Eccentricities found in 1897 Lachenal Treble EC

[Matthew Heumann]

While overhauling an 1897 Lachenal treble recently, I encountered several weird anomalies which appear to have originated at the factory. whether they were a matter of assembling a concertina out of spare parts on hand or screwing up and hiding it from the boss, we'll never know. These include:

1- one chamber was too narrow for both a reed slot & a vent hole, so they cut the reed slot first, inserted the reed, then routed out the vent hole into part of the reed frame. There was no wood in between.

2- While tuning, I usually either label the reeds on the pan with pencil or in some older models a printed chart exists, which we are inclined to believe.

But while tuning, I thought I screwed up because after tuning the draw & push middle C, I noticed each was stamped "C#". My first though was that someone accidentally put reeds in the wrong slot. So I checked the middle C# slots and sure enough they were stamped "C". So naturally I thought I'd swap them and retune. Surprisingly, they didn't fit in the proper slots, leading me to believe they routed the wrong slot size so retuned the incorrect reed to correspond to the correct pitch.

3- Later found the same to be true for 3 other reeds (stamped as one pitch, but retuned for the correct finger position pitch.

4- The left reed pan was a smaller size than the right, leaving it way too loose in the frame. It took a second thicker layer of chamois inside the bellows frame to make it snug. (or maybe someone replaced the left reed pan with a different one from a scrapper?)

 

I just spoke with Frank Edgley and he said he's heard many such stories about early Lachenals (possibly being assembled from spare bits).

Anyone else have such experience or insights?

On the plus side it's now in perfect shape an playing happily, soon to go to its new owner!

[Geoff Wooff]

I  found  one    manufacturing  fault  in  an 1898  Wheatstone,  an  instrument  that  had  certainly  been  carefully  restored  in  recent  years.    The  routing  of  the  reed vent slot  for  the  lower  Ab ( 48k EC Treble)  was  lopsided  and  the  reed  tongue  touched  wood  when  anything  more  than  being  very  light  played  .  How  that  fault  had  remained  un remedied  for  a  hundred  years  I  cannot  imagine.

[d.elliott]

Matthew, item 2, may be a reed came to grief so a pair of others was fitted?

 

Geoff, I have  theory that it is instruments with manufacturing faults that get pushed to nether back of the cupboard and then get little use, and then survive for us to find. 

[Geoff Wooff]

21 hours ago, d.elliott said:

 

 

Geoff, I have  theory that it is instruments with manufacturing faults that get pushed to nether back of the cupboard and then get little use, and then survive for us to find. 

Agreed  David,  it quite  often  happens  with  the  instruments  I make. If  they  go  to  someone  who  hardly  plays  or  the  reeds  do  not  like  the  climate,  they  cease to be  used.  They  sometimes  come  back  to  me  years  later  for  refurbishment  in  otherwise  fine  condition.

My  Faulty  Wheatstone  shows  little  wear  from  heavy  playing.

[Matthew Heumann]

Ran into yet another manufacturing flaw as I was putting the finishing touches on this Lachenal. The low Ab made really strange overtones on the draw, so naturally I replaced the valves, checked the reed profile, checked the tongue clearance and yet it was still wonky. Next I tried swapping the 2 reeds, still off on the draw, so not the reed. Put the reeds in the tuning jig = perfect. Went so far as to play with paper shims and replace the pad, still off. Finally I gently depressed the reed in the draw slot and it bottomed out on the edge of the vent hole. The vent was not aligned with the reed (by quite a bit). After some filing and enlarging of the vent in the correct direction = ALL'S WELL. That problem was definitely a first for me!

I wonder how many beers they had for lunch that day?

[d.elliott]

On 4/22/2025 at 12:32 AM, Matthew Heumann said:

Ran into yet another manufacturing flaw as I was putting the finishing touches on this Lachenal. The low Ab made really strange overtones on the draw, so naturally I replaced the valves, checked the reed profile, checked the tongue clearance and yet it was still wonky. Next I tried swapping the 2 reeds, still off on the draw, so not the reed. Put the reeds in the tuning jig = perfect. Went so far as to play with paper shims and replace the pad, still off. Finally I gently depressed the reed in the draw slot and it bottomed out on the edge of the vent hole. The vent was not aligned with the reed (by quite a bit). After some filing and enlarging of the vent in the correct direction = ALL'S WELL. That problem was definitely a first for me!

I wonder how many beers they had for lunch that day?

 

Actually it is not too uncommon, you can usually see a witness on the inner wall of the vent slot.