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Author Topic: Accidentals to low notes  (Read 1197 times)

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James Tobin

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Accidentals to low notes
« on: April 15, 2019, 02:16:55 PM »

Hi, I’m looking at buying a second hand Castagnari D/G Lilly which I think as it’s standard comes with accidentals, my current melodeon has low notes on the chin end buttons, is it easy to convert from the accidentals to my current low notes? I wouldn’t do the work myself but I just wondered if it was complicated/expensive. Currently my buttons are B/D, D/F#,F#/A,A/C# thanks for any input
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Steve_freereeder

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2019, 02:36:21 PM »

It's not a particularly difficult job, but you would need to source the accidentals reeds. Since the Lilly is a single voice box, you only need two reed plates, one for the G-row (D#/F natural), and one for the D-row (Bb/G#). Ideally they need to be Voci Armoniche reeds as used by Castagnari although it unlikely that Castganari would supply such a small order, but it's possible Pete Ward (Acorn Instruments, and on this forum) might be able to help. Alternatively you may find that someone on this forum has a couple of reed plates.

The accidental reed plates will be shorter than the low notes reed plates, so you will probably need to add a small piece of wood to the end of the reed chamber in order to shorten it.

Assuming you can source the accidentals reed plates, you then have two options:
(i) a straightforward replacement of the low notes with the accidentals, retaining the instrument as a 3rd-button start.
or
(ii) shifting all the reeds up one position and retaining the low notes to sound on button 2 and the accidentals on button 1. This will give you a 4th-button start box which could be useful for a D/G Lilly, but it will mean more work as all the reeds will need to be shifted and possibly some modification of the reed chamber lengths overall.
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Steve
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James Tobin

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2019, 02:42:56 PM »

Brilliant thanks Steve!
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george garside

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2019, 02:48:13 PM »

I had my dg lilly converted ( via the now defunct music room) to 4th button start retianing the standard accidentals .  The extra low notes followed the 'BC format' so notes repeated every 4 bittons on push and 5 on pull wjich I find more useful than the more usual random low notes.  This works well for me and avoids nasty accidents as I play both DG and BC

george
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Winston Smith

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2019, 02:56:04 PM »

Funnily enough, I'm just at a similar juncture with the conversion of one of my Bb/Eb Liliputs to D/G. The retuning hasn't been too arduous, so far, until I realised that when I got to the two highest reeds I didn't have any to do the job! But......after checking the two old lowest reedplates and reeds (which I thought I'd not be using) I find that I can use them to add low accidentals, so that I'll end up with 4th button start, low notes and accidentals in three octaves! In fact, it's going to be almost the same as one of the Salterelle layouts on here.

What was that about clouds and silver linings?

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malcolmbebb

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2019, 03:24:09 PM »

I think James wants to low notes in place of accidentals. So the reeds are likely to be bigger, and might need reed block surgery.
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Lester

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2019, 03:31:39 PM »

I think James wants to low notes in place of accidentals. So the reeds are likely to be bigger, and might need reed block surgery.


Nope, will just require the fillers to be removed which, if memory serves, are just waxed in place

Theo

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2019, 04:07:33 PM »

Any competent repairer can do this for you, including supplying the reeds. It’s just a matter of replacing  and tuning two reed plates. Just make sure that whoever does the job uses the same quality of reeds as the rest of the box.  The originals are tipo a mano made by Voci Armoniche, or by Antonelli if it’s an older box.
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Steve_freereeder

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Re: Accidentals to low notes
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2019, 04:34:24 PM »

I think James wants to low notes in place of accidentals. So the reeds are likely to be bigger, and might need reed block surgery.
Yes, you're right. I misunderstood his original post. (I've been off-grid for too long...)
But as Lester has said, it should just be a case of removing the filler blocks from the reed chambers.
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Steve
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