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[chappie86]

Hi All,

I have decided that I would like to give my ERIKA club C/F a heart transplant and change it to a D/G, partly for a challenge and partly because I want a D/G box. I was looking at getting some Cagoni Macchina D/G reeds from CGM Musical and fitting them.

Will the reeds fit onto the reed blocks or will I need to do some serious modifications to them, or maybe even get some new ones?

If anybody has done a similar project, please let me know any problems that I am likely to encounter!

Thank you all,

Jack

[Lester]

I have done this very job on an Erica which is similar. The treble end needed some reed block carving to allow the reeds to fit correctly, mostly to ensure the valves did not foul the chamber. The bass end,  however,  is harder as the Cagnoni reed plates are smaller but thicker requiring some more major woodwork.  But none of it should be beyond a competent first timer. I can take some shots of my fit if that is of any help.

[chappie86]

Lester,

Thanks for your reply. It would be great if you get chance in the future to put some shots up of the fit (no rush).

This is my next project after having a crash course in general melodeon restoration over the summer. Itching to get my teeth into this one now! :-)

[Andy Simpson]

I have converted an Erika to D/G with Cagnoni reeds, with 12 basses to boot.

All the chambers will need enlarging, which isn't too difficult if you know what you're doing. The biggest problem will be fitting Italian reeds for the chambers at the end of the blocks that correspond to the helper row, the magnitude of which can vary depending on the notes you want for that row. I ended up having to actually grind down the plates on 6 of the 8 chambers to get them to fit.

For the bass end it's a similar story for the chord reeds but the chambers for the basses will need filling in.

To tell the truth, I kind of regret doing it. On a practical level it worked absolutely fine once everything was up and running but I can't help but feel that the character, especially on the left hand, was somewhat compromised with Cagnonis so I would strongly recommend using Hohner reeds instead, which will also be much easier to fit. I believe that Charlie has complete D/G sets and one of our friendly repairers should be able to furnish you with ones for the helper row.

[Andy Simpson]

This one, with videos as well...

http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,10563.0.html

[rees]

I've done this conversion several times. Cagnoni Macchina sound great in the treble side but I always use Hohner bass reeds, otherwise the grunt is gone.

(ask Jan Freereeder) 

[Steve_freereeder]

I've done this conversion several times. Cagnoni Macchina sound great in the treble side but I always use Hohner bass reeds, otherwise the grunt is gone.

(ask Jan Freereeder) 

I will answer for her, seeing as I have appropriated the box anyway ; Jan is playing the C/F Erica the Red.
The instrument in question is a toffee finish Club Modell 2 which Rees has worked his magick on. As he says, Cagnoni reeds in the treble end which actually sound very, very similar to Hohner reeds. In the LH end, Hohner reeds. An absolute peach of an instrument, thank you Rees!