Enlarging the air release on Bass

[Brassodemolish]

Has anyone here done this? I have my little 12 bass which I plan to use solely for Arabic Music with quarter tones and the bass reeds won't be used. How the quarter tones work is that select notes are tuned roughly half flat on the push of the bellows, I envision situations where overextend the bellows and need to quickly bring the bellows back in between phrases.I play regional Mexican music too so I'm familiar with just taking the bass blocks out and pressing multiple buttons. Doing that method it seems to leak more air non intentionally as you're playing. What I have in mind is making a new air release button pallet and if needed rig it with a stronger spring.

 

[Dingo40]

I'm aware that air button valves come in different diameters. You may be able t source buttons with larger valves ready made and install
them?

 

[Dingo40]

Brassdemolish
Something like this?

Here's one ready to go!

 

[TomBR]

I've considered doing this but didn't go ahead. The difficulty of the job just depends on the physical layout you're starting from at the bass end. With luck it should be pretty easy.

I considered doing the job on an Italian B/C/C#, 72 or 96 basses. The issue was that it was plainly a B/C/C# in a piano accordion body and not only was the air release valve far too small, the button was out of reach for most bass playing. Such an instrument needs an air release lever or bar that's accessible wherever your left hand is. I could have done that but other parts of the instrument made the whole project non-viable so I gave the box away to someone who thought they might try it.

 

[dunlustin]

'There was an air valve lever which went down the full length of the bass board, but this was modified to a shorter one after twenty or so were made. My preference is for the full length one as it makes playing in the flat keys easier.'
This is a quote from an article on the Shand Morino B/C/C# by Roy Magna - it can be found here:

Shand Morino Story

Any push/pull box really needs a biggish air valve to manage the bellows. Usually this means taking small 'sips' of air as you play rather than going to max pull before rushing the bellows back to closed. Playing a PA mainly on the pull or push no doubt makes for a similar issue.
I had a Casali B/C/C#48 Bass which worked fine and as a result had a special order P Soprani made. It arrived with (I guess) a standard CBA or PA air valve. I found this almost unplayable and ended up selling it on through the shop. At the time I didn't know about enlarging the air intake and wish I had as it was otherwise a fine instrument.

Add on: TomBR got in before me. I wonder if that was my box?

 

[Skari]

My Öllerer steirische has twin air valves. You can move a lot of air very quickly.

 

[Waldo]

I did a special order for a double size bellows vent on my new Baffetti TexMex. As mentioned above, Mexican border music musicians commonly remove the bass side reeds so as not to compete with the Bajo Sexto, and reduce left side weight. I elected to have the bass reeds included in my order but still wanted the capacity to open or close the bellows rapidly. Having bass reeds in place precludes using the bass buttons for venting purposes, thus the double size vent.
It's worth noting here that the bellows vent "button" is actually a "lever" on diatonics (mine, at least) in order to have more control over the volume of air released/introduced during play. It's common to "accelerate" the bellows motion, while still playing, in order to arrive at the desirable bellows position before commencing a long run in a given Key. The lever gives more adjustability to the air flow.

 

[Brassodemolish]

I'll have to take a look at my donor 1940s era 120 bass Scandalli, but I think if I sourced some galvanized steel wire I can rig the air release from that into my Hohner.

 

[Brassodemolish]

I'm also removing the bass mechanism completely and filling the 12 holes on the body with crosscut dowels, will be hidden by a guitar type burst finish over the wood veneer I'm applying.

 

[Squeezebox Of Delights]

I had problems with the air release on my Anglo concertina being too small, so I used a file to make the hole about 3 times the size, which immediately improved it. The pallets were just held on with glue, so it was pretty easy to remove the old one and make a new, larger one out of a piece of aluminium and some thin leather. All in all the process probably took less than 15 minutes, and only needed a file, some scrap leather, a can of beans (empty) and a tube of Bostik. Definitely not the best method, but it works very well, and is a good solution if you are not too worried about taking a sharp tool to your instrument!

 

[JIM D.]

https://accordionrevival.com/ACCORDION_REPAIR_2.php#Making_an_over-size_air_release_valve