McNeela Swan concertina making a sad honking noise on left side G/A

[anadances]

Hello,

 

Looking for advice on whether this is fixable by myself or whether a professional is required, and if so, is there anyone in the Portland, OR area who might be able to do it.

 

My McNeela Swan has started to sound rather sad on the left side G/A note. It's like if a duck were succumbing to a terrible illness. I took off the left side cover plate to see if there was anything obvious obstructing that note, everything looked clean. 

 

I can upload a video later if that's necessary, but thought I'd see if there was an obvious fix. 

[Jesse Smith]

If there are problems in both directions, then it is almost certainly not an issue with the reeds. If your "sick duck" sound is the note going flat as it fades away, I recently had a similar problem and it turned out to be an issue with the pad sometimes not closing correctly and letting a little air slip through. If I lightly pumped the bellows without pressing any buttons, I could hear the air leaking on that side. I think the lever arm was not centered on the pad and as it pivoted it was sometimes binding up against the pivot point. In the end what I did was reglue the lever arm to the pad, with the pad better centered on the hole and the arm better centered on the pad. So far everything seems to be moving smoothly and that side of the box is now airtight (or mostly so!) again.

[anadances]

Interesting, yes it's definitely a fade away issue. Did your issue come on suddenly? I'm just confused about what could have caused the pad to stop sealing.

[Jesse Smith]

2 minutes ago, anadances said:

Interesting, yes it's definitely a fade away issue. Did your issue come on suddenly? I'm just confused about what could have caused the pad to stop sealing.

 

It started with the pad occasionally getting stuck just the slightest bit open (so I could hear an air leak on that side, but no real effect on the note), but then it got worse and the note would continue to sound even after I released the button, but going flat and fading out.

 

I'm pretty new at the Anglo, so I'm not sure what could have caused it to get worse.