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Newish steel reeds / brass shoe making metalic overtone


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Have a couple of newish naughty steel reeds still wearing in.  One, RHS push E is making an extra sound as well as the fundamental. It's like a metal pot scrape sound. Hopefully can share my MP3 of it here. The second one is the C# push on the RHS outside row. In each case included a sample of the draw E, C# to compare.

 

In fairness to my little MP3 recorder, it doesn't quite get the full effect of the extra sound.

 

Removed the E reed,  tested on a bench blower;  it does the same thing outside the instrument. Did not do that to other because it appears to be the same thing.

 

On inspection of the E reed and shoe, it looks slightly off to one side, that is, on the long edges, the gap between frame and tongue looks to be off. A few years ago reset a reed tongue in its shoe and I hesitate to do it again.

 

Since the reed developed its naughty habits after some time playing in, I suspect it moved in the frame over time.

 

Any suggestions welcome.

Edited by Notemaker
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My Carroll concertina came with a little repair kit, including a strip of foil for realigning  a misaligned reed.  Basically you loop it around the reed and gently tug it sideways in the right direction.  He has a good "Repair Resources" tab on the Carroll Concertinas website with a series of videos on diagnosing and correcting common problems.

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This is subjective of course but I find that push notes often don’t sound as nice as pull notes of the same pitch as different overtones get accentuated in each.  If you were to swap the two E notes and reassemble (assuming a good fit) I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem shifted to the ‘new’ push E. 

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4 hours ago, Wally Carroll said:

This is subjective of course but I find that push notes often don’t sound as nice as pull notes of the same pitch as different overtones get accentuated in each.  If you were to swap the two E notes and reassemble (assuming a good fit) I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem shifted to the ‘new’ push E. 

Thanks Wally :0) I am no expert, only learned a bit over the years on Harmonicas. But you are correct, if reversed the problem will be with the draw reed in the push slot. Must say, last time had to adjust a tongue, the problem, an over wide end gap making it a very air greedy reed to sound, solved with a tiny poke on the losed tang. Then used a strong back light to keep the gap tight but not too much so.

 

It is a dreadful thing to undo those two wee screws, because one never knows if there is a low spot on the tang where the tongue wants to go back under the screw tip/s. I was lucky last time. Happily this occasion does not, at this point, warrant any action. Could be better lined up with the shoe but, then again, might be worse sounding afterwards. Old saying applies, 'ain't broke, don't fix'. Thanks for helping.

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28 minutes ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:

Maybe your sound recording was not perfect; but it sounded fine to me when I listened the other day. It my be that you are worrying to much over the perceived issue.

Absolutely correct! The problem it now appears, is my over sensitive hearing. So accustomed that, over time, one forgets it is there. So, no! not making any adjustments. In particular, as Wally says, a re-centered tongue likely will then foul on the chamber slot sides. Thank you for re-assuring me.

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To better explain . . . when reed shoes are fit in a new instrument, the valves are not yet installed (at least this is what we do). This allows the installer to place the reedpan on a light table and see the side clearance on the tongues. If an otherwise centered tongue appears to be off center after installation in the pan, some installers may recenter the tongue with the shoe in the pan which would then cause the tongue to be off center when removed from the pan. So the opposite would hold as well - centering outside of the instrument may cause the installed reed assembly to now be off center.  Personally, we try to have our assemblies centered in both cases which takes a bit more time as even a little pressure on one side or the other will push the tongue off center. Shimming notes primarily towards the heels of the shoes is helpful in this regard. 

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