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Two notes on my bass side a bit sharp

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Jun 10, 2024
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Hey all,

I am asking for some advice. Two notes on the bass side of my accordion are a bit sharp.

The standard deepest bass note has 3 notes that play at once, and one of the higher notes is just a slight bit off, just on the push of the bellows. Not the pull. The notes are the D on the push and the E flat on the push as well.

My accordion is a bayan and is Russian.
I’ve gotten in there and poked around, but I am not able to discern where the reeds for these notes might be. I wonder if there might be a valve stuck or perhaps in shipping, a valve was jostled and became angled slightly to one side, causing it to have the slightly higher tone.

Does anyone have some advice for where to locate the bass note reeds for D and E flat that play on the push?

Here’s a pic of my accordion if that helps: image.jpg
 
First question is: did you just buy this instrument and was it promised to have been fully serviced?
Or do you have this accordion for a long time already and now it developed a problem?
If the answer to the first question is yes then the seller was not entirely honest.
If the answer to the second question is yes then the accordion developed a problem that may require a repairer to fix it. The offending reeds may have metal fatigue and will just go more and more flat until they break...
The good news is that the reeds on push are on the outside of the reed blocks so you should be able to find them easily if you can at least tell what note it is you hear when you "ping" a reed. Before you try to tune the reeds you should first check very carefully whether there is nothing that inhibits the note from playing well (like rust, some dust or other particle blocking the reed somewhere, the inside valve not opening properly, ... there are so many possibilities and that's why accordion repairers with years of experience can fix problems that accordion players often cannot.
 
Hey! Thanks!

I have had it a while. No warranty issues for me.

I just moved internationally. I carried half the accordion in one carry-on and half the accordion, in another. That is why I am supposing that some thing was jostled.

I do notice that there are two reeds that are missing valve leathers. Would that cause this?

I’m very much up for repairing whatever needs repaired, if that’s the case. I really appreciate the suggestion that I ping some reads to see which one might be the offending reed. I’ll try that as my next step.

My hope is that I could just get some new valve leathers and put over the one or two that don’t have it and that will solve the issue. It is a very nice sounding accordion otherwise.
 
Last edited:
Hey! Thanks!

I have had it a while. No warranty issues for me.

I just moved internationally. I carried half the accordion in one carry-on and half the accordion, in another. That is why I am supposing that some thing was jostled.

I do notice that there are two reeds that are missing valve leathers. Would that cause this?

I’m very much up for repairing whatever needs repaired, if that’s the case. I really appreciate the suggestion that I ping some reads to see which one might be the offending reed. I’ll try that as my next step.

My hope is that I could just get some new valve leathers and put over the one or two that don’t have it and that will solve the issue. It is a very nice sounding accordion otherwise.
When the outer valve of a note is missing the note will sound sharp on push. (If there is a valve on the inside of the reed block and not on the outside then indeed the valve is "missing".)
When you put new valves on these notes should sound fine again.
 
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