RESTORING AN OLD SONOLA ACCORDION

[msmorto]

RESTORING AN OLD SONOLA ACCORDION . just bough a (SONOLA CF204 H933 ) piano accordion, I am in process of cleaning it ,but when I open it up a dozen reeds fell off the base side.
Is there a diagram or schematic or a way to figure out where these reeds goes , I have a make shift tuning bellow that I made, but that wont tell me
Where these reeds goes. Can you help ?
Thank’s
Mario

 

[JIM D.]

Hi Mario: Your Sonola depending in the Year made, Model, Size, and # of reed sets (4) or (5) can differ in reed placement in the reed blocks. You may start with a read of - - http://www.accordionrevival.com/ -- and refer to repairs that address your problem. Sonolas were well made boxes with reeds installed with quality beeswax and in any instance of reeds becoming dislodged are because of a heavy blow or stored or played in improper hot or cold conditions. This problem you have, just have may have affected all the reed attachments in all reed blocks.. I can understand this a problem to a newcomer to accordion repair, but if you are determined you will have to - with the reed blocks removed - press a bass button - observe which pallets open - blow on the reed to determine the note and find where in belongs in the reed block. In this process use only the bass buttons as they will always open one note in all the blocks - the chord buttons always open 3 different notes.
:tup:

 

[msmorto]

Jim D
Thank you for the info
Mario

 

[msmorto]

Jim D
I have gone to http://www.accordionrevival.com/ -It does not address my problem, What I have is two (2) reed blocks, that have missing reeds
I have a tuning table but it wont tel me where each reeds goes on the block I can on guess by taking a reed one at the time and blow in to it with
the table and arrange them from high note to low, and then wax them back on the block ?? Thanks for your help
Mario

 

[JIM D.]

Yes you have a 4 reed bass machine. Depressing a C bass note will open all the pallets that are C -- Depressing a G bass note will open all the G pallets and so on. Do not use the chord buttons for reference. Blow into the reed and determine what note you have - such as the note C and then depress the C bass and note the pallets that open and then match the reed to the reed block.

 

[msmorto]

thank you JIM.
I was going to do a similar thing, I have 3 other accordion that I was going
to use to do that so that i could tell what the C bass note and the G note sound like and so on.
I just needed more support from someone else input . I probably will remove all reeds and start all over.
Thank you for your help
Mario

 

[msmorto]

HI jim

Now That I have all the reeds off the blocks and cleaned , I need to put them back on the block.
The block that had the reeds on, I made a note of where they where located on the block, and I also have
a block that was completely empty.
Now I have empty space on the block, I don’t exactly know where the rest of the reeds goes?
after Depressing the button on the base side and locate the pallets, there are 2 reeds on the block one on one side
and one on the other side, is the same reed (note) goes on both sides?
Do you have a diagram of a block showing the reeds and their marking? (note) (C,F,G, and so on) I have a tuner
and a tuning table
Thank’s for your help
Mario

 

[JIM D.]

(1) Refer to the 2nd post on Jan 12 (2) You won't find a diagram for your bass machine. (3) You will have to sound out the reed to determine the note it plays. (4) And yes it is the same note on both sides of the block.

 

[msmorto]

Thank's JIM

 

[kimric]

You will have the same note on both sides of the block, but they will be different octaves. You can pluck the reed with a knife point to hear its tone, this is a bit louder if you hold the reed to a wood table.
You don't want to mix the middle octave reeds up from different blocks as the reed plates are often a different size even if the reed is a different octave. If you do it will make the chords and basses sound uneven in volume/tone as you used different registers, but it will sound fine on master.