Scandalli reed valves/leathers

[breze77]

Hi, I recently purchased a used Scandalli accordion. The previous owner was and older gentleman in his 70s who said he bought it new in Italy in 1994. It was in really good condition and I absolutely love the sound of it. It's tuned LMMM on the keyboard side.

The only problem with it is that the Eb and E basses (left side) are making a sort of whistling sound. I opened up the accordion to have a look at the reeds and noticed that 2 of them are missing the leather valves. The bass side is tuned to 5 voices (I don't know if this is the correct term in english) and the ones missing are exactly for the Eb and E basses, on the smallest reeds which are positioned horizontally compared to the other two reeds (not in a cassotto just next to the other ones). I'll post pictures of it tomorrow if It's unclear what I mean. So I'm guessing these missing valves are the root of the whistling sounds?

I'm a bit in doubt though as I also noticed on the right hand side (keyboard side) that some of the smaller reeds (the one on the lower side of the keyboard) don't have the valves/leathers.. but the keyboard side sounds absolutely fine, no whistling sound whatsoever.. Does anybody now if the missing valves are actually missing or where they intentionally left out?

I will try putting some on the bass side and see if that fixes the problem, I do worry however that they are also missing on the inside of the reed, because I'm not comfortable removing this reed block myself as it seems to be glued in and not screwed in like the other two. Might just need to take it to a repair shop.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Ben-jammin]

It is normal for the highest frequency reeds to not have valves. I understand this is necessary to initiate airflow to get the reed going. I think this is described better in another thread. If the reeds in question on the left side are are similar in size to the ones on the right side that don’t have valves I would say your problem is not that.

I would start by making a chart of which reeds are in play at the different register selections and see if you can’t eliminate the set that is missing leathers outright.

 

[breze77]

Yeah I did a bit more searching on the web and found what you just confirmed. I have 2 register selections on the left side and they make that sound on both of the selections so I'll try to isolate the problematic reed, might just be out of tune. There is no obvious problems, atleast on the surface level, that I can see with the reeds.

Thanks.

 

[Dingo40]

Sooner or later everyone discovers, to their horror, the missing valves on the highest reeds?
Please relax: this is normal practice!?

 

[Ffingers]

Reed Block 1960s(?) Scandelli from much abused instrument






Note lack of valves on upper frequencies.

The other valves are dried out, brittle and the wax is crumbling.

 

[breze77]

Thanks everyone for calming me down about the missing valves ?
I though it was a bit strange that so many would be missing. I'll try to isolate the problematic reed and maybe just try cleaning/pinging it a bit and see if that fixes the problem (as per this thread https://www.accordionists.info/threads/whistling-reeds-other-issues.473/).

 

[debra]

Just like on the treble side the highest notes on the bass side may not ever had valves. Manufacturers stop putting valves on high reeds. When the highest Eb and E don't have valves that's OK. (if they ever had valves these would now be floating somewhere inside the accordion, but rest assured, they never had any.
The "whistling" sound on a bass note comes from one of the lower reed banks where a reed may be slightly misaligned, touching one of the sides (or the end) of the hole in the reed plate it's supposed to go through. You can gently push it in one direction or the other with a small kitchen knife if you know what you're doing. Better is to visit a technician. You don't want to do something wrong with an instrument you just bought.