pimp my toy accordion - reed tweaking
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ย. 2013
- Get a cheap, out of tune, rattley-sounding accordion for $25 and turn it into a playable instrument while learning the basics of reed amelioration. I change the paper reed vanes to leather, tune a bunch of notes, voice a bunch of reeds (not shown) and hey presto. This shows only work on the treble reeds, but the bass are much the same. There are things missing (actual demonstration of cleaning old reeds, and voicing, which is just very slightly bending the reed one way and the other to get it sound well, which you'll have to do a LOT of) and the lighting and focus are kind of dodgy, and the strange little modal noises at the end perhaps don't show off the instrument to its best advantage, etc I wish that I'd done a "before" - by the time I thought "I should make a video" I'd already done most of the rough tuning and voicing. But I think if you're not quite sure and you watch this it will be pretty obvious to you that hauling an unplayable accordion back to the world of the living takes a bit of time but not a huge skill set or array of special tools.
- แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Always great to learn such snippets of information.
They should have a version that has a free bass system (along with multiple registers) and even a lutterbeg Accordion with Twin Piano keyboards since it's cooler.
That is so cool; thank you for sharing.
Thank you for this post! This is helping me figure out how to make my two toys play better. I have a red plastic one from schylling, and also a piano 17 key toy accordion by probably Berkley brand (mine is unmarked but matches the Google image searches leading back to that branded one).
My schylling's B and F notes barely play, but they're audible if I'm pumping a lot of air through them. On the Berkley, the middle C on the Berkley kinda doesn't work at all, and a bunch of the keys easily stick.
I had recently seen a video of Breanndan O Beaglaoich (Brendan Begle) playing a modded toy Schylling that sounds excellent. Which gave me a good hope to start hunting for how to upgrade my babies.
Notes that just barely play are often from stuck reeds, or sometimes reeds that are set wrong - there's a sweet spot between having the reed to close to the throat of the reed block - the rectangular hole it sits on - and too far away. Look at the reeds that aren't working with that in mind, just compare to nearby working reeds. If the gap at the open end of the reed looks different that could be the problem. The first thing to do is just pluck the reed and make sure it vibrates freely. Sometimes there's a bit of grit that's stuck in it.
Very useful. Thank you for all the help
very glad to hear that it's helpful
great video
Thank you very much for this DIY accordion rejuvenation. Have you using standard tools or mostly those sold by Busso music ?
Have you found a way to revive old leather valves or did you change them for new ones ?
You can sort of spruce up old valves some just by stroking them back onto the reeds - stroking them flat with the face of your fingernail or running a wire under them while stroking them down ahead of the wire to curl them down or taking them off and sanding their contact faces, or adding booster wires or booster mylar strips. But accordions just have so many valves that if they're all aging, you can't win the battle for long.
The tools are all just from the hardware store. The things I got from Busso's were wax, glue, reed leathers.
that's a brilliant job where would I pick up the bellows to blow the reeds thanks
Hello, I just bought a accordion like this, however my accordion this catching some keys. Have any tips to solve this problem? Tks
+pilotoduarte Have you looked at the mechanism for the keys? You take off the little metal grill on top, and you'll see most of it, and you might be able to see why some keys catch. Sometimes it's just that the hinges are a little loose and they let the key move too much. A little careful bending of the wire connecting the key down to the valve can center them better. It may also be the spring, that pushes the key back up - it might be in the wrong place and getting jammed. You can remove all the keys by drawing out the wire that serves as the middle of the hinge for the keys if you still can't see why they're jamming, and perhaps sand their sides a little, or put candle wax on if they're rubbing together.
Hello, following his steps and managed to solve the problem. Thank you very much in advance.
we purchased a used accordion for my son and when we opened it to look inside we noticed that about 8 of the metal reed rectangle housing have fallen out of the wax from various treble and bass areas and were resting against the bellows. My questions are: do we need to remove all of the reeds and wax and then re-attach them with new wax, or is is there a way we can re-attach the unattached reeds without having to remove the old wax and all of the other reeds? In other words is there a way to re-attach loose reeds housings onto the existing wax and still create a decent seal? What do you recommend and what is the process? Also is there any major difference between the plastic vs leather reeds vanes used to cover the openings?
I'm sure you can set the reeds back in place without having to do very much - when reeds fall off like that they usually leave a perfect wax impression. The wax usually sticks poorly to the metal and better to the wood. If there is a nice impression to sit the reeds back into then get them all back in place and go around their edges with a blunt kitchen knife warmed on a stove element, or a low-heat soldering iron with a narrow tip. The tip or knife should be hot enough to briefly liquify the wax, but not hot enough to make any smoke. The wax only goes around the edges - the reeds don't sit on top of a wax seal. As soon as the wax liquifies and re-hardens, the bond is made.
When reeds have just fallen out like that, however, it's because the wax is old and brittle. Re-melting it will renew its adhesion and air-tightness for now, but other reeds will be loose and will play badly even though they look like they're in place. "Drawing" around all of them with a hot stylus is probably a good idea, but probably sooner rather than later, you'll need new wax.
I've never tried this, but I think you could add new wax to old with the reeds in place, by little chips or rolled pencil-lead sized bits of new wax onto the old wax and melting them together. Moving the hot tip through the mixture would stir it up well enough. You're just trying to re-introduce rosin to soften it. It wouldn't be as good as all new wax, but it would be easier than stripping it completely and rewaxing it.
There isn't a meaningful difference between leather and plastic reed valves/vanes. You see good accordions with either.
murfleblurg
Great info, thx... we live in the Maryland/DC area and I have looked for people/places to service accordions but have had no luck. I may attempt to re-seat the reeds myself, but I will first look around a bit more to try to find someone who has done it before and knows what they are doing. btw, do you know of a place where I could mail just the reed banks & loose reeds to get inspected and re-waxed, and if so, about how much does that usually cost for a Wurlitzer 41 key with 120 buttons? also is that something that you do or would be interested in doing? Thanks again for your reply.
Andre Murphy check your local area for people who just enjoy mucking around with accordions, you might find something. For professionals it's just not worth it. Because of the sheer number of parts, fixing accordions takes time, so if it's not a high-quality instrument to start with, with a fixed-up value of say around > $1000, you're better off getting something cheap and new from China, or something in good overall condition. Or fixing it yourself. Really, it's a lot easier than you probably think.
I would fix the reed block just because it is actually kind of fun in a sort of monotonous way, but without the whole instrument there's no saying if it would be worth it. Shame to fix one part of it and then discover that it still won't play well because the valve felts also need refurbishing, or the switches are gummy, or whatever.
Stick the reeds back in, willy-nilly, and get it playing again so you can assess it overall, seems to be the best advice. You really can't go wrong - it's not like you can wreck anything. Set the reed in place, heat the wax around it. Go on to the next one.
murfleblurg
I will give it a try to see if I can get those reeds back in place cause my son was playing it for a few months and it sounded pretty good before he noticed that certain notes stopped playing, that is why we opened it up and discovered that the reeds had fallen out of place. (maybe the hot summer here had something to do with the reeds falling out) I guess I will look around a bit more locally for someone that likes to tinker around with accordions and if I don't find someone to fix it I will have to give it a try myself. thanks for all the help
Andre Murphy Ok. If it was playing well till the reeds fell off, then indeed all it needs is waxing. It's entirely possible that heat might have made the reeds fall out, especially if it was left lying down rather than sitting on its feet. That would be good news because then it's just a matter of setting the reeds in and heating the wax around them.
More likely, the wax is old and losing adhesion. Shine a bright focused light on the wax around the reeds - are there any little hairline lucencies? Those are cracks in the wax, from aging. If this is the underlying problem, consider doing it yourself, it's pretty straightforward. It makes a good chance to clean it really well, change the reed vanes, and tune it, but each little small thing you do to one reed is multiplied by a few hundred. So you could just do it relatively quickly by popping the reeds out, scraping off most of the wax, putting them back on, and waxing them. Did you see the video I did on waxing reeds? In the text below that I gave links to some good resources for tips and supplies.
Could you please share " how we can set the papers ?"... Can i iron the papers on the reeds ? or What we are going to use for glue ? or What kind of papers will we use for accordion reeds ?
Usually you'd use leather instead of paper, or a thin flexible plastic like mylar. You can buy pre-cut leather and plastic reed valves, but for something like this you could look around for suitable plastic that you cut to the right size. For paper, you'd want something a little heavier and tougher than ordinary printer paper. Drawing paper would be good - an art store would help you. You want it to be flexible, but retain a bit of stiffness and moisture resistance so humidity wouldn't make it wilt.
I like ernestdeffner.com/pdf/Ernest-Deffner-Accordion-Accessories-Parts-Tools-Mar-2017.pdf but if you just google "accordion repair supplies" you'll get choices.
For glue you usually want a latex-based glue, like the glue sold by Earnest Deffner. Latex caulking would work. Really just about any fast-setting "gummy" glue would work. There is hardly any force trying to pull the valves loose and the glue isn't doing anything fancy. Plastic is harder to glue than paper or leather so you'd have to experiment with the plastic you ended up using.
You wouldn't iron reed valves, but you can smooth and curl them into shape with a fingernail or by drawing them over a smooth wire.
@@murfleblurg Thank you very much...
Класс.Недавно сделал такой же внуку.Называется МАЛЫШ.Белорусская фабрика .
Приветствую. Я желаю твоему внуку музыкальной жизни
@@arnastubuttwehak994 Спасибо большое. Дай Бог и Вам всего хорошего.Я поправлюсь .Я не сделал тот аккордеон, я его просто отремонтировал.Но сделать гармошка своими руками давно мечтаю. Это будет не хромка, это будет тальянка.
What brand is that? I've never seen a full scale toy version that's so cheap
It doesn't have any identification on it but I've seen the same model sold under various names - they all come from the same factory in Taiwan or Korea probably. Or maybe not, now I look on the net. They're all the same design, but some look like they're better quality than others. Banggood is usually Chinese pricing, but their version at $49 looks better quality than the $36 walmart version
Where would one buy reeds from?
The actual reeds themselves are custom items, so you'd contact earnestdeffner.com (703) 941-9300 and they'd start you down the right road. I fixed up a Wurltizer a couple of years ago that was missing a couple of reed plates, so I bought a whole junk accordion on ebay, found suitable reed plates, and made them fit. Hunting around on ebay is the obvious place to start. Typically you'll see whole sets that have been salvaged for $100 - $200. I got the for-parts accordion for $40. What are you needing exactly, perhaps I even have a reed from that accordion that would work.
I sometimes said "reed" here when I meant valve. If it's the leather valves you're looking for, not the actual reeds, then earnestdeffner.com (and others) sell those.
is it possible to convert into tremmollo tuned
You need multiple sets of reeds to do that - usually 3 different reeds playing each note.
@@arnastubuttwehak994 I askes this because I'm planning to build an accordion out of harmonica and melodica reeds, even piccolo reeds if I find.
ein special instrument? ;-)
what state are you in?
Painful to watch. This is not how a professional accordion tuner works.
I guess that looks like a professional-level accordion to you? It's like commenting on someone grilling hot dogs that that isn't how a French chef would do it. Why not say something instructive about what would, in your view, produce a better result, and why, instead of just sharing worthless negativity?