Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mselic]

I've offered to repair a friend's Hohner HA114D.  I found it sitting on a shelf in their home, collecting dust, and thought it would be a shame to let it continue to waste away.  It's currently in pretty rough shape, but certainly not beyond repair.  It looks like someone at some point rubbed off all the gold and painted parts of the box black (and no, it's not one of the black "cajun" Hohners), and put black bellows tape over the original gold, red and silver.

Obviously, pallets and spoons need resurfacing, holes need to be patched up in the casework, and bellows...yeesh.  On the inside, I discovered several loose reed plates, and one missing entirely.  There are also a couple of reeds snapped in half (how the heck does that happen?).  Replacing the broken and missing reeds is going to be the biggest obstacle as I'm unsure of where I can source just a couple of reeds/reedplates?  I don't want to order an entire new set of reeds as that is unnecessary.  Any suggestions?

The list of what needs to be done is as follows:

refacing pallets and spoons
repositioning/regluing pallets to arms
patching minor holes in casework
replacing gaskets
retaping/repairing bellows...(no clue on this one!)
replacing broken/missing reeds/reedplates
replacing valves
adjusting reed gap +tuning
replacing wax (no idea how to do this!)
adjusting the stops so that they fully open/close

This project is being undertaken as a "hobby", although my friends have expressed a desire to remunerate accordingly.  The intention is to bring it back to playable form; it need not be perfect or completely refurbished.  The current owners do not play, but they might if the box was playable.  Basically, anything better than its current condition would be considered a success. I plan on keeping expenses as low as possible.  This will be the first time I will be doing many of the things in my list above.  I will be scouring the resources on this forum to get answers, but I will be asking questions on here as needed.

Any suggestions or input at any point is encouraged and appreciated!  My first question is where can I source one or two replacement reed/reedplates??

[mselic]

A few more photos...

[mselic]

Bellows...

[Steve_freereeder]

You can buy individual replacement reed plates from the Hohner shop here.

Search on the same website for other parts, e.g. bellows, etc.

[mselic]

You can buy individual replacement reed plates from the Hohner shop here.

Search on the same website for other parts, e.g. bellows, etc.

Thanks, Steve.  Selecting individual reeds on that website is somewhat confusing; the only option is to select a 3-row layout and then button#, rather than individual reedplate...

[tirpous]

They list an 800 phone number you can call for more info.

[Lester]

refacing pallets and spoons

Easy enough, I use Charlie Marshall's stuff HERE

repositioning/regluing pallets to arms

Re fit the pallets using hot glue, if you use the pallet leather as per above you will need to adjust (bend) the arms to get correct amount of button above the keyboard, easy enough just be gentle and don't do the glueing until you have done the bending.

patching minor holes in casework

I usually use cocktail sticks to fill the holes and superglue to fix it

replacing gaskets

Charlie's your man again HERE

retaping/repairing bellows...(no clue on this one!)

Those bellows look like toast and will need replacing Igors your man for this HERE

replacing broken/missing reeds/reedplates

I can look through my piles of old reeds to help you out with these

replacing valves

Charlie HERE

adjusting reed gap +tuning

For 114s I usually tune then outside the box on a spare pokerwork reed block to get as close as possible as tuning them in situ is a royal pain unless you are adept with either the German or Italian method of lifting the inside reeds

replacing wax (no idea how to do this!)

Again a really hard job on a 114 as the reed blocks are fixed. To fit the inside reeds  I have developed a method by which I take each reed plate and run a bead of wax along the bottom of the plate and then whilst it is still soft install the plate in its position then the top and sides of the plate can be waxed in by gravity

adjusting the stops so that they fully open/close

Easily achieved by screwing the stop in or out of the mechanism

[invadm]

GCM - Charlie is also a good place to ask for any Hohner parts,wax, valves,single reeds  so on.. Hohner do sells single reeds as Steve mention.
recently I've changed the bellow on my  114-G  by using an old bellow from Erica  (16+2 )much needed extra folds works superb on a 114-G 
and best of luck waxing the inner reeds properly,one hard and messy work that is         

[mselic]

Thanks, Lester! Very helpful input! I might be in touch regarding reeds...

[mselic]

I'm partway into restoring the old Hohner HA114 in the key of D. I'm missing the following reedplates, and I'm checking to see if anyone here may have what I need before I go calling up Hohner:

(PUSH/PULL)

F#4/E4 x 2
A3/B3
A4/G4
A5/B5
F#6/E6

The numbers denote octave, as there are missing reeds from the M,M+ and L banks of reeds. The replacement reeds don't necessarily have to be Hohner. If anyone has these spare reeds kicking around, I'd buy them. Thanks.

[Pearse Rossa]

I have bought reeds directly from Hohner. They have a very user-friendly site. See their selection here.
I have also bought individual reeds from Fraton, and found him good to deal with, and cheaper than Hohner.

[mselic]

Thanks! The North American website does not allow you to be specific when choosing reedplates. It looks like I will have to phone them up.