Quiet note

[maccannic]

There is one note on my concertina (in the push direction) which is in tune, starts promptly, but is just rather quiet. The same note on the pull is normal volume.

 

What is the likely cause of this? (If it was on pull rather than push I would suspect a delaminating pad or something.) I can't see anything wrong, looking at the reed, pads, valves etc.

 

Concertina is an Aeola maccann duet and the note is G-sharp below middle C. Any help gratefully received.

[Dirge]

Is it set slightly low?

[maccannic]

Ah, I've heard people talk about the 'set' of a reed. Does that mean I've got to bend the reed, and if so, which way? So far, I haven't taken it apart again to have a look, but I will do tomorrow.

[Theo]

Before adjusting the reed set check that the reed shoes is a firm fit in the reedpan. Even ever so slightly not tight enough can weaken the sound. If in doubt try fitting a paper shim.

[RAc]

There is one note on my concertina (in the push direction) which is in tune, starts promptly, but is just rather quiet. The same note on the pull is normal volume.

 

What is the likely cause of this? (If it was on pull rather than push I would suspect a delaminating pad or something.) I can't see anything wrong, looking at the reed, pads, valves etc.

 

Concertina is an Aeola maccann duet and the note is G-sharp below middle C. Any help gratefully received.

 

Again, aside from the advice posted so far, a good and easy way to troubleshoot (especially on a duet or English) would be to swap the inside and outside reeds on the button. If the problem stays on the push, it's not the reed but most likely the valve (for a PULL only problem I'd also put internal leakage in the reed chamber walls on the candidate list). If the problem moves to pull, it's definitely realted to the reed (e.g. the shoe fit as Theo suggested, or a setting problem as Dirge proposed or possibly residue stuck between the reed and shoe...).

Edited November 4, 2011 by Ruediger R. Asche

[Frank Edgley]

There is one note on my concertina (in the push direction) which is in tune, starts promptly, but is just rather quiet. The same note on the pull is normal volume.

 

What is the likely cause of this? (If it was on pull rather than push I would suspect a delaminating pad or something.) I can't see anything wrong, looking at the reed, pads, valves etc.

 

Concertina is an Aeola maccann duet and the note is G-sharp below middle C. Any help gratefully received.

 

Again, aside from the advice posted so far, a good and easy way to troubleshoot (especially on a duet or English) would be to swap the inside and outside reeds on the button. If the problem stays on the push, it's not the reed but most likely the valve (for a PULL only problem I'd also put internal leakage in the reed chamber walls on the candidate list). If the problem moves to pull, it's definitely realted to the reed (e.g. the shoe fit as Theo suggested, or a setting problem as Dirge proposed or possibly residue stuck between the reed and shoe...).

 

Good advice. I'd make an adjustment on the reed itself as the last thing to do. Weak sounding notes on English made/style instruments are most often a result of air not going through the reed efficiently, but finding other paths. Leakage around the reed itself, between the reedpan and the bellows frame gasket and over the tops of the chamber walls, are most often the reasons for the weak sound.

Edited November 9, 2011 by Frank Edgley

[Dirge]

Is it set slightly low?

If it's set low it never builds to a decent volume, but should start OK. The shape of it may also benefit from a droop at the end on the lower notes as well as opening out, that counteracts the wider gap slowing response a bit, and your best information will come from its partner reed which you say works OK. Have a look at that and compare them. (then have a read of the appropriate passage of Dave E's book, just for reassurance.)

 

What you do is take the reed out (after trying the swapping technique mentioned above to make sure you have the actual miscreant) and bend the reed a bit , 'set' it, in the direction you have deduced it needs to go. I hate doing it. Because they're made of spring steel you have to be quite brutal and, of course, the idea that it might snap is too awful. But I have done it infrequently but always successfully. You need some sort of 'pusher' that will pass though the frame and won't damage the frame sides, of which you also need to be careful.

 

I've done this succesfully, been pleased with the results and found the reed creeps back to where it was over the next week or two, so don't be surprised to have to repeat the treatment. Oversetting and then going back stops this happening, and needs yet more nerve.

 

Despite my terror of the process I think you have to be pretty hamfisted to do permanent damage, but it won't stop me going slowly just in case. I have watched Mike Acott doing this process and he swings on them like you wouldn't believe but he does it all the time...