And, if you're sneaky, you can add solder.
I grant you it's not in the same league as voicing a diapason though. :-)
I reckon adjusting and tweaking things goes with the territory. I'm pretty much at home tweaking crystals, fixing reeds, aligning IF stages in radio and TV equipment, there's much of a sameness in the way one tackles all of them.
BTW, I've actually repaired reeds by soldering them. Not a good fix though as the solder can fatigue with use. Throws out equal temperament a bit too but most can't hear the difference.
https://blog.afandian.com/tags/harmonium/
By 'repaired' you mean closing a fracture? I'm interested to hear your experiences! Electronics solder or silver solder?
This one is 60 cents sharp across the board (not uncommmon), but I wanted a social instrument. So I brought them down with solder. The bottom two octaves have worked out well. The next two... we'll see. I now have the fear that I've weakened the brass by heating it. But it still sounds nice and speaks well. Fingers crossed.
Right, I haven't had many fracture but it was more than I expected. I've had some come apart (completely—shear off). One I recall fixing (replacing the reed) with a piece cut from a phosphor bronze shim several thou thick (I had various thicknesses). Replacing the reed was easy but voicing was a problem because p-bronze has different properties to the original. It was a long while ago so I can't remember exactly what I did but it worked—sort of. I eventually got it roughly in tune but it was a different volume to the others.
About two weeks ago I was up at my old family home for the first time in years and there are two harmoniums dating from the the mid to late 19th C. which I meant to fix years ago. The woodwork on one is particulary ornate and in excellent condition. They both have dead keys when I played them. Reckon I've some wok cut out for me. .
I'd assumed that with piezo crystals etc there was a mechanical connection rather than an electrode bonded to the crystal?
But if you can add solder presumably there is some kind of molecular connection with the metal?
The electrodes may consist of multiple layers, a base layer that adheres strongly to quartz and a top layer that is solderable, e.g. made of nickel or silver.
The pins of the package that hosts the crystal resonator are soldered on the electrodes, in places well chosen so that they will not damp much the oscillations of the crystal.
When the mass of the crystal must be increased to shift the resonance frequency, excess solder may be deposited on the electrodes.
I'm working on something much, _much_ smaller than that!
Incidentally, I'm one of those mad people who'll put on a recording of Helmut Walcha playing Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor on a Silbermann and turn the volume up until the room shskes.
