When did manufacturers start turning piccolo reeds upside down?

[debra]

I just got this old Paolo Soprani in for repair (cracked corner) and tuning and I found that it does not have the piccolo reeds upside down and that appears to be original. It's a "Super Paolo" with convertor and with L and H reed banks in cassotto.
I wonder since when accordions started having the piccolo reeds mounted upside down. Maybe some of the "older" experts here might know?
The register style suggests this accordion may be from the sixties or seventies.

These are the reed blocks in cassotto: one side has the L reeds, the side you see has the H reeds.

 

[dak]

1960 Morino special construct: everything of the shortest reed length (in the bass fairly consistently using brass reed plates instead of aluminum, quite less consistently in the treble, possibly after replacements of broken reeds) is mounted reversed. Everything else (including a number of reeds without valves) normally. The bass side mounted on leather gaskets, the treble in wax.

 

[Ikesaccordions]

I just got this old Paolo Soprani in for repair (cracked corner) and tuning and I found that it does not have the piccolo reeds upside down and that appears to be original. It's a "Super Paolo" with convertor and with L and H reed banks in cassotto.
I wonder since when accordions started having the piccolo reeds mounted upside down. Maybe some of the "older" experts here might know?
The register style suggests this accordion may be from the sixties or seventies.

These are the reed blocks in cassotto: one side has the L reeds, the side you see has the H reeds.

The higher pitched reeds need a smaller chamber, since they might not start with the chamber too large. Wax is put into the chamber to make the air volume less, and normally the wax is on the side away from the chamber's opening,; hence the reed plate is installed with the riveted end away from the opening so that the reed won't hit the embedded wax. I'm sure you know this. I would be interested to see these chambers minus the reed plates. Maybe there is an embedded baffle along the block under the riveted ends, carefully progressively machined to provide the theoretically optimal air vulome inside the chambers.

 

[debra]

The higher pitched reeds need a smaller chamber, since they might not start with the chamber too large. Wax is put into the chamber to make the air volume less, and normally the wax is on the side away from the chamber's opening,; hence the reed plate is installed with the riveted end away from the opening so that the reed won't hit the embedded wax. I'm sure you know this. I would be interested to see these chambers minus the reed plates. Maybe there is an embedded baffle along the block under the riveted ends, carefully progressively machined to provide the theoretically optimal air vulome inside the chambers.

Good explanation! I have not seen many accordions where wax is used to make the chamber smaller. Mostly I see wooden insets that are glued in place.

 

[Ikesaccordions]

Good explanation! I have not seen many accordions where wax is used to make the chamber smaller. Mostly I see wooden insets that are glued in place.

 

[Ikesaccordions]

Well, it must be newer than when they were using wax poured in. Some of them used wax on the highest "clarinet" chambers.