Sound Clips Of C/g Diatonic Reeds Being Played...

[Kid Electric]

I am not the greatest at recognizing pitch by ear, so I need a little help with replacing my reeds (which fell off when the wax melted)

 

I removed the melted wax that was causing the reeds to get stuck and make no sound (using Goo Gone); and I have in front of me some pre-mixed accordion wax (beeswax and pine resin) which I ordered off of eBay from Scotland as recommended by someone on this forum. I also have a variable-temp soldering iron I will use to melt the wax as needed.

 

Now... I just need to figure out where the reedplates originally went in order to get them back on in the right order! I could try to play the scales on my keyboard and match the tones of the reeds (by blowing through them) to figure it out, but since the timbre is different it would be easier for me if there were recorded sounds of each note being played on an accordion/concertina.

 

Does anybody know of any site that has sound bites of the recorded notes or scales for C/G diatonic reeds?

 

Thanks!

[Kid Electric]

Something like this would be PERFECT, but it's a 48-key English wheatstone; not a 20-button diatonic C/G

[Theo]

Hi Kid

 

Here's what I would suggest:

 

Use your keyboard to find the notes on each reedplate, use a fine marker pen to write the notes on the top of each reedplate. The top side of each one should already be marked. If they are Italian reeds there will be a line scored across one corner, other makes should have some other sort of mark, a letter or a dot. Chinese ones are sometimes numbered or even marked with the note.

 

Now get a keyboard chart for your particular concertina and lay out the reedplates in rows corresponding to the notes on the rows of buttons. The size of the reedplates should increase regularly from low notes on the left to high notes on the right.

 

Next use the keyboard chart again, and operate each button in turn to identify which reed chamber opens for which button and again mark the note names next to the reed positions. You will be writing on wood here so pencil is better than marker pen.

 

Now put all the reeds in place and temporarily hold each reedplate in place with a couple of spots of wax. Assemble the concertina and carefully play through the notes as a final check that everything is in the right place. If necessary reposition any reeds that are out of place. Finally wax the reeds in fully.

 

Oh, and before you start scrape of all the old wax from the woodwork. The waxing process is much easier if you start 'clean'.

 

You can probably tell I've done this before

[Kid Electric]

Thanks... without even reading your post, that's exactly what I ended up doing! Seemed to be right... the C row definitely seemed to have the right scale, but some things sounded off in the G row. Maybe I did something wrong, but perhaps the reeds were actually the wrong tune to begin with (cheap Chinese concertina...) and I hadn't noticed since I play the C notes far more frequently...

 

again, thank you for the very thorough advice!

 

Hi Kid

 

Here's what I would suggest:

 

Use your keyboard to find the notes on each reedplate, use a fine marker pen to write the notes on the top of each reedplate. The top side of each one should already be marked. If they are Italian reeds there will be a line scored across one corner, other makes should have some other sort of mark, a letter or a dot. Chinese ones are sometimes numbered or even marked with the note.

 

Now get a keyboard chart for your particular concertina and lay out the reedplates in rows corresponding to the notes on the rows of buttons. The size of the reedplates should increase regularly from low notes on the left to high notes on the right.

 

Next use the keyboard chart again, and operate each button in turn to identify which reed chamber opens for which button and again mark the note names next to the reed positions. You will be writing on wood here so pencil is better than marker pen.

 

Now put all the reeds in place and temporarily hold each reedplate in place with a couple of spots of wax. Assemble the concertina and carefully play through the notes as a final check that everything is in the right place. If necessary reposition any reeds that are out of place. Finally wax the reeds in fully.

 

Oh, and before you start scrape of all the old wax from the woodwork. The waxing process is much easier if you start 'clean'.

 

You can probably tell I've done this before