Buttons Sticking In

[Peggy S.]

I just got a fairly new Suttner and I've been having intermittent problems with buttons sticking in (or valves staying open). The first time it happened, it cleared itself. Now my G button on the C row is sticking in. I've been checking the humidity and it is constant at 50%.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

[McIsog]

...

Edited January 2, 2007 by McIsog

[McIsog]

I just got a fairly new Suttner and I've been having intermittent problems with buttons sticking in (or valves staying open). The first time it happened, it cleared itself. Now my G button on the C row is sticking in. I've been checking the humidity and it is constant at 50%.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

Hi Peggy,

 

If it is 'fairly new' telephone the maker. Perhaps he can walk you through a repair. Else he'd likely want to get his hands on it to do the fix himself.

 

Just my 0.02.

Dan

[Peggy S.]

I just got a fairly new Suttner and I've been having intermittent problems with buttons sticking in (or valves staying open). The first time it happened, it cleared itself. Now my G button on the C row is sticking in. I've been checking the humidity and it is constant at 50%.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

If it is 'fairly new' telephone the maker. Perhaps he can walk you through a repair. Else he'd likely want to get his hands on it to do the fix himself.

 

Thanks for your thoughts. It's 'fairly new' but purchased used. It hasn't been played much - the bellows are still stiff. I've sent an email to Suttner to see if he has any suggestions. I'm also bringing the humidity up a bit to see if that's the issue. Since it's an intermittent problem - it could be environmental. I live on the West Coast (North West, that is....) and didn't think that humidity would be a problem, but....

 

Peggy

[LangGang]

I had a similar problem with a newly purchased concertina. If discovered a bar from a button to its pad was pushing another bar forcing its button to do what you described.

 

I fixed it by slightly bending the bar out of the way.

 

I just got a fairly new Suttner and I've been having intermittent problems with buttons sticking in (or valves staying open). The first time it happened, it cleared itself. Now my G button on the C row is sticking in. I've been checking the humidity and it is constant at 50%.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

[Bruce McCaskey]

Peggy,

 

I don't know where you are on the West Coast, but I'm in the Seattle area and find my concertinas seem happy with the humidity, though one I took to Phoenix twice a month last year often had some issue for the first days after relocation.

 

As to sticky buttons, there can be many reasons and no doubt others will be happy to offer more technical solutions for internal interference issues, but I'll pass on one low-tech possible solution here.

 

If the buttons stick because the bushing is too tight, it can sometimes be relieved by grabbing hold of the side of the button and moving it around (not pushing it down) with sideways pressure through a full 360 degrees with moderate pressure. Such action will often compress new bushing material sufficiently to prevent it from gripping the button too tightly. This advice was offered by Colin Dipper to deal with a sticky button on one of his own, so I consider it to be a credible approach.

 

Edited to overcome the result of attempting to write way too late at night.

Edited January 3, 2007 by Bruce McCaskey