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Budget Accordion Reeds


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Hi everyone,

 

I recently upgraded from my rochelle anglo concertina, and rather than trying to resell it at a reduced price I want to use it as a guinnea pig for teaching myself to handle my own repairs and modifications.

 

The first thing I would like to to do is begin playing around with alternate layouts. I was hoping I might ask for recommendations for obtaining accordion reeds for this purpose. Since this isn't my primary instrument and since I am not settled on one particular arrangement, I would prefer to keep the price per reed and wait time relatively low. That being said, does anyone know the make of reeds used in the rochelles, and how they stack up against other options?

 

I am currently looking at these reeds: http://www.hohnershop.com/italian-diatonic-accordion-treble-reed-plates/, unfortunately they are listed by a combination of key (i.e. ADG) and a button number (1-34). Is there a standard accordion layout I can use to translate this into note pairs? (I have found some charts, but they don't number the buttons in this fashion.) I realize for full freedom of arrangement I might consider something that won't exist in a standard accordion layout. Is it possible to move a reed from one plate to another, or is custom ordering obscure note combos the only way around this? Is this my approach wrong altogether?

 

Thank you for your time,

Sean

 

 

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Hi you could order directly at some manufacturing in Italy like Binchi or Cicarelli or in Czech republic. Still it is a bit complicated to order direct at Harmonikas you find some listings for details. http://www.harmonikas.cz/en/assortment#obsahor for Cicarelli reeds http://www.accordions-agenziaitalia.com/eng/reeds.html

For all other Italian suppliers it is even more complicated. Best regards Johann

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If I was in your shoes, I would give up on the idea of ordering direct from the manufacturer.

Normally, they will just refer you to an agent in your country, and they are unlikely to want to dabble in just the odd reed.

(I'm guessing, other's might disagree).

 

I would look to buy an old scrap accordion or melodeon and use reeds from it. If they are really rough, you can get them for peanuts.

A piano accordion will have reeds that are the same note, for push and pull. But you can do a bit of re-tuning, one down a bit and the other up a bit, to get the notes combinations that you want.

 

If you want to learn from the project, that might be just the thing to learn tuning techniques.

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Why not ask Wim Wakker of "Concertina Connection" who imports the Rochelle. He supplies a better quality set of reeds to upgrade these instruments, and may be able to help you. Or look on eBay to see if you can find a cheap set of accordion reeds, to experiment with. I have seen an American company "Liberty Bellows" is frequently advertising bits from broken up accordions at very tempting prices. Accordion reeds can be re-tuned up or down a tone or semitone without too much difficulty, to give a pair of different pitch notes. It is possible to go wider than this by weighting the tips to get a lower note. This may cause problems, but these might not matter if it was purely an experiment to see how the new notes fit in with what you wish to play.

 

Inventor.

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I see it a lot different it depends what he is heading at. If he wants to make dissent instrument it is not a good advise to practice with other stuff as one wants ti u es later on.

As i did reed it he wanted supplier where he can order from a list of specified reeds, and this would not be the case if one gets some old reeds. The only one where it is rely easy to order from a sortiment off different reeds is Harmonikas Best regards Johann.

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