Greetings from The Bronx! To all who have responded in regard to the 
use of glue or beeswax, "No" to the use of glue, and using beeswax 
is partially correct. 

Quite a few years ago, while I was still working for the NYCTA (New 
York City Subway), I was approached by a fellow worker who knew that 
I was into instrument restoration. He asked me to look at, and possibly 
repair if I could, a small diatonic accordion for an acquaintance of 
his. Taking the instrument home I proceeded to open it up to expose the 
reeds. I found several reed blocks that had fallen out of their proper 
places. 

Upon further examination I found that the material that held the reeds 
in place had a slightly hard and waxy feel to it. Unlike a chromatic 
accordion that has the same pitch reed in each of the mounting blocks, 
a diatonic reed block has two different pitched reeds so that when you 
draw the bellows open you get one note, and when you collapse the 
bellows closed you get a different note altogether. So it was utterly 
important to get the correct positioning of the reed blocks. 

I matched the shape of the reed block to the void in the mounting 
material, then taking a heated skewer I re-melted he mounting material 
to secure the reed block. After remounting all of the errant reed 
blocks, I reassembled the instrument and tested my efforts. It would 
seemed that I lucked out -- I had managed to get all the loose reed 
blocks into their proper places!

But before I returned the instrument I brought it to an accordion 
repair shop which just happened to be located in the same industrial 
complex as my friend's shop where he installed the various solenoid 
player systems. Upon bringing the instrument to the repair shop, I had 
the elderly gentleman examine it, and while he did I asked about the 
'waxy' adhesive. I also guessed it was 'beeswax' and was told that 
I was partially right. 

The gentleman explained that the material in question is a compound 
that contains beeswax and rosin. The rosin gives the beeswax more 
stability and a higher melting point. I was also told that you can 
order the compound from a supplier. 

So, glue "No", accordion reed mounting compound "Yes!"

An interesting anecdote: the gentleman told me that he had been selling 
some of his accordions to someone who was automating them! 

I hope this has been of interest and help in your endeavors, 

D. F. Rowe
Bronx, New York
fredsorchestrion@aol.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]