It is prudent to remember, before even opening up an instrument, that the person who last gave attention to it was most likely an experienced person.

The reed body is normally aluminium and the reed tongue steel. The tongue is rivetted to the body. The unit has two reed tongues fitted each in its own close fitting slot.

The reed blocks are commonly secured with screwed clips or cleats or small diameter ‘bolts’ which engage with the side frames. The blocks are set firmly in place but not over-tightened.

Accordions are normally fitted with up to five banks of reeds and are referred to as ‘voices’. In a 5 voice instrument a common configuration of the reeds is depicted as shown below and is what is often displayed on the instrument’s tone change switches.

The skills required in dealing with these faults are probably mostly ‘mechanical’ though the expertise required when tackling larger bodywork celluloid repairs is definitely specialised.

Since reeds are normally constructed in pairs, one for ‘draw’ and one for ‘press’ of the bellows, valves are fitted to stop the flow of air through the idle valve while the other is playing. They are a very important part of the tuning process and have a major influence on how the reeds sound, air tightness and reed sound attack.

A means of blowing the reeds outside the instrument is required. This can be done using an old set of bellows attached to a good quality plywood sounding board with two holes cut in it to replicate the reed block base/foundation plate in the instrument.

Reed shaping and voicing is a very specialised subject. However, with some care and appreciation of the processes which might cause damage it may well be possible to achieve satisfactory results.

Reed pitch change is achieved by removing metal from either the base or tip of the reed. Metal removal from the tip lightens it and raises the pitch while removal from near the base increases the outer mass of moving metal and lowers the pitch.

Sound pitch is measured in ‘Hertz’ (Hz) and is the number of vibrations per second.

It is felt worthwhile to repeat here a caution given at a previous page ‘Reed Health’. Reed adjustments made by filing or scraping are liable to be in vain if some basic maintenance and checks are not carried out. ie. the reed set (tip height), shape, alignment, security, cleanliness, valve condition and register slides should all be in order.

Enjoy these according pictures and sound clips