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Fanie

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Posts posted by Fanie

  1. My cat also likes music. When I start playing, he jumps on my lap and rubs himself against the concertina. When I play harmonica he rubs his nose against the back of the harmonica, as if he is helping to play.

    My sister has a cat that attacks her when she plays on the old peddle organ.

    I have wondered, do they really like the music, or does the sound irritate their ears?

  2. Since childhood I wanted to learn to play concertina. About a year ago, during the Covid lockdown, I decided its time to bite the bullet. But what do you buy? If you buy an expensive concertina and cannot manage to play it, then you wasted a lot of money. So, I decided to order a cheap Chinese 20 button Anglo from Banggood. Yes, it is hard to play- the bellows are very stiff, but in a few months I managed to play it and the more I played it, the easier it became. A few months ago I moved on, I found an almost new 40 button Hohner with metal buttons and -ends and leather bellows. What a pleasure to play! I will never be sorry that I started with the Chinese 20 button, and I still play it now and then.

    Just my 2c.

  3. We all know that the +50000 Wheatstone reeds are different from the before 1938 stuff. So I sent my set of rusted reeds to Harmonikas.cz in the Czech Republic to see if they can produce a replacement set. And I got this answer from Ladislav:

    Thank you again for sending your sample of reeds, as I could check I have  never seen this kind of reeds yet. As you know we are able to produce two different kind of reeds for concertina.  One is with the rivet and the other one is with screws and clamps. Now  we make these reeds from brass and for these reeds I think is better Material brass the Aluminium.
    The production is too demanding  and we can offer these reeds only in first quality. I have no possibility producing for these reeds in another cheaper quality..
    Suggestion for your reeds: 
    - the frame according your sample
    - reeds are riveted ( like our concertina reeds )
    - Material for frame „ brass „
    - Price for this reeds set 30 button 164,-EUR ( if you order more than 10 set )
    We can make the frame from aluminium, the price then 148,-EUR/set

     

    What do you guys think, is there perhaps somebody else who are also interested so that we can order 10 sets of First Quality Brass framed reeds at 164 Euro/set?

    Thank you

  4. Thank you for the references, I will check them out.

    I recieved the bandoneon and it is not in good shape. Some of the gussets on the bellows are gone, 39 bellow corners are missing, 15 buttons are missing, and some of the reeds keep on singing all the time, so the pads will probaply have to be replaced.

    Lots of projects to keep me busy, I am currently working on a Wheatstone Anglo and an old 1880's Stanley reed organ.

    Thanks

  5. It is time time to start doing something about the reeds in my Wheatstone. I cleaned all the rust out and started testing the pitch.

    I have two tuner apps on my phone, which are Pano Tuner, and I have Billthefarmer Tuner.

    Both apps measure the pitch in Hz an my reeds are way out of pitch.

    I first tested the right hand side reeds and made a tabel of what it should be (Target Hz), and what it is currently testing (Current Hz).

    Right hand reeds:

    Reed

    Target Hz

    Current Hz

    C#5

    554.73

    546

    D#5

    662.25

    604

    A5

    880

    857

    G5

    783.99

    747

    G#5

    830.61

    800

    Bb5

    932.33

    903

    C#6

    1108.73

    1095

    D#6

    1244.51

    1173

    A6

    1760

    1587

    F6

    1396.91

    1246

    E6

    1318.51

    1182

    B5

    987.77

    963

    B6

    1975.53

    1780

    F#6

    1479.98

    1425

    C6

    1046.50

    962

    A5

    880

    845

    G6

    1567.98

    1482

    E6

    1318.51

    1256

    D6

    1174.66

    1092

    C6

    1046.50

    1011

    G5

    783.99

    760

    F5

    698.46

     

    B5

    987.77

    949

    A5

    880

    868

    E5

    659.25

    620

    D5

    587.33

    583

    G5

    783.99

    750

    F#5

    739.99

    728

    C5

    523.25

    490

    B4

    493.88

    481

     

    As you can see, they are WAY out of tune. Please tell me if it will be possible to tune these reeds to what they should be.

    Thank you for you help.

  6. Time for an update:

    I made a new set of 8-fold bellows

    I made a set of new deldrin/acetal buttons

    I made new pads and 

    I made new springs from 0.7mm stainless steel spring wire.

    Now for my big headache, the reeds.

    The reeds sound terrible. Some of them don't make a sound and the rest are out of tune. Some of them were so rusted and pitted that I do't know if it will be possible to tune them.

    Now I have been thinking............ I have an old Scandalli piano accordion that is beyond repair, but the reeds are still looking good. It has about 120 treble reeds. If I could harvest a set of reeds from the PA and then cut half of the reed plate off so that it is a single tongue reed and then file the reed plate to shape and then drill holes on both ends to attach it with screws?

    What do you think?

  7. Ok, I got it out. 

    I first heated it with a soldering bolt, then cut a slot in the end with one of those small dremmel blades and then tried with a small screwdriver, but it did not work. Then I cut it open on the side and got it out. Now I must find a screw that will fit and cut threads for it and then cover the slot with epoxy.

    Fortunately I am busy building new bellows, so I did not have to destroy anything in the process.

    Thanks for all your help. 

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