Hey All,
I am restoring an old 28 key Lachenal (c.1896). I knew it was one of the cheaper brass reeded instruments since there was no stamp visible on the handle to say otherwise, however on inspection there appears to be about dozen steel reeds present, with no obvious pattern to their positions.
My questions is firstly if anyone else has had experience of this and can comment on the effect on the tone, i.e. will the steel reeds jump out awkwardly when playing tunes and is there any way to remedy this short of shopping around for spare brass reeds? Secondly, as a point of interest, does anyone know if this is something Lachenal did occasionally in the factory (say if they were using up odds and ends) or is it more likely the steel reeds were introduced as a later repair. They certainly look like they could have been in there for as long as the brass ones.
Thanks!
