Advice with depressed reed

[Windmilly]

I wonder if anyone can offer some advice.

My son has a very old Crabb. The D’ pull suddenly went silent, so I opened it up to see if there might be some dust, etc.

I noticed that the reed seems depressed/lodged. Is this the correct position? I wonder if I should ease it, dislodge it?

I lifted the white leather flap, and blew under there to release any dust. This made no difference.

He has county fleadh this weekend, so I don’t think I have much time to send it for repair. I’m in Dublin.

Thanks

[Alex West]

Definitely not in the right position.  The reed should sit just above the shoe, like it's neighbours.

 

Be careful, but if it was playing OK before, then the likelihood is that it's just caught there due to a hair, spec of dust or the reed being a little tight in the shoe and getting stuck during playing.  In which case if you take the reed pan out, take the reed out and - very gently - push the reed with a small wooden coffee stirrer, it should snap back into place.  If it takes more than a very small effort, there's something else going on.

 

If you have a thin feeler gauge, you could run that along the sides between the reed tongue and the shoe just to make sure there's nothing stuck there.

 

Good luck!

 

Alex West

[Windmilly]

Thanks Alex. If you zoom in, you can see a slight bend midway down the reed, and I think there is a hairline crack?! So I think you may be right, possibly more going on, and a replacement job 😩

[Geoffrey Crabb]

After enlarging the picture, I am afraid that the reed does appear to be cracked.

 

Geoff

[Alex West]

Ah - OK - I didn't see that

 

Alex West

[alex_holden]

If it is cracked (as it appears to be), don't lose the pieces: a competent repairer can replace the tongue, copying the profile of the old one to get a similar tone. Perhaps give Seán Ó Fearghail a try.

[Shayfogs]

I fixed it by replacing the reed- a middle D on RH side with an old spare I had. Tuned it up and bingo fitted like a glove. Sounds nice and bright. The other reeds could do with a bit of fettling but there was no time to do them. Hope your son did well in the fleadh.