1930's Settimio Soprani restoration

[Rosie C]

I'm quite keen on restoring it, partly as I like learning new skills and partly because it's a link to my heritage. If I was to be practical I'd be better off getting a job for a few weeks and using the money to buy a newer instrument!

What you say about the bass reed bank being deliberately waxed in - the other one has a little catch to release it, whereas the big one is screwed in and waxed - so maybe wasn't intended to come out easily.

I found a post by @debra "If you look at the square base of the reed, with the rivet, the sides of that base are dark (steel) blue, and on tipo-a-mano and machine reeds the sides are silvery shiny steel. The a mano reeds are made out of a narrow ribbon of steel, so when that steel was "blued" (heated and cooled quickly) all sides were blue, and after sanding for the first rough tuning the top side of the reed tongue became shiny, but the sides at the base that is the full width of the ribbon are still blued. Other reeds are stamped from large sheets of steel, and then the sides at the base are not blue" and looking at the photos I took earlier, I see silver at the sides, so not 'a mano'.

I have a thought at the moment to put paper underneath some of the reed banks, to block off the air, reducing the accordion to one treble bank and one bass bank. I'll can re-valve those first, see how hard it is, and how it sounds.

 

[Ventura]

i seem to recall Steve basically suggesting there were
nothing BUT hand made reeds at one time.. everyone was
just too busy making them to think up ways to get around
the work needed to do it

re-valving the glued on reedbank will be fun !
re-waxing will need precision as well as angling the
whole bass section in favorable gravity considered positions

most certainly a Settimo from those days had the reeds
tuned primarily on a Provino.. scratching was the most
commom method back then i believe.. using diamond dust
belts and other custom sanding tools had not yet come along..
speed was of the essence in production, not finesse..

some repair people like to seriously clean those old reeds before
restoring them, some even soak them, but just wiping each tongue
and generally feeling for any looseness with a ping is as far as i go

remember to quietly mark your reeds so you know which direction to
put them each back in (the sides facing out now should be facing out
when you are done)

especially for the glued in bass reeds, having a tuning table/bellows
that can sound individual reeds will be helpfull

i find that making a chart of every reed's pitch helps me because
understanding the relative level of pitch across a reedbank
helps me not go too far in any re-direction before re-waxing them

 

[Ben-jammin]

For replacing valves I really like having a set of tuning bellows with a hole at the top so I can test the reeds quickly and make minor adjustments as I go without having to re assemble the instrument multiple times. The set I made out of a wrecked accordion and some old plywood I glued to the frames isn’t pretty but it works.

I’ve used masking tape to block valves that haven’t had register slides. It’s a great idea to test a reed block at a time. You will also start to get an idea about potential issues with compression as you do this.

Instruments of that vintage frequently had one or more left hand reed sets screwed and waxed in. One of the things that makes them slightly more difficult to service than more modern instruments. The wax likely is due to be replaced anyways.

 

[Rosie C]

Thanks both, yes tuning bellows seem like something I'm going to need. Much reading of 'Accordion Revival' is going on, and I'm working on a list of tools and materials I'm going to need!

 

[Rosie C]

I grabbed an hour to work on my Settimio Soprani this morning. The first job was to take a closer look at the waxed-in bass reed bank, so I removed the bellows from the bass side for the first time. On the bellow the pencil mark maybe says '539 Nero' ? Maybe the name of the person who made the bellows?



A closer look shows @Ben-jammin is correct and the bank is deliberately waxed in. But, it does look like the wax has dried and cracked, which in this case is a good thing!



While the accordion was in pieces I fitted paper strips in the upper bass and treble reed banks, leaving only the lower bass bank and the switachble lower treble bank operational, then reassembled with a plan to check the tuning of the lower bass reeds. There is an annoying spurt of air in my face from what I thought was a leak in the bellow, but it was the bellows seal - the old seal was quite thin and a previous bodger had used what looks like araldite on the corner where the leak was. It needs a new seal, but what I had to hand was some sticky-backed craft foam:


This does raise the question of what sort of repair project I want to do. I don't want to do anything to damage the instrument, but I want it playable more than I want it an authentic museum piece. The red foam did for today to check the tuning and I have an order going to Strings & Boxes soon so can get something 'proper'.

I measured the tuning on a Korg tuner with analogue cents display. Pairs of reeds were playing, so the accuracy is limited, but here are the results. Tested against A=440Hz virtually every reed was sharp, so I'm guessing it is tuned to A=442



When assembled I also noticed the treble keys are very uneven and some have the key tops lifting



Overall a productive hour! My next step is to order new leathers for the lower bank and start thinking about removing the reed blocks for new leathers.

 

[Rosie C]

I've been reading through the various information on "Accordion Revival" and acquiring some tools. A small crock pot with low/med/high settings:


A temperature controlled soldering iron, with spade tip:


and a parcel from https://stringsandboxes.de with tools, wax and what should be enough valve leathers to refurbish the lower bass reed bank. I bought contrapelli too. The valve tool kit came with super glue, I'd expected something more like the shellac glue mentioned in Accordion Revival, but I guess it's OK.


Mysterious instructions in German were mostly safety warnings about the glue. Thank goodness for Goole Translate!