Peter 'Stormy' Hyde
Accordion MakingI had started out in the very same way as Mark Savoy. Where he copied the Stirling I copied the very same Mezon Grand Organ (The Stirling was sold in Australia under this name) These old instruments had been very popular with the old Australian bush players. This introduction into accordion making constituted the full extent to which I was provided with assistance. However some people recommended that I use certain materials, and I had to do it this way or that way. I quickly realised that all they were passing on was hearsay or their personal opinions. This resulted in my being given conflicting information, and it also became apparent that none of this information was coming from an actual maker. Despite their well meaning I was aware that these suggestions were coming from players not makers. I then made a decision, that I would not listen to any advice about the inside construction of the accordion, and that I would have to go down the long road of trial and error myself. I started by looking at the three Jeffries Anglo concertinas that I own. I found that the better of the three was a raised ended D/G that was very heavy. This one to me had a better sound than the flush ended and lighter ones. I decided that I would put as much of that concertina design into my accordions as possible. My first Vienna styled box was very heavy, and sounded somewhere between the concertina and the accordion. I now call these very early instruments “the beasts”. Despite their weight the owners love them. As my skills developed I decided that I had to get my instruments lighter and smaller, and to make them much more user friendly. It was at this point I realised the only way to achieve this was to become a custom maker. This way the players could decide exactly what they wanted. Because of this process my instruments became lighter faster and sounded more like accordions. All of a sudden during this development I had my first wolf note. When the instrument was pushed it sounded as if another note was leaking air, and was just playing. My first thought was that it was cross feed between two adjacent notes. A week later after very many sleepless nights, and the reeds being removed countless times, I realised that it had to be something to do with the design. A week later I was sitting in the pub with a pint of beer in my hand thinking about how much of the instrument I would throw into the rubbish bin because I'd been unable to get rid of that wolf note. Then it suddenly dawned on me that the problem may be coming from the treble mechanism, as improbable as that may sound. I placed a leather washer between the mechanism and the sound board, and hey presto!.... it worked. As I started to get into 3 row boxes the problem started to crop up in the lower register on the treble side. This would affect either the low D or E and result in the slowing down of the tremolo just a tad. I then only needed to widen the tremolo by a couple of cents to speed it up just that small amount. My boxes were getting lighter and lighter and I was continually looking for ways to make them even lighter. Then came my first major challenge. Tristan (Chipolata) Glover (T.G.) wanted me to build him a box, so he had got together with Saul Rose, and their combined efforts had come up with a design that was to push me right into the unknown. As it was to be a C/F/Acc’ 2 voice 33 key 12 bass with 2 stops in the Erica size (280 mm x 150 mm.) I had a real problem. I wanted to use a batch of Adelaide Hills Sheoak that was a beautiful looking timber, but unfortunately was too heavy. So I decided that I would laminate the Sheoak on to both surfaces of the Spruce frames. By this time I’d got my soundboards down to 3 mm, and with this Spruce in the instrument I was very fearful that the instrument would take off with unwanted wolf notes. Luckily there was not a sign of them. The instrument came in at 3.75 kilos, and sounded like no other instrument that I’d made. Balsa Wood Reed BlocksMy next instrument was an exact copy of the T.G, I call it T.G #2. As
the owner of this box is a close friend of mine, I was able to do another
change that would allow me to try out an idea that had been put to me
by a guitar maker. On first hearing it I thought that it would not work.
He then put a slab of Balsa wood up to my ear, tapped it making it For many years I’ve wanted to build myself an accordion that sounded like a concertina. Just making an accordion with one voice I’d long ago realised would still sound like an accordion. Looking at some of the very old Busson Flutinas, and one in particular, confirmed to me that to get this concertina sound I needed to get a concertina styled reed pan into the accordion. I called the two prototypes Pete’s Flutinas #1 & #2. Going back to the concertina history and discussions, we all know that I needed to make the reed pans out of Sycamore. I used Beech on #1 as a compromise and Balsawood on #2. Number 1 was finished first. I went into shock the first time I played it, because it was like having a dog that meowed. I had an accordion in my hand that sounded like a concertina (be it a Lachenal)and despite how much I tried to rationalise to myself that that was what I was trying to achieve, the brain did not want to accept it. This was a very strange feeling, to overcome, so I went and celebrated over a bottle of red wine instead. Now going by past experience I was expecting #2 Flutina to sound more towards the accordion spectrum, but this was not the case. It sounded more towards the Jeffries spectrum. Balsawood has thrown a lot of my theories into the rubbish bin. In the accordion it seemed to add upper partials and in the Flutina it seemed to kill them. To me this confirms what I have thought for a long time. With instrument making nothing is set in cement. If you change one thing then a lot of other things can change, even to the extent of a complete reversal in some applications. So anybody who is interested in making instruments be it concertinas or accordions has to be very careful about what they take in from various discussion groups. We can try and theorise about any number of subjects, and this is very true when it comes to the discussion about reeds. That to me is almost fundamental. Certainly they are important but no more than a good set of strings is to a guitar maker. Without a good box to put them in then they are of no use at all. A few years ago I spent some time on an Aboriginal community. Before I went on it I thought I knew a little bit about Aboriginal culture. When I arrived I realised I knew very little, and when I left I realised I knew even less. This is the same with instrument making; the longer you are involved, the more you come to realise how little you know. This is after making over 100 accordions. Stormy |
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ring
like a bell. This resulted in me changing my opinion towards the qualities
of Balsa wood. I was not game enough to use the Balsa on the soundboard,
but I did make the reed blocks out of it. This cut down the weight to
3.5 kilos, and along with other design factors, has enhanced the sound
of the box to a place that I’d thought I’d never achieve. The owner of
this box said that even if he could not hear the box he could play it
through resonation in his chest. When it is played hard it lifts into
another plane with complex upper partials that even I do not understand.