Right! It plays again, after a lot of work! But am I glad that I made the thing so it could be taken apart!
The left side: two new air holes – and close the old ones.
The right side: five new air holes – and close the old ones.
Alf turned me some slightly conical maple plugs to block the old holes.
Some reeds, differing in length, had to swap places: which meant hack down a maple wall and make a new. The outer reeds parallel to the sides had to be lowered, otherwise they would still bang against the bellows, which meant 2-3 mm routed off the reed pan = Dremel & nervous sweating.
Reed swapping means changing the button plates and even sawing out 3 new levers. Took a month and a half.
Spot the mistakes!
Cutting butter again –
New holes made, old ones plugged –
Moving my expensive lever post around. Worth every penny!
Cutting new lever –
Removing rivet –
See? The reed pan’s been lowered –
The octopus on its way back to the cage –
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