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Dave C

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    Using a mid 19th cent. French accordeon (aka flutina) in performance of American early minstrel period popular songs and tunes is a primary interest, but first I need to make some repairs to the one I recently acquired.
  • Location
    Southeastern Pennsylvania, USA

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  1. With regard to putting anything on old dried out gussets I posted this almost a year ago. "I play a circa 1850 French accordeon. I had to replace many of the gussets right away due to being cracked or split. After seeing more go after a few hours of playing I made a point to go out and find Meltonian shoe cream, that exact product, and used it on the remaining gussets and leather edges. It appeared to restore a lot of life back into the dried out leather and a year later a few of the original gussets are still intact. Maybe other products would have worked but I found Meltona to be a good recommendation if you feel you need to put something on them." Over this past year those few remaining intact gussets split and had to be replaced but I do not blame my application of a dressing. In fact, as I mentioned in my post, the untreated ones fared much worse than the treated ones. Dave Culgan
  2. Coming from another rank amateur at reed instrument repair I would say go for it. You will in time find out what you are capable of and what might be a stretch. I have been thoroughly enjoying playing a 150 year old instrument that I bought quite cheap on ebay. Although not in bad condition I had to make some bellows, valve, and reed repairs right away just to be able to play it and a few more over the past year and a half I've been playing it. I'd say I was successful in that I am now enjoying the instrument and I have better idea of what I can do. Make a reed from scratch - probably not. Improve the tuning a bit - done that. Replace bellows gussets - my repair is not real pretty but it is functional. I made the determination right away based on what I saw on ebay that my instrument was not particularly rare, or valuable, and this lessened apprehension I felt about doing harm. One thing I have tried to do "right" is using appropriate materials and glues (hot hide and shellac) and I suppose all of my repairs are reversible, though I can't see anyone ever caring enough to do so. Good luck. And Meltonian shoe cream - good stuff!
  3. You could also contact Andy Gelfert at the Victorian Accordeon Company Andy has done some reed fabrication and tuning for me, and he is currently working on a reproduction of an early French accordeon or flutina as they are sometimes called.
  4. I use the term old French accordeon, but find that most people refer to them as flutinas. The way I understand it at one time, when these instruments were current, the ones that had the pallets enclosed in the casework were commonly called flutina (contraction of flute and concertina maybe) based on the tone, but that the manufacturers never labeled them such. Accordeon melodique, or accordeon diatonique maybe. I try to use appropriate materials for working on mine, and I suppose hot hide glue would be what was used to hold the pearl key tops to the wood. I had trouble with the glue joints though, I couldn't really open them up to clean them up before gluing and several of the hide glued ones failed after a few hours of playing. These i have reglued with titebond and none have come loose. I don't think these are that rare since I see them for sale on ebay all the time. What seems to be rare is anyone playing them much. From the numerous mentions in 19th cent. books, periodicals, etc. they must have been very popular in their day. It is probably a little rare to find a survivor in good enough condition to be played for hours on end without having some issues with the bellows. Mine came cheap from ebay in more or less playable condition after freeing up a few non-speaking reeds and gluing the key tops. With playing time though came the need for bellows repairs, particularly the diamond gussets in the bellows corners. I had to learn to repair these to keep mine as a player. You mention that the action re. push and pull is the opposite from other melodeons. Maybe this is why they are not played as much. I had started to learn to play an old melodeon that I had but stopped playing it when I started playing this French accordeon because I realized I couldn't handle both systems and would be forever confused. If you are into playing it fix it up a little. Get the drones working, they really fill out the sound and give it a unique voice. I took some general advice I found here re. using a product called Meltona shoe cream to feed some moisture into dried out leather in the bellow's gussets and top runs. That seemed to be a good thing and had I done it sooner I might not have lot as many gussets to tearing. As I play out more and more I run into folks that mention that they have one, or more of these in their collection, but I've only met a few that say they play them at all. For technical advice re. reeds, valves, bellows, etc. I think you may be better off here than at melodeon.net, these accordeons have much in common with concertinas. I'm by no means an expert and in fact a rank beginner when it comes to free reed instruments but congratulations on your inheritance. I must say that I really love playing mine and learning new tunes and songs, coming from a strings only playing experience, I find the sound of the brass reeds intoxicating and amazed that I can play a musical instrument this old. I do fear that someday I will pull it into pieces but in the meantime I'm really enjoying the ride. Dave C.
  5. I play a circa 1850 French accordeon. I had to replace many of the gussets right away due to being cracked or split. After seeing more go after a few hours of playing I made a point to go out and find Meltona shoe cream, that exact product, and used it on the remaining gussets and leather edges. It appeared to restore a lot of life back into the dried out leather and a year later a few of the original gussets are still intact. Maybe other products would have worked but I found Meltona to be a good recommendation if you feel you need to put something on them. Dave Culgan
  6. I am a new member here and I don't even play the concertina! I got involved with trying to aquire, repair, and play an early French accordeon commonly referred to as a flutina. I've found a lot of really useful information here about construction and repairs, much more than on any other site I've visited. The knowledge I've found here has been invaluable, and I've come to understand the similarities betwween the two instruments. For years I've been playing an early style banjo in a band that plays the popular music of mid-19th century America, mostly at Civil War reenactments and other history themed venues. From some casual research I've come to realize that these accordeons and concertinas were as popular as the banjo in this time period, which is too say very popular and almost ubiquitous. My goal is to incorporate the flutina into my band, playing along with the banjo and percussion (tambourine, rhythm bones, etc.). My post today should serve as a new member introduction as well as a reflection on this forum. There is a treasure trove of information accumulated here, and from what I've seen so far, an even bigger treasure in the folks that post here as well, I'm sure, as the folks that just read the forums. Dave Culgan, banjoist with the Camptown Shakers band.
  7. I got it! I was able to slip a dull thin blade around the outer edges and then by wiggling here and there it pulled up and I had it apart. As I expected the reed assemblies were brass, dovetailed into the reed pan. I have one pair of reeds that won't sound in either direction, one or two that are dead in one direction only, and a pair that are very weak. So it looks like I will need to fabricate some sort of test bellows or other source of high volume, low pressure air in order to see what's going on. Some of the valves curl up more than others, and there is a lot of discoloration, tarnish, on the reeds. D Culgan
  8. I know its not a concertina but I've recently acquired an early French accordeon (a.k.a flutina, probably Busson mfg.) in pretty good condition. A couple of the reeds aren't sounding though and I know I will need to do a little bit of work to get it fully functional. From perusing the posts on this forum, and others, I have come to understand that these flutina accordeons are constructed more like a concertina than a more modern accordeon and so I come here for advice. I was able to slide off the top with a bit of effort and expose the reed pan underneath. I note that it is gasketed all over with chamois leather. In order to access the reeds on the underside i will need to remove the reed pan. Any advice on the best technique to disassemble? Is the reed pan assembly held in the bellows frame by friction of the gasketed surfaces alone? I am thinking that it would be a good idea to move the instrument from my shop, which is very humid this time of year to an air conditioned room. Allowing the wood to dry out a bit this way seemed to help with getting the top to slide off. Looking to hear from anyone with experience in working with these instruments. I don't have any real experience in working with instruments like this but am confident I will be successful if I keep at it. This is my first post to this forum although I have been reading many of the topics that are of interest to my project. Regards, Dave Culgan
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