Reply To: Suzuki B-24 Bass Melodion

Hello Alan, thank you for your comments on the Monsters of Melodica video, they are greatly appreciated. Now for that bad boy . I now own the Hammond BB the Suzuki B-24 and the Hohner Basso, and they are all three basically built the same way. The bladder on the back side is the cause of most of these melodicas problems. I picked up the Basso about a month ago it worked and sound great, for about an hour. I started to loose air at low C and below, funny thing is that at E above low C the melodica played well I played a little more and slowly it got worst. I opened the back side and discovered a small hole maybe 2MM long. I went to my garage and got a tube of “Latex” caulking NOT “silicone” you need to be careful some materials react bad to silicone. I placed a small layer “very little” let it dry and then put another thin layer. I let it dry over night and played it in the morning and it worked great. Unfortunately the more I played it more holes appeared, Basically the bladder was deteriorating. it was old and it had signs of dryness. I called Hohner and got the “We will have to look into this and get back to you” that was 3 weeks ago. Alan can you shoot a picture of the bladder straight down and not in an angle and place a rule next to it. I think I can use the same material on the Basso. And I think I can get that bladder from Suzuki hopefully with no pre cut holes.
The bladder does not stay inflated, you should see it fill for a second then it will leak out
(normal) also the tuning will be off if there is a hole (its kind of like bending notes).

Melodica-Me