broken reed
Yesterday I was playing button box on the front porch and something sounded sour. Not hugely sour, but something wasn't right, and it wasn't my playing (this time). I quickly realized that there was a problem with one of my reeds. My Hohner is a 2 voice box, which means that every note played is made up of a pair of reeds an octave apart. One of my notes, a "C", only on the reeds that play when I open the bellows, sounded like only one voice was sounding, and that voice sounded strained.
Today I took it to Rudy at Musical Instruments of Canada. He's done work for me before, and it has always been excellent. I've also asked him to replace the old bellows tape on the top and the front of the bellows. I've previously had the more critical bottom and back tapes replaced, because they were wearing quite badly and I needed to protect the bellows.
There was a fellow playing a 3-voice Guerrini box in there when I arrived, and I have to say the tone of that instrument is beautiful, richer and fuller than my Hohner. That's not to say that my Hohner doesn't have nice tone. It does. It's just that with the three voices, there is an additional richness or depth that is really lovely. One day, I'll win a lottery and buy one.
7 comments:
Are you asking Santa Claus for a 3 - ...Guerrini? If I win the Florida lottery - you will be on my list!
Yep...the 3 voiced accordion sounds wonderful.
Let'stry tomeetupsoon, thisweekend?
I'mstill in dry wall hell....
You play the accordian? I did not know this...
Azahar,
I play diatonic button accordion and also piano accordion. Look on my sidebar for videos by Candy Minx and you can see me playing some tunes in Kensington Market here in Toronto.
Cool! Ah Toronto! And the good ol' Kensington market.
My cousin plays piano accordian - I've always loved that particular instrument, especially in Zydeco music.
So do you happen to know my friend Jack de Keyzer?
I don't know Jack de Keyzer personally, but I do know his music, and I've been to a number of his shows over the years.
Well, I reckoned you'd have heard of Jack at least. He's an old friend of mine from more than 20 years back, when he used to play at the Horseshoe regularly. And he was also my neighbour - we lived in the same apt building on Isabella Street (just south of Yonge & Bloor) for a few years.
We've recently been back in touch by email and it looks like he's doing very well for himself.
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