C
cmooradian
Guest
I have begun restoring an early 1930’s (no make or model number) accordion that used to be a hand-painted museum piece at the New England Accordion Museum. It appears there were some repairs done to it before I bought it (especially to the bellows). The only thing I had to do to the bellows was replace the gaskets and replace the tape for a different color, so that was a piece of cake!
However, when I opened this accordion up, I found some things I was almost surprised by—that’s how bad it was. I’m not even sure wax was used to hold the reeds into the reed blocks. The stuff used was almost black, the color of old shellac. It was very, very hard and brittle. Almost 30 of the reeds were falling out, and 4-5 already had and were jangling around in the reed chamber. The chamber itself was filthy from this wax (?) debris and I had to take all of the reed blocks out and vacuum just to make sure I got everything. Does anyone know what that material could’ve been, or why (if it was wax) it would have been that color and that consistency? This stuff looked nothing like the old wax I’ve seen on other accordions I’ve worked on, and it had a terrible smell when I scraped it off the reed blocks. Yuck.
Anyway, after I took all the reeds out of the blocks and scraped that nasty stuff off them, I soaked the reeds in Evaporust, lightly scrubbed them with a soft bristle toothbrush, let them dry, and then wiped any remaining rust or Evaporust residue off with a Q-tip and some white vinegar. Most of the reeds had little to no oxidation, which was amazing. But before I started cleaning them, I noticed that 4 reed tongues were snapped in half. I’m going to assume that these reeds had vibrated themselves thin and snapped at some point before I acquired this accordion, since I noticed the broken tongues before I cleaned them. My question is, since the reed tongues are apparently old enough that they’re breaking, should I just replace all of them, or should I only replace the reeds that have broken? I plan on taking the accordion to a professional tuner after buying the 4 replacements, but I don’t want to pay for a tuning if I have to replace them all a year later. I would hate to have to replace all of them--they are handmade reeds and have a beautiful timbre, plus I dont have make or model number for this accordion and would have no idea how to order new reeds. They have SO much potential after tuning.
And then we come to the pallets… I thought that the breathy noise and the air loss was coming from the reeds that had fallen out, but now that I’ve waxed them back in I noticed that I’m still losing a LOT of air on this box. I know there are no leaks from the bellows because I’ve carefully inspected them, and replaced the gaskets as I said above. When I opened the grille, though, I found some really old chamois padding the pellets that looked like it was degrading. I have since replaced all of the chamois on the white key pallets (the black keys are on a separate rod and I haven’t gotten to them yet). The keys are still very noisy and I believe they are still losing a lot of air. Should I go ahead and replace the chamois with a felt/chamois pad? I believe I would have to alter the rods though because it would be a new thickness on the pallets. What do you guys think (especially in regards to losing air)?
However, when I opened this accordion up, I found some things I was almost surprised by—that’s how bad it was. I’m not even sure wax was used to hold the reeds into the reed blocks. The stuff used was almost black, the color of old shellac. It was very, very hard and brittle. Almost 30 of the reeds were falling out, and 4-5 already had and were jangling around in the reed chamber. The chamber itself was filthy from this wax (?) debris and I had to take all of the reed blocks out and vacuum just to make sure I got everything. Does anyone know what that material could’ve been, or why (if it was wax) it would have been that color and that consistency? This stuff looked nothing like the old wax I’ve seen on other accordions I’ve worked on, and it had a terrible smell when I scraped it off the reed blocks. Yuck.
Anyway, after I took all the reeds out of the blocks and scraped that nasty stuff off them, I soaked the reeds in Evaporust, lightly scrubbed them with a soft bristle toothbrush, let them dry, and then wiped any remaining rust or Evaporust residue off with a Q-tip and some white vinegar. Most of the reeds had little to no oxidation, which was amazing. But before I started cleaning them, I noticed that 4 reed tongues were snapped in half. I’m going to assume that these reeds had vibrated themselves thin and snapped at some point before I acquired this accordion, since I noticed the broken tongues before I cleaned them. My question is, since the reed tongues are apparently old enough that they’re breaking, should I just replace all of them, or should I only replace the reeds that have broken? I plan on taking the accordion to a professional tuner after buying the 4 replacements, but I don’t want to pay for a tuning if I have to replace them all a year later. I would hate to have to replace all of them--they are handmade reeds and have a beautiful timbre, plus I dont have make or model number for this accordion and would have no idea how to order new reeds. They have SO much potential after tuning.
And then we come to the pallets… I thought that the breathy noise and the air loss was coming from the reeds that had fallen out, but now that I’ve waxed them back in I noticed that I’m still losing a LOT of air on this box. I know there are no leaks from the bellows because I’ve carefully inspected them, and replaced the gaskets as I said above. When I opened the grille, though, I found some really old chamois padding the pellets that looked like it was degrading. I have since replaced all of the chamois on the white key pallets (the black keys are on a separate rod and I haven’t gotten to them yet). The keys are still very noisy and I believe they are still losing a lot of air. Should I go ahead and replace the chamois with a felt/chamois pad? I believe I would have to alter the rods though because it would be a new thickness on the pallets. What do you guys think (especially in regards to losing air)?