One troubled note.

[Mr Mark]

I have an F note whose tuning seems to be relevant to bellows pressure...the more pressure, the more out of tune it goes - flat if I'm not mistaken.

Not sure if it is relevant but it is on the squeeze as opposed to the pull, in the bass section.

I have looked at it several times and poked around more than a few. I cannot seem to find or fix the problem. The valves and wax appear in good condition.

This seems odd to me. Does this indicate a specific problem or do I just keep looking :mrgreen: .

 

[debra]

There could be several causes for this, which an expert can find by examining the instrument (and more specifically the reed). It could of course be just metal fatigue, and that is more likely if the note was always find and now it starts misbehaving. If you don't know how it was before... it could be the shape of the reed, and it could also be that it was not tuned in the right way by someone before you... When the shape is wrong the frequency can go up or down depending on what's wrong. It is all quite hard to figure out by yourself.

 

[Sebastian Bravo]

Take a photo of it! Try to get a Macro camera lens (clip phone lens are cheap) and a good lightning and i'm pretty sure you will find a crack on the body of the reed. As Paul De Bra said, it can be metal fatigue, or a bad tuning method.

 

[Mr Mark]

I should have added I never actually took the reed off the block. Also, it seems the issue is related to environmental controls...ie, in the winter here when it was cold and dry, no issue. But as it is getting warmer later into the spring the problem is becoming more pronounced. Strange.

This was also an issue last summer but I never got around to it as I was playing another instrument. When I first purchased the accordion in late fall two and a half years ago there was no problem.


Today I removed the plate from the block, took a really good look at it through several magnifying glasses and light, brushed it really clean and waxed it back into place. No obvious problem that I could see.

Problem fixed. I wonder if the wax was cracked.

Thanks for the replies, I will have to look into acquiring a macro lens for future use.

 

[JeffJetton]

Nice! I love a good success story.