Thanks good men ! ❤. Very good video for all those who looking to learn how to repair the accordion the right way , while saving a lot !. Thanks again !
Good afternoon Rich! This series is answering so many of my questions. It's really a blessing that you've shared this. I've discovered that many of my reeds are out of correct height so it's no wonder it takes so much bellow action for them to sound (or choke). My beeswax and rosin are both here now so once I've got my case leaks sorted out I'll start on the bass section. Valves are expected in five days. If you have a moment to answer, I do have a couple of questions. 1) I'll use your 60/40 mix of beeswax to rosin with those two making a total of 10oz of wax; how much sunfower oil do I add to that volume? 2) Some of my reeds have rust on the internal face (inward to the plate) - Can I glue a matching size tab of sandpaper to small dowel to remove it safely? (Or carefully slide the sandpaper under the reed, perhaps and use the dowel to gently apply pressure).
Hey Mark Good afternoon - or good morning in America! I recently made up some new wax - I used a little less roisin than before - more like 70%beeswax 30%roisin with a tablespoon of olive oil ( or vegetable or sunflower oil ) It takes quite a while to get it all heated up to the right temperature and then thoroughly mixed. It's really important not to overheat it - if it starts smoking you have made it too hot - but also it has to be just the right consistency before you can use it - it has to be as runny as possible without it smoking or catching fire !! With surface rust on the reed tongue - just slip a piece of fine grade sandpaper - maybe 240 or 300 grit under the tongue and the springiness of the reed will put enough pressure on the sandpaper . Hope this helps 🙂 Good luck.
@@richedwards9646 Brilliant, Rich. That sounds like it will do the least amount of intrusion on the reeds. Thanks for the update on the wax mixture, since that will soon be on the agenda after cleaning up the reed banks, tuning and revalving them. In a moment here I'll be uploading a video about solving the case leak. This is turning out to be a lot of fun!
@@richedwards9646 I'm SO glad I used to build wooden boats because I'm having to solve some related issues. My "how to play" accordion instruction book just showed up (by Beverly Grace Joy) and I'm very keen to start with it, but it will have to wait a bit while I solve this first leakdown problem. So far I've managed major scales on the bass side (pretty familiar with piano theory on the other half). Can't wait until it no longer takes massive effort to get the reeds to sound... and less like a chainsaw with a bad carburetor😂
Thank you so much. I'm about to have a go at repairing a pre war piano accordion. These are incredibly helpful videos. Can I ask, what is the cleaning solution you mentioned for cleaning the reeds?
I use warm water with a drop of washing up liquid- and then thoroughly dry with a hair dryer I am thinking of trying some specific ultrasonic cleaning liquid to see if it does it better. The most important thing is to make sure the reeds are thoroughly dry afterwards .
In fact, if there is no coupler/slider, it doesn’t actually matter which side the concert/sharp reed sits. If you take off each side and keep them separate you don’t need to worry which side they go back on. Use a flat screw driver to remove the reeds…by inserting it in the hole and gently levering the reed from within. This avoids damaging the reed block. Also use a flat screw driver to scrap off the wax from the reed block. Avoid using a blade of any kind. You can actually ping the reeds to get the pitch.
Good points- but I like to keep everything as consistent as possible- I like to put the reeds back exactly where they came from including which side of the reedblock and which way up they are- I find this gives me the best chance of minimizing the amount of tuning needed - different sides of the reedblock may be slightly different acoustically and so I try to keep things as they were when the accordion was made .
