1969 Ambassidor Accordion

[Craig]

Hello, all- I am in California, just received a Ambassador accordion off of ebay and I have run into an important but perplexing (for me) problem.
The accordion was in poor shape with whole reed valves banging around in the case. When I opened up the instrument I found one whole row of reed valves in the two bank base side, broken free from it's setting. All the reed valves were there- fortunately. They are all the same size but I can figure out higher and lower notes by sight and weight.
My problem is.....What order do I put them back in?
The reed valves on the good side of the bank, holding level and looking face on, has the highest tones on the right, with progressively lower tones to the left.
So, looking face on to the empty side, is the lowest tone on the left or right end?

Thank you,
Craig

 

[debra]

The construction of the bass side of an accordion isn't as uniform as that of the treble side (which clearly goes from low to high with reeds going from large down to small). On the bass side each reed bank tends to have reed plates that are all the same size. But they layout of the notes is far from uniform. There are two more or less popular schemes: one starts from B and then goes "up", so B C C# D etc. up toe A#. But I say "up" with quotes because different reed banks will have an octave jump somewhere, and there may be a different location for the jump in different reed banks. (A 4-voice bass with two blocks may have 2 different octave jumps and a 5-voice bass may have 3 different octave jumps.) The other (somewhat less) popular scheme is to follow the circle of quints. So the bass reeds may be in the order C G E A E B F# C# etc. (and may have a different first one than C, I forget which). So to find out which note is where you can either rely on your natural ability to recognize notes (called "absolute pitch") or you can rely on a tuning app, for instance for the phone. There are many such apps.
The sad reality of the accordion where many valves have fallen off will be that it needs new valves (as the old ones are stiff) and it very likely also needs to have the reeds cleaned and put back with new wax as the wax will have become brittle. This accordion really needs to go to a reputable accordion repairer who may likely tell you that you have been conned and this accordion will cost more to fix than it's going to be worth afterwards. On Ebay the "buyer beware" has sadly led to many disappointed buyers...

 

[Ventura]

with the reed block out of course

now you can see the note valves through the holes in the plate

using the fundamental and counterbass rows ONLY press C and see which
hole that is, then correspond it to the reedblock in your hand, mark it and
keep pressing bass notes until you figure them all out

 

[Ben-jammin]

If the seller advertised as functional or good condition I would try to return it and get my money back under “item not matching description” . even if they sold it as is it should still be as described.

 

[Craig]

Thank you all for your replies. I will try the button press approach, make a bellows valve tester, go by pitch. I did not expect too much from the auction. My skill level is very low. It did play "Danny Boy" well, even with that whole side missing. It is very interesting learning a bit about how the accordion works.

Regards,
Craig

 

[Ben-jammin]

Also if returning it isn’t an option get plenty of new wax on order and be ready to replace all of it. They all came out because the wax is dried out and brittle. If not replaced the rest of the reeds will soon fall out too, especially if played frequently.

 

[Ffingers]

Look up :

Home

Check out http://accordionrevival.com! Home Page

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for comprehensive how-to-do-it advice

 

[John Doe]

The reed valves on the good side of the bank, holding level and looking face on, has the highest tones on the right, with progressively lower tones to the left.
So, looking face on to the empty side, is the lowest tone on the left or right end?

If one side of any of the reed banks in the BASS (left hand side of the accordion) has the reeds in place the other side of the bank will have them in exactly the same order. Just carefully twang the first reed that's in place on the good side, then twang away at the loose ones until you come up with the same note. It will go on the opposite side of the block directly across from its mate. If you have a tuner you can generally get a read on the note twanged if you hold it right by the mic. It's pretty easy to do by ear though.

Novice waxing can be painful. You could affix them with white glue and care- and have it play Danny Boy just fine- but that's pretty severe amateur hour stuff and you're liable to be rejected out of hand if you ever do have to haul it in to a real shop. It depends on how you intend to play it- for grins to amuse yourself, or with others in a more "have it play right" setting.

 

[Craig]

OK, I'll try the "twanging". Thanks. I am looking forward to trying to wax them in. The pain will come when the wax drops on my arms and legs.
Regards,
Craig

 

[John Doe]

The pain will come when the wax drops on my arms and legs.

Au contraire... the pain will come if you get melted was on the reed toungues. A really easy thing to inadvertantly do with runny melted wax and a really painful thing to clean up! (A .02mm / .0008" feeler gauge comes in handy to fully free the reed (can go up to .04/ .0015 for most reeds).)

May good fortune smile upon your efforts and keep us posted-

Henry

 

[debra]

OK, I'll try the "twanging". Thanks. I am looking forward to trying to wax them in. The pain will come when the wax drops on my arms and legs.
Regards,
Craig

This pain will cure itself. To avoid the "pain" of having to remove wax that gets on reeds and/or valves what I do is to put painters/masking tape over the reed plates, leaving just the space where the wax should go. While messing with the tape takes extra time this is only a fraction of the time it would take to remove spilled wax from the reeds.

 

[John Doe]

To avoid the "pain" of having to remove wax that gets on reeds and/or valves what I do is to put painters/masking tape over the reed plates, leaving just the space where the wax should go. While messing with the tape takes extra time this is only a fraction of the time it would take to remove spilled wax from the reeds.

That is a really great, practical, and ... I'm ashamed that I never thought of it myself- dooming myself to hours of trying to clean wax hampered reeds in situ (and even a minescule amount of wax twixt the reed and the aluminum plate wreaks acoustic havoc) before realizing that I really did need to remove the freshly installed reed from the block to do it right (small bits of unreachable wax will let the reed vibrate freely until after a few hours of playing it and .... aaaargh). Phooey on the feeler gauges- keep the wax out in the first place!*

I'd think that leaving the external leathers/valves off until the reeds are emplaced would make applying the tape, and then subsequently removing it, a snap. Installing new exterior leathers on valves already in the block is a piece of cake.

Thank you.

* and on the bass reeds where there are only twelve there's no reason not to do it unless you're an accomplished waxspoon manipulator- and that's not a skill learned in a few minutes.

 

[Craig]

Thank you. This advice is sooooooo helpful. I now know how to proceed.
Another question- where can I buy one (key of E, 6.7cm X 2.7cm) lowest octave bass reed unit. Attached is a photo of the one I have with a broken tongue. I can't imagine how that happened. The broken off part of the reed tongue was bent in a curve!
Regards,
Craig

 

[debra]

Thank you. This advice is sooooooo helpful. I now know how to proceed.
Another question- where can I buy one (key of E, 6.7cm X 2.7cm) lowest octave bass reed unit. Attached is a photo of the one I have with a broken tongue. I can't imagine how that happened. The broken off part of the reed tongue was bent in a curve!
Regards,
Craig

Every accordion store that does repairs and every professional repairer should have such reeds in stock and can (and hopefully will be willing to) sell you a new reed. You need to specify the note and dimensions as the same note comes in different dimensions.

 

[Craig]

Thank you Paul . I found the reed at Liberty Bellows. Progress!