Common reed sizes?

[Plinky]

Hi guys/Gals I have been offered a set of reeds from an 80s Weltmeister and I wondered if Hohner and Weltmeister have the same size reed plates?
They are the aluminium type and I have a basketcase 48 bass Hohner v 1970s that has some rusty reeds
many thanks for any information.

 

[tcabot]

Reed sizes can be quite different. Hohners had different scale sizes too, so even hohner-for-hohner is not guaranteed to fit.

 

[Plinky]

Hi many thanks tcabot,so far all the Hohner T reeds i,ve measured have been the same ,but I have limited access to that many boxes
I have the reedblocks draw for 3D printing and the Hohner VM the V and La Davina( Bell version) the reed blocks appear interchangeable.
It's obviously not very difficult to modify the reed blocks length but the chord reeds are virtually touching !
more research required

 

[tcabot]

Hohner H is definitely very different from Hohner Artiste, which in turn is different from Hohner Germany.
I expect that T, H, Artiste scales will have their own consistent sizes over the decades (otherwise what's the point in having a scale), but I don't care much for T and H. Artistes are the business, Hohner Germany are sweet & good quality, the rest can go into the bin as far as I'm concerned.

Italian reeds can be different between different manufacturers, but from memory, their higher end tends to be significantly longer than same note for Soviet reeds, and bass end is shorter than equivalent soviets.

You also sometimes get narrow-plate reeds, but I doubt you'd see them in a 48-bass.

Problem is, even if you're out by a mm or two, that's potentially a lot of time wasted chiselling reedblocks. And low end weltmeister reeds are not anything to write home about - if you're going into the trouble of replacing reeds, get something good. Unless they are (almost) free and you have time to waste hot-rodding them by rolling & chiselling.

I don't think I'd 3d-print reedblocks... PLA can warp quite easily and is quite heavy. ABS is also dimensionally unstable I believe.
I laser cut mine from layers of 4mm and 6mm ply, then glue them together.

 

[debra]

Reed plate sizes can be all over the place... You would think that at least a quality manufacturer like Pigini putting high quality a mano reeds like Salpa would have gathered the reeds to go into a high end accordion like the Sirius before making reed blocks that matched the size of the reed plates? Think again. Accordion manufacturers construct what needs to go into an accordion, including reed blocks, and then "make do" with whatever sizes of reed plates they get from the reed makers. It is a mess.
But... it has to be said that in the "middle of the range" at least most Italian reed makers have reed plates that are close to the same size. It is with low notes that sizes vary more and also with piccolo reed plates. Hohner reed plates like T and Artiste are pretty much the same size because both need to fit on Atlantic reed blocks for instance (the regular Atlantic has T reeds and the "de luxe" model has Artiste reeds). H reeds can be different. The differences are often not very large. A Morino from the M series for instance can have Artiste reeds or Bugari tipo a mano reeds and they all fit. Weltmeister reeds are really different and often of pretty bad quality. Russian individual reed plates can be completely hopeless.
The reality when you get an old clunker to salvage its reeds in order to repair another not so bad accordion it's anybody's guess whether the reed plates will fit or not. But you can often make them fit using wooden spacers if the reed plates are too small or by grinding down the reed plates if they are too big. It's just extra work. Only when you get extra narrow reed plates you can run into trouble because they are too narrow to make them fit on an accordion with wider reed plates. (I have encountered the opposite. To replace a reed in my Hohner Artiste X S I had to grind down a nice Italian reed to make it narrow enough to fit (barely).

 

[Plinky]

Hohner H is definitely very different from Hohner Artiste, which in turn is different from Hohner Germany.
I expect that T, H, Artiste scales will have their own consistent sizes over the decades (otherwise what's the point in having a scale), but I don't care much for T and H. Artistes are the business, Hohner Germany are sweet & good quality, the rest can go into the bin as far as I'm concerned.

Italian reeds can be different between different manufacturers, but from memory, their higher end tends to be significantly longer than same note for Soviet reeds, and bass end is shorter than equivalent soviets.

You also sometimes get narrow-plate reeds, but I doubt you'd see them in a 48-bass.

Problem is, even if you're out by a mm or two, that's potentially a lot of time wasted chiselling reedblocks. And low end weltmeister reeds are not anything to write home about - if you're going into the trouble of replacing reeds, get something good. Unless they are (almost) free and you have time to waste hot-rodding them by rolling & chiselling.

I don't think I'd 3d-print reedblocks... PLA can warp quite easily and is quite heavy. ABS is also dimensionally unstable I believe.
I laser cut mine from layers of 4mm and 6mm ply, then glue them together.

Hi thanks that very helpful a friend has access to a swanky printer ( impregnated with some sort of filaments) I think commercial printers use different sorts of plastic? they are incredibly tough and seem to work great.
I will probably give them a miss they are cheap but as you say there's no point they're not really an upgrade.

 

[Plinky]

Reed plate sizes can be all over the place... You would think that at least a quality manufacturer like Pigini putting high quality a mano reeds like Salpa would have gathered the reeds to go into a high end accordion like the Sirius before making reed blocks that matched the size of the reed plates? Think again. Accordion manufacturers construct what needs to go into an accordion, including reed blocks, and then "make do" with whatever sizes of reed plates they get from the reed makers. It is a mess.
But... it has to be said that in the "middle of the range" at least most Italian reed makers have reed plates that are close to the same size. It is with low notes that sizes vary more and also with piccolo reed plates. Hohner reed plates like T and Artiste are pretty much the same size because both need to fit on Atlantic reed blocks for instance (the regular Atlantic has T reeds and the "de luxe" model has Artiste reeds). H reeds can be different. The differences are often not very large. A Morino from the M series for instance can have Artiste reeds or Bugari tipo a mano reeds and they all fit. Weltmeister reeds are really different and often of pretty bad quality. Russian individual reed plates can be completely hopeless.
The reality when you get an old clunker to salvage its reeds in order to repair another not so bad accordion it's anybody's guess whether the reed plates will fit or not. But you can often make them fit using wooden spacers if the reed plates are too small or by grinding down the reed plates if they are too big. It's just extra work. Only when you get extra narrow reed plates you can run into trouble because they are too narrow to make them fit on an accordion with wider reed plates. (I have encountered the opposite. To replace a reed in my Hohner Artiste X S I had to grind down a nice Italian reed to make it narrow enough to fit (barely).

Hi debra thanks I will give them a miss,I don't want to cast any aspersions and it may just have been a Friday night special but I was intending to treat myself this year to a Italian 48 bass accordion but having looked inside one It was was cobbled together ! so to be honest I'm sticking with my vintage Hohners unless a vintage italian box comes up for sale.