or cassotto, they were just what was required to fit the reed: there simply is not the room in an instrument of about 600 reeds for differing chambers, imagine how long a tuned bass would possibly have to be: thinking of another blow instrument, the low 'D' whistle, may give some idea. But the chamber idea is a good one, find a crystal wine glass and put it to the side of a harmonica while playing. Or do as many do, cup your hands around the instrument (harmonica) and vary the size of the chamber by lifting and lowering your hands. Now this brings me to the concertina, has anyone experimented with a concertina and noticed what difference the cupped hands held either side of the instruments makes: I believe it changes the sound, in the rudimentary experiments I have done it seems to, or is it my imagination? -- the hands form little tone chambers and mellow the sound: so there is something in the chamber idea, but it is not, I believed, used in engineering concertina chambers. david

Julie, Brass reeds? I can supply two lacunal brass reeds in these notes. What is the pitch: a440 / 442/ 453 / 437 or something else, but what ever I have brass lachenal E4 and E5 reeds, as well as steel. David

Hmm, interesting. With the reeds I make what they read on the jig they tend to read within a few cents in the instrument, but it was suggested to me this is because i have not been accurate enough with the reed clearances in the shoes. I note that the Lachenals I have tuned tend to vary about 5 cents, the bass flat; the treble sharp, so 10-15 cents overall. Someone else suggested to me that the nature of the hole in the tuning jig has an effect on pitch due to tunnelling of the airflow???? I have been too lazy to check this out. But if this is so the out of instrument pit will vary between tuning jigs. David

I have read this too, in reference to the later Wheatsons, BUT I have never tried it. Some instruments have square chambers, e.g. Jeffries, Jones, some tapered, Lachenal and Wheatson. In an Anglo ,most chambers, push and pull will be a full tone (note) apart on the same chamber, if what we have read is correct, then I would expect some disharmony, and yet one can tune a reed out of an instrument and be within 10 cents, or better, when it's placed into it?? Or am I up yet another tree. Personally I think chambers are of the size required to take the reed, with 30 reeds and often more in a instrument, there is not much space left to play with to 'tune chambers'. David

Yes, I agree, Greg,. Further, when one plays an instrument , especially on the left hand notes, it is easy to feel the entire instrument vibrate. Reeds tightly fitting to their board will transmit this vibration better that holding a reed to the lips where there is nothing to vibrate, and as Chris pointed out the reed frame actually moves changing the gap. Vibration = sound, hit with the same force, the bigger the drum the bigger the sound because the diagram does not lose it energy so easy by connection to the side, it can wobble, vibrate, more grandly than a small drum.. I have made reed pans of different materials and tried the same reeds in them, huon pine gives a different sound than king billy pine, and there is a difference in volume too, the king billy, a softer wood appears to have a louder voice, but a warmer sound, compared to the blackwood and huon pine I have tried. And likewise metal ends sound harsher and louder than wooden ends. There are lots of things happening when a reed vibrates, but a lot of the volume has to do with how tightly the reed shoes are held in their slots, and they will most likely not be as firmly held by fleshy fingers to the lip, nor will the flesh transmit the sound nor modify the tone as does wood . Hence my reference to soft lips. Such are my thoughts. David

Soft lips give a soft sound, but is that not the way it should always be? David

Greg, Do you recall the name of the Israeli blades? I note there are Israeli blades listed on the net, here in Aus Mensbiz.com.au list 'Persona Red Pack Israeli Blades' at $40 a hundred . I also have had problems with Schärf-Fix 2000 blades, although have discovered they do work nicely on the more rigid chrome tanned kangaroo leathers, but very poorly on the supple gloving and bookbinding style leathers. David

I enjoyed reading your blog, Alex. The end product certainly looks excellent. If you are interested I can email you a photo or two of my home made tapping jig -- I would never have thought of doing it the way you did, fascinating: such a simple idea. David

Hi, Playing by ear is the only way I can play, I tried the reading thing, but after 18 months I was still counting up the lines and almost gave music away. After a while playing by ear becomes like speaking, but it has its limitations, ear players tend to make mistakes and compromise, or they go away and add bits from some other tune because they think they remember that in the tune they are replicating, or they add entirely new bits of their own (ah, the folk tradition) and it is much faster to play music if all one has to do is read the score, further it is much easier to learn a new tune as a group if everyone is a reader. Finally I am forever frustrated that I cannot play a tune until I have heard someone else play it: a rather big drawback for me: but not big enough to tempt me to again try reading the notation.. BUT, for the ease of wandering into a session, or sitting in a corner by yourself, or stealing a tune from the radio/TV, or picking up an instrument and accompanying a singer, and so on, ear playing is fantastic. Trying to read gave me a bloody awful headache. I now find all I have to do is hear a tune three times, and then maybe a little latter (at the next session for instance) and a very close approximation, if not an exact replication can be made. As a point of interest, playing tunes by ear which have words to them is much easier when you are learning, until you become proficient. When I began, I used to sing the song, or make up word that would fit the tune, especially the opening bar or two, or if it was purely a tune, whistle it and then put it on the instrument. David

Ah, Mr Anglo-Irish man. I just took the opportunity to visit your website, and what a lovely rendition of Waltzing Matilda, but I prefer the original, now known as the Queensland Version, although there is some contention as to whether it is the original or Queensland. It can be found here: https://youtu.be/4ElJ9wQllJ0