Reed leather caught on reed in next reed block

[fjsys]

So I had an interesting problem given to me today and was wondering if anyone had any idea how it could have happened.

I had a nice older (circa 1960) Pancordion Baton brought to me that had the F on the bass side "out of tune" on the out.
Usually I don't do this kind of thing since my hands are not steady enough for any kind of delicate work, but it was a friend and I said I would take a look.

when I listed it sounded garbled like there was something wrong with the reed leather so I opened it up and sure enough the large reed had grabbed the leather from the next closest reed block and was causing that reed not to vibrate correctly.

Every leather in this accordion was as flat as I have ever seen, and it looked "factory fresh" to me, so my question is does anyone know how a reed from one reed block can grab a leather from the other reed block?
This was a large bass reed that has the extra metal on the tip, so I think it got stuck on that.

I don't have any leathers so I didn't replace the one it grabbed, but I did the paperclip trick to straiten it out and got it laying flat again.

Could the F reed be about to break on this accordion?

Ben

 

[Soulsaver]

Hello, Ben. I've not a clue about grabbing it, I wouldn't think it'd happen in thne normal course of play, ie sounds like 'freak' occurrence to me.. but you don't know immediate history, like if someone dropped it while bellows open ...?
I don't see why it should be about to fail, either. How does the F sound now?

 

[fjsys]

The sound on the F was not perfect, but it was a lot better (and close enough) (some days I hate my perfect pitch...)

True, I don't know the history but he treats this accordion as if it is one of his children. Something could have happened. The only story I got was how years ago he played it outside in the hot sun and has been afraid that that damaged it somehow, but again I assume that it wouldn't have taken this long to go wrong...

 

[Glenn]

I see this as a clear demonstration of chaos theory in accordions

 

[Soulsaver]

True, I dont know the history but he treats this accordion as if it is one of his children.

Ive heard peeps say that, but they dont know what the (grand)kids did with it while they were away/out.