Inside the Bass End

I've now dismantled the bass to have a look inside. It looks reasonably clean to me, and doesn't smell musty - surely a good sign!

The leather valves curl significantly, but the reeds themselves don't look too bad to my untutored and unpractised eye.

The control box is held on by five brass screws, and also doesn't look too bad inside.The springs are firmly in place and quite strong. The buttons are simply screwed quite roughly into the valves,which look as if they're made from card sandwiched between two pieces of leather.

A General View of the Melodeon

Here are some more photos to give an idea of the general condition of the box.

The bass end strap is missing - it came to pieces when I first played the box.

The ends of the stops are very worn, and the stops themselves very stiff.

Restoring a Regal Melodeon

I've recently acquired a Regal one-row melodeon in G, dating, I think, from the late 1920s. At any rate, the closest image to it that I've been able to find comes from an old Honer cataloque:

 At the moment, the treble side plays adequately , if somewhat wheezily, while the bass end is very quiet indeed. It has various obvious problems - leaking bellows, at least one valve issue on the treble side, and the  leaky bass end. The plan is to try and restore it to full playing condition, if I can.

As you see, it has three stops on the treble side, and two basses.

Most of the Regal one-rows that I've seen are black - this one is finished in a reddish-brown. The corners are protected with nickel-plated tin, stamped "Regal. Made in Germany". As I understand it, Regal were made by Hohner as budget instruments, and the time and effort involved in restoring this one will probably not be justified financially. But I hope it will be interesting.