TOOLS

[kimric]

I use a brass reed pick like the one pictured, but I have several sizes. Piccolo reeds I just remove to tune, too easy to damage.

A small powerful magnet.
Wood workers super glue
A thick sheet of glass with sand paper glued to it for planing reed blocks.
A stethoscope with the tip cut off and replaced with a small tube for finding leaks.
Single edge razor blades
A brass tube that will slide neatly over a bass button for straightening them.
A good pair of scissors
A really tiny pair of sewing scissors for trimming valves and bellows tape.

 

[Geronimo]

I use a brass reed pick like the one pictured, but I have several sizes. Piccolo reeds I just remove to tune, too easy to damage.

A small powerful magnet.

Stupid question: wouldnt that result in the reed getting magnetized and consequently losing energy when passing through the aluminum reed plate due to induction? If that effect was observable, it would likely temporarily slightly lower the pitch particularly of high frequency reeds (like the piccolo reeds) until the magnetism subsists again.

I really have no idea how strong this effect would be if at all. Probably requires someone to experiment on a tuning table.

 

[Glenn]

Aluminium isn’t magnetic under normal circumstances.

 

[Geronimo]

Aluminium isn’t magnetic under normal circumstances.

I didnt say it was. Its a good electric conductor though and thus will develop eddie currents causing resistance against a magnetized bit of steel oscillating through it.

 

[Glenn]

Well if it were an effect of any serious magnitude for accordion tuning I feel an invention coming on.......
A means to pass individual currents through individual reeds so that said individual reeds can be individually magnetised so that said individual reeds can be automatically tuned (you heard it here first <EMOJI seq="1f60a">?</EMOJI>).

 

[kimric]

The magnet does not seem to have any effect on the reed. this could be that the level of any induced magnetism is to low to do anything.
Passing a magnet by a playing reed does weird things though.
I did run into a accordion years ago that had a coil wrapped around the top of the reed block and tiny magnets at the base of each reed. The instrument was in pieces so I could not test it.
You can get a nice tone by placing a guitar pickup on top of the block while it is playing. The sound is pretty accurate. It would be heavy to put pickups down an entire block though.
Aluminum actually exerts a very slight repulsive force to a really powerful magnet. It is hard to demonstrate this at home though.

 

[Geronimo]

Well if it were an effect of any serious magnitude for accordion tuning I feel an invention coming on.......
A means to pass individual currents through individual reeds so that said individual reeds can be individually magnetised so that said individual reeds can be automatically tuned (you heard it here first <EMOJI seq=1f60a>?</EMOJI>).

Magnetism in steel is not really long-term dependable, can pick up some magnetism from the Earth field (like screw drivers becoming magnetic) and this kind of magnetic dampening would also affect amplitude. Sort of like tuning down reeds by dripping glue on them. So if there are measurable effects, reed manufacturers would likely have picked steels less susceptible to magnetization.

Id still feel queasy using strong magnets for reed manipulation. Particularly when just tuning the reed in question. Id be afraid of the pitch being affected temporarily.

 

[boxplayer4000]

Free reeds and magnets interacting is not new. Some tone forming in early electronic keyboards used a free reed (as the armature) with a magnet placed near the tip of the reed. The magnet had a coil of wire round it and the generated signal used for sound production. It was probably a sine wave signal with plenty of even harmonics.
Magnetising accordion reeds does not seem a very good idea. Would this not attract certain kinds of dust and debris?

 

[jollyrogeraccordions]

I use the hook tool to get at the inside reeds (I have three different sizes). You can use it even while the blocks are still in the accordion (except on the very smallest reeds) and it doesn't damage the reed. With practice using it is v efficient and quick.

 

[Mr Mark]

I have to add a bellows corner crimper. For the life of me all the glue and other makeshift tools in the world couldn't keep the loose ones on.