Ok, I posted a few months back about a broken reed (second time it happened in as many years) and it happened again. WTF? Is this just normal for a cajun accordion? I've played a German diatonic accordion for almost 15 years and never had a reed break on me. Plus it happened while I was on stage in the middle of a song. I could see people wincing. It wasn't fun. Luckily it was the high reed bank so I could shut that off without sounding too horrible. I cracked it open and I don't see what's wrong. the reed still looks like its fine, but on the push it won't sound and on the pull its about a half step to a whole step lower than it was when I started playing that day.

Anyone out there who fixes and tunes these monsters got any idea what the problems sounds like and what I can do to keep from breaking more of these? I got myself pretty hot in the monitors so I don't play too hard. Should I just break down and get a back up box? I love my Acadian and Marc Savoy has been real nice to keep fixing his box, but the shipping is getting pretty **** expensive.

I personally feel, and after repairing and tuning LA built one-rows for the last couple of years, that about 80 to 90% of the diatonic accordion players have a "lousy" bellows technique, and use far too much left hand pressure. Maybe especially on One row Cajun accordions, "The Louder The Better philosophy", and thereby being rewarded with the usual problems as found in getting their instrument out of tune, and indeed breaking reeds. Marc Savoy seemed to have suggested towards beginners to practice first with one bellows strap closed (probably the front one?).

These accordions are loud by design anyway, and its really not necessary to play in pump and haul style .... Also no-1 Binci reeds are very tightly fitted in the reed slots which might cause extra stress on a bellows change near the top of the reed where they usually break.

The accordion i play most is my gigging D Acadian, and the chrome on bass and key buttons show quite a bit of wear. It's still perfectly in tune since i bought it new in early 2007. One reason might be probably too, that i very rarely permit others to play it, and especially one should avoid that in (noisy) session situations, sorry guys ..... - Nout

I dunno .. I've been playing a Savoy for about the
same about of time and have yet to have any reed
trouble?

I suppose it's statistically possible to get a couple
bad ones ..

How 'bout it braves? Anyone else experience reeds
breaking?

--bn

If you looked at the reed and looks fine then it is possible that something is stuck in the gap between the reed tounge and the frame.

Ehren did not mention the make and model of the accordion, but that does make a difference. The reeds in the Arriette knockoffs are very cheap, but usually break AFTER ther button springs.

Also, I recently sold a Leland Culligan box that had been working great to a LA zydeco artist. Within two weeks he had broken 4 reeds. I asked him if he had been playing it hard and he said, "yeah, the monitors were not working well, so I was really pumping to hear myself."

DP

His box is made by the Cajun God M.S.

Ehren, check the reed like John said, also check the reed valve. If you're breaking Binci reeds regularly, you're playing too hard.

Wow, in over 20 years of hard playing, I have never had a reed break on me. And I do not have a light touch. I have had some that went out of tune a bit, and had a couple occasions in which the wax melted and a reed plate came loose, but never a broken reed.

I would say this is a very uncommon situation, based on my experience. And I don't recall other players complaining about broken reeds with any degree of frequency.

I can understand your frustration.

Maybe you had just a bit of bad luck, like a manufacturing defect?

One other thing that has been mentioned before.
If the person tuning your reeds is not experiernced,(or careful) they can weaken the reeds considerably in the tuning process.

Changing the tuning from wet to dry (or dry to wet) also can reduce reed life.

You are probably playing too hard.
I play pretty hard and have never had problems in the past 10 years with my Swallow, Bon Cajun or Acadian.
Maz

I play pretty hard, on my Bon Cajun. Had it for 11 years. been retuned possibly 4 times. Never had a broken reed. Though someone who plays harder than me handed it back to me once and it sounded like a bunch of little mosquitoes buzzing around when I played it.

Ive broken a salpa reed; i used masking tape on the offending hole as a temporary fix. My local guy replaced with a horner reed, I personally can't tell the difference.

THANKS! I never thought of that, but thats a great idea. By the way, how much would a set of hohner reeds cost?

Ehren, you can google Hohner and buy parts directly from them, there is a price list there somewhere. You can buy individual reeds. Be prepared for poor customer service, though.

Keep in mind that any reed that is replaced will need tuning.