Note sounding when no buttons are depressed

[jkilloran]

Hello,

I’m new to the forum. I own a Bastari 20 button concertina. I’ve had it for 30 years and only recently started to give it serious attention. One of the values leaks, so that when you push or pull on the bellow, it plays without depressing a button. The button is the A, right side, top row, 4th button in from the left. It sounds both the push and the pull notes. I’ve taken it apart three times and can’t see how the valves/reeds appear any different from the buttons that are working, and I’m stumped and frustrated. Can anyone offer any advice or point me to any information?

 

Much appreciated,

 

Thank you,

Jaime

[Rod]

Hello,

I’m new to the forum. I own a Bastari 20 button concertina. I’ve had it for 30 years and only recently started to give it serious attention. One of the values leaks, so that when you push or pull on the bellow, it plays without depressing a button. The button is the A, right side, top row, 4th button in from the left. It sounds both the push and the pull notes. I’ve taken it apart three times and can’t see how the valves/reeds appear any different from the buttons that are working, and I’m stumped and frustrated. Can anyone offer any advice or point me to any information?

 

Much appreciated,

 

Thank you,

Jaime

 

Broken or fractured spring ???

[malcolmbebb]

I'm sure you'll get more expert replies - but the pad that covers the hole for that note isn't sealing. It's on the other side to the reed.

Either the pad is damaged/misaligned, or as Rod suggested the spring isn't holding it firmly in place. (Does the button action feel the same as the others?)

[Theo]

It could also be buttons are not returning easily because they are misaligned because of perishing of the button sleeves. This page gives guidance about a simple diy fix.

[jkilloran]

Thanks for your suggestions and comments. I have, in fact, had trouble with the button sleeves deteriorating and I replaced them myself 1-2 years ago. I like the idea of using airplane fuel lines. I'll check the pads again, although I believe the spring is fine, at least there is no discernable difference between that spring and the other springs.

 

Thank you, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Jaime

[Stevenh]

I had one of those concertinas some years ago. I was consistently having this problem which I found was due to there being too much play in the button mechanism. What was happening is that the the action arm ( or whatever it's called?) would often not return correct;y after button was pushed which caused the the tail ( end of spring) to get hung up on an adjacent button arm thus keeping the lever open so the pad was not seating . This was the cause of the air leak and continued sounding of the reed. What i needed to do was bend back the spring tail with a needle nose pliers. But this was only a temporary fix as the same thing kept happening. My permanent fix was to get rid of the thing.