Tuning Reeds

[Anglo-Irishman]

Friends,

Do any of you players - as opposed to repair persons - ever touch up the tuning of your concertinas?

 

I'm not talking about taking an old instrument from A=435 up to A=440 - just tweaking a reed that's a cent or two flat, so as you only notice it when playing in an ensemble.

 

Is it a Black Art? Can you ruin the reed irreparably? Or can any handyman do it with care and instruction?

 

Are there instructions anywhere, and what equipment do you need?

 

I've heard that you file the tip to make the pitch higher and the root to make it lower - I've seen the file marks on my old Bandoneon. But how much do you have to file? And how do you know when you've filed enough without putting everything together again and playing it?

 

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

John

[asdormire]

It is a black art. The professionals get buy with sacrificing a rooster or a buck rabbit. A rank beginner might want to sacrifice their second best bull.

 

Actually, I do know that there has been some discussion on this in the past, so you might want to search for it on the board. If it is your only concertina, I would definitely let someone do it. If you have a beater that you aren't attached to, it might be worth trying.

 

Alan

[m3838]

It is a black art. The professionals get buy with sacrificing a rooster or a buck rabbit. A rank beginner might want to sacrifice their second best bull.

 

Actually, I do know that there has been some discussion on this in the past, so you might want to search for it on the board. If it is your only concertina, I would definitely let someone do it. If you have a beater that you aren't attached to, it might be worth trying.

 

Alan

 

After cleansing your body with 30 day juice fasting, you can start tuning.

If it's considerably flat, it probably is a goner. But you can temporarily resurrect it.

open the ends, locate the reed, remove it, or if you have access to it, leave it in. Put some thin metal chean (sp?) underneath a reed tongue, and file a little. Then pluck it and listen to the sound. Check the pitch with piano or other instrument. If it's kind of close, close the end and play it. Too low? Repeat. Too high? Overdone, so file at the root, but not at the very root. File diagonally. That's it - you've done it. Tomorrow the reed likely still be flat and will keep on going flatter and flatter. So you can either send the instrument, or just the reedplate, or reed shue, or reed bank, or large plate with reeds to a shop for replacement. They will tune it roughly, and you will fine tune it later, since you did such a good job the first time.

Yes, I've done it. With exactly the same results.

[d.elliott]

Friends,

Do any of you players - as opposed to repair persons - ever touch up the tuning of your concertinas?

 

I'm not talking about taking an old instrument from A=435 up to A=440 - just tweaking a reed that's a cent or two flat, so as you only notice it when playing in an ensemble.

 

Is it a Black Art? Can you ruin the reed irreparably? Or can any handyman do it with care and instruction?

 

Are there instructions anywhere, and what equipment do you need?

 

I've heard that you file the tip to make the pitch higher and the root to make it lower - I've seen the file marks on my old Bandoneon. But how much do you have to file? And how do you know when you've filed enough without putting everything together again and playing it?

 

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

John

 

do you have access to a chromatic tuning meter? if so buy or borrow a copy of the concertina maintenance manual. Then decide if you can do the job. Or look at the Concertina FAQ for the closest repairer to where you are.

 

Dave

[Dana Johnson]

Friends,

Do any of you players - as opposed to repair persons - ever touch up the tuning of your concertinas?

 

I'm not talking about taking an old instrument from A=435 up to A=440 - just tweaking a reed that's a cent or two flat, so as you only notice it when playing in an ensemble.

 

Is it a Black Art? Can you ruin the reed irreparably? Or can any handyman do it with care and instruction?

 

Are there instructions anywhere, and what equipment do you need?

 

I've heard that you file the tip to make the pitch higher and the root to make it lower - I've seen the file marks on my old Bandoneon. But how much do you have to file? And how do you know when you've filed enough without putting everything together again and playing it?

 

Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

John

Tuning isn't difficult, but you can very easily ruin a reed, so knowing what you are doing is really kind of important. I'll leave Dave Elliot's suggestion for resources as a good path to take. It really helps to remember that the smaller the reed the less material you need to remove to effect it. For the highest reeds the amounts are microscopic, less than dust. Plucking a reed only gives a vague reference to it's actual pitch in a concertina since the plucked overtone series is not the same as the one the reed plays when air driven, and makes the reed "sound" sharper than it really is. Most important, if a reed shoe is not firmly seated in it's slot in the reed pan, the reed will play flatter than if it is firmly in place, so be sure your reeds are tight before you go tuning them at all. A change in the reed's "set" (the amount it sits above the window in the reed shoe at rest ) will also affect it's pitch so make sure that is right first. Info on that sort of stuff should be in that book. Lastly, the reed will play a different pitch in the fully assembled concertina than out of it, so all tuning out of the concertina should be RELATIVE to the amount the reed is off in the concertina when it is played at the normal playing pressure. Never try to tune a reed out of the concertina to a specific note on a meter. Once in a while you'll be lucky and that will stay the same when it is back together, but much more often it will be a number of cents different. ( sorry, I am a maker, not just a player )

Dana

[Frank Edgley]

Tuning is an art. I have known people who have tuned their concertina without a tuning jig, but it takes much longer, and you are most likely to get tired of doing it and say, "That's good enough," due to fatigue and frustration. A tuning jig consists of a spare bellows which can be attached to the edge of a table wth a platform attached to the top where the reed can be sounded. An accurate measurement of the tuning of each reed must be taken while the reed is in the instrument. Pressure must be moderate and consistant from note to note. Then the instrument disassembled and each reed "corrected" by the amount shown when it is in the instrument. You can't just tune each reed to zero, but must sharpen or flatten each reed by the amount it is out when in the instrument. This is usually1 - 3 cents. If you flatten a note it will possibly affect the elevation of the tongue, which make the reed stall out at normal or higher pressure. If something doesn't appear to make sense, put it all back together and check again. Taking the "in-instrument" testing is where most mistakes are made. Better to double check than to go off madly tuning a reed 5 cents the wrong direction and the having to correct it 10 cents the other way.

[David Barnert]

Taking the "in-instrument" testing is where most mistakes are made. Better to double check than to go off madly tuning a reed 5 cents the wrong direction and the having to correct it 10 cents the other way.

Or, as Bob Vila put it:

 

Measure twice. Cut once.

[keithfre]

A reversible, non-destructive technique I've used on harmonica reeds (don't know if it's good for concertina reeds) for tuning _down_ is to add weight at the tip in the form of brass powder. I place paper underneath the reed to catch the surplus, dab a spot of superglue on the reed and sprinkle the brass powder on. This avoids weakening the reed at the root (far more of a problem on harmonicas than concertinas, I would imagine).