Chris Ghent

Not mentioned so far; make the clearance between reed and frame wider. Yes, it costs air but should be quieter. Also I would endorse using a larger draught angle.

When you do up the screws on a reed clamp you always have to flatten the underside frame because the screws pull the sides up. When I have a reed with slightly less performance I always check the underside for flatness. A curve there = a leak.

Some (excellent) modern makers use parallel reeds but this may be related to methods of construction rather than tone or response. Some time ago I measured the difference in surface area of a parallel reed compared with a typical tapered reed, can’t remember the pitch, and the parallel was 3% larger. Not enough to make a signal difference, I thought. It does mean a low reed can be a little less thick at the tip but so what? Of course, it will need to also be thinner in the belly. A high reed will need to be thinner at the tip, mmm, could be meaningful. For the same degree of taper in the reed window relief the tapered reed will lose pressure earlier. Also could be meaningful?

My reed organ has at least three different profile types. One is similar to the diagram above (which I once found replicated in a 50s Wheatstone out of Africa, it really sped up when I normalised them), another had a profound twist of the tip, and the others are more conventional. My understanding is these were ways in which the manufacturers tried to create different tones so as to be able to pull out another stop and change the sound of the instrument. My Estey has 17 stops. So it was done for tone. The loss of performance inherent in the reeds pictured above does not matter as much in an instrument which is pedaled, there is almost always enough air. My opinion (similar to Johann's) about how the above reeds would change tone would be; on the way down the point of close contact between reed and frame would be in two places, one point each side of the highest point and when the highest point was reached there would be a sudden rush of increased higher partials, which happen as the reed passes through the frame. On the way back up the increased partials would happen first. This means the up and down swings would have dynamic and different characteristics, leading to a different tone.

Rod, much depends on the construction materials and method, you will know when the bellows have given up and decided to behave! I also do not put them under extreme pressure in the clamp immediately, I just slowly tighten the screw a little more every time I walk past.

Don’t underestimate the time needed in compression. I find a couple of days way too short. A month makes more sense, take them out and stretch them every few days. And after they are in service make sure they go back in a good box or have some form of compression when not being used for a year or so.

The idea for my constant pressure tuning device came from Dana, so its a 6” duct fan, in my case speed controlled by nothing more than a domestic 240v lighting dimmer.

Tom, seems I have remembered the psi figures as WC figures so not as much difference as I thought.

Just read your further post Tom, I think a good clearance is closer to 1 thou than 2. I aim for .125 thou. Also, re draught angle, while it is not universal, accordion reeds often have more tapered reeds than concertinas. This increases the gap more quickly as the reed swings down and probably has the same effect as the draught angle in a concertina frame.

I am a world away from any of my gear and figures at the moment but by memory my numbers are wildly different to those quoted here. I like my lower reeds to start in the tuning rig by .11 “ . This figure climbs slowly to around .2 at high pitches. However it may reflect set height as much as anything and is almost certainly related to reed thickness and clearance. My tuning -pressure is 1.6”. This was not by design, it was all the rig could do flat out. I have not found any issue with that -pressure. A few years ago for no good reason I decided to find out the operating -pressure needed in the bellows and drilled a hole directly through a bellows frame and inserted a manometer tube. I was expecting high -pressures but never saw anything more than about .3”. I posted the figures here, so they could be found, it was some time in the last 6 years. This is so different from your figure Tom that it feels one of us must be wrong or we are comparing apples to oranges. As an interesting aside I once decided to try bedding a reed in so it would not need to be tuned so many times before it was ready to be sent off. I left it running in the tuning rig for hours. Over that time it dropped a few cents. I was pleased, thinking I would do it to all the reeds. The next day I somewhat idly put it back in the tuning slot and it had returned to its previous reading. My theory was the drop might be heat related. I know Dana has different results to this.

Start half way along a side next to the unjoined peak and travel over the unjoined peak first, then continue all the way around.

Stephen, if you mean you now do not have a valve at all you will find the reed works OK but it will use a lot of air, so much it will be hard to compensate when playing. Unless it is a very high reed.

The valve that needs replacing is the one beside the reed, not the one behind it.

Buy thin linen from a fabric shop, cut it on the bias.

Good idea about cutting the chamois from the partitions to get it apart. I have found white glue will dissolve white glue but it is not an easy or clean process. Heat certainly softens it.

If you want it to suck in it needs to be thin glue but don’t over do it because it might gum things up inside. If the leak is where there is a tiny gather in the top run at the corner I will work the gather open a little more to allow glue to go in and then hold the gather shut (clothes peg) while the glue goes off

Working a little glue in there will work. If it is an actual leak, putting a little negative pressure into the bellows will suck it into the hole.

Ebony suitable for buttons would be easily obtained from old pianos, which are often thrown out these days. It wouldn’t be my choice for buttons because it is heavy.

The reeds which are making the metallic noise, can you look at them with magnification and backlight? They may be off centre in the frame. While reed frames can be distorted by side pressure enough to foul the reed it has to be an extreme case to foul in a Lachenal anglo as the clearance between reed and frame tends to be large in them. An off centre reed would make it more likely. You might also be able to see witness marks in the reed slot where it has been hitting.

Dave, because tuning is relative outside the instrument it seems not to matter if you are tuning to the initiation pitch or the steady state pitch as long as you get the reading at the same point. With twanging and an electronic tuner you do only get a momentary reading, but presumably it occurs fairly consistently at the same stage in the cycle as it is easy to reproduce the pitch by twanging again and also easy to alter it by tuning. I don’t want to sound as if I’m advocating people do tuning jobs by plucking. Just saying it can be done. And when making a reed by hand from scratch it is the only practical method of gauging the point in the process at which putting the reed into the frame for final tuning is desirable. When I do this I always expect a shift in the pitch because it is difficult to hold the reed while tuning it in exactly the same place as the clamp will hold it. The pitch will drop if the reed is clamped further from the tip and raise if it is closer and a few thou makes a lot of difference. I see the biggest issue with twang-tuning as getting enough amplitude for the microphone and with the mic I use I tend to make contact between the reed holder and the mic as it seems to work more consistently. I also give it a very big pluck. I wonder if a contact tuner might be better for a reed in a frame? I’ll try it when I get home. I’m a long way from home right now and much of my gear is packed and stored 50 kms away as a precaution against losing it in a bushfire while I’m here. My house is surrounded by enormous fires at the moment. The one to the north is 15 kms away and bigger than Greater London, the one a similar distance to the south is only a third of that. Hoping for easterly and westerly winds only until the rains come in a few months time.

Twanging consistency is not a pitch issue, you just need to get a long and loud enough twang for your tuner to register. The mic from the tuner needs to be very close, close enough to interfere with your pluck; touching the frame on the tuner may help. Once you get the pluck movement right you get repeatable results. There are much easier methods of tuning!

I wouldn’t dismiss twanging, you can get good at it and it is used in the profiling process when making a reed by hand. The issue is developing a consistent twang. If you have the reedplate off you could try blowing through them. In order to not rust the reeds afterwards you need to suck rather than blow so make sure they are clean first.

Things to investigate include; a missing cloth bushing in the button where the lever passes through it, a missing bush under the button, and wear in the joint between lever and post. As Alex says, that discrepancy in the lad is not your noise.

Quite right Dave, I omitted the time element.