Voci Armoniche / Accordion Reeds from Castelfidardo/Italy

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Accordion Reed Production

Set Up of the Partly Finished Materials for Assembling:

The partly finished materials are prepared in envelopes.

The Rivet:

With hammer and anvil, the reed tongue is fixed to the reed plate with a rivet.

The reed tongue must be exactly in the middle of the reed plate hole to achieve the best response and sound.

This high precision work is still done by hand.

Il Provino /Tuning Table:

On this table there is a specially designed support for the reed. Underneath there is a bellow which is operated by a foot pedal, and the bellow supplies the air to the reed.

The provino (tuning table) is used to check the tuning of the reeds.

The Tone Control:

Sounding the reed to be tuned on the tuning table together with the reference reed (which produces the note of reference) the worker hears "by ear" the tone differences.

The worker puts a thin tool, called "sdtizzicatora", under the tongue , which helps to keep the reed tongue flat on the plate as it is shaped to produce a sound the same as the note of reference.

First Tuning:

To raise the tone, it is necessary to remove material from the tip of the reed tongue. To lower the tone, it is necessary to remove material from the body of the reed tongue.

This is done by hand with a special tool called "stecca" as shown in this photo; or with an electric grinder tool, taking care to not overheat the reed tongue as that would compromise the sound output.

It is also important to tune without damaging the reed tongue profile, to avoid any reduction of sound output, or weakening or breaking of the reed tongue.

Please note that this is not the final tuning. Final tuning is done when the reed is placed in the reed block and fitted in the accordion as these factors have an effect on the tuning.

Setting/Placing of the Tongue:

It's necessary to place the reed tongue accurately/correctly in the plate.

The positioning of the reed tongue, greatly effects the prompt response of the reed and how the reed responds to different bellows pressure.

Warehouse of Finished Reeds:

This photo shows a shelf with reeds packets. Each packet contains reeds of same note

Reeds Finished:

This finishes the assembling of the reed. Each reed is packed separately, the paper wrapping helping to protect the reed from air, humidity and dust.

Final Set Up / Delivery to the Customer:

The reeds are carefully selected and packed in sets according to the progressive notes of the accordion.

Great care is taken to have a consistent reed type/quality for each row (reed set).

The same care must be taken to have
the same
consistent reed quality across the
different reed sets of the accordion.

Second Tuning:

On customer's request, a second tuning can be done on ordered reed sets. This means to put the rows/range of reeds and their correspondent notes, which are part of the reed sets, to the requested frequency (LA/A = 440 hz) creating the different typical sound effects in the accordion: tremolo, musette etc.

This second tuning is important to give uniqueness/character to the reed set and is done strictly on ordered sets. Like the first tuning, it is necessary to remove material from the reed tongue to raise or to lower the tone, this time using an electronic tuner to achieve maximum precision.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT THE FINAL TUNING, which is done after sticking leather or plastic valves on the reeds and when the reeds are placed in the reed block and fitted into the accordion. All these factors have an effect on the tuning. This careful operation, necessary to guarantee quality sound output, cannot be done by the reeds manufacturer. Thus it is done by skilled professional people working for the accordions factories.

Attaching the Valves to the Reed:

After the second tuning, a leather or plastic valve is glued on the reed plate covering the hole alongside the sounding reed tongue. This is to avoid air passage through the hole of the reed tongue that is not working. Plastic valves, called "VENTILLI", are mostly used, as they have improved in recent years to often compare positively to leather valves.

Conclusion:

In this summary, while we have left out a few secondary working phases of reed production, we have tried to show you the most important processes.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this and that it has been helpful.

Voci Armoniche