How Do I Reattach A Reed?

[reomuse]

I bought a Dyer 30 button Anglo at the House of Musical Traditions about a week ago while visiting relatives. Back in my dry desert home (I've heard this is an awful environment for concertinas) there's a rattling when I take it out of its case. I open it up and find one of the reeds has fallen out of what looks like the wood glue that held it onto its buddies. It has reed boxes like this concertina http://www.concertina.net/images_kc_bastari/ital_reeds.jpg from this article http://www.concertina.net/kc_bastari.html After taking the reed out (so it wouldn't puncture the bellows) I reattached the top.

 

It was $200 so not a great deal all things considered, but I was beginning to chicken out of my plan to learn to play concertina so action was needed. I know I didn't buy a top of the line concertina, I just bought it to learn on. I just want to make it playable until I save up enough and have practiced enough to buy a better concertina. I'm itching to play it so tell me, how do I reattach the reed?

 

Thank you all.

[Pete Dunk]

Hello and welcome to the forum. The reeds in your concertina are held in place with accordion reed wax which melts at 60+ degrees Celsius so never leave it in the car on a hot day!

 

If the plate was poorly waxed in and has simply fallen off you might be able to re-fix it by putting it back in place and melting the wax with a soldering iron or the heated blade of a craft knife. Remember that there are two different note on the reed plate so it's important that it goes back the same way as it was originally fitted. Any accordion repair man could do this for you in a few minutes and it wouldn't cost you too much.

 

Pete.

[Michael Marino]

Yep easy fix as long as you know which way it goes in. That is the fun part since it fell out on you. i tend to agree with Pete in that fins one of us that repair free reed instruments and it is a very quick job and you should have it back the same day unless they are really busy.

 

The other option is to get a tuner or access to one and a soldiering iron (there is a couple of tools that help do the job but you really don't want to spend the money for one reed repair). Put the reed in place and lightly press some of the wax against the side (making sure it is well seated) than assemble and lightly test the button with the tuner on to see if the reed is in right (assuming the reed it NOT marked, some are). If you put it in right than open back up and finish the rest of the waxing. If it sounds the opposite of what it should than flip the reed and and rewax it in completely and you are done. Only fair warning it can get vaery annoying working the wax between the reed plates and you don't want to burn the wood while doing it. The information is just in case you don't have a repair person near by or one that is willing to do the work (I know a few who won't touch anything outside of what they "know" or prefer working on), but everyone has their right in that way.

 

Really hope this helps.

 

Michael