Oops! I fixed my new reed organ and now it's broken.

[RickReid]

I just bought a little Gulbransen reed organ today. It seemed to play okay when I went to buy it, except that one key was sticky. When I got it home I found that two of the keys were sticky and another two had reeds that weren't speaking. The organ had been neglected for quite awhile, so I decided to take it apart, blow the dust out, and see if I could fix the various problems. In the process, though, I took the organ further apart than I probably needed to. I did fix all the things I wanted to fix, and I got rid of a lot of dust. But, when I put everything back together I created a new problem.

Now, instead of producing a steady tone, the organ rises and falls in volume with each press of the bellows. I am guessing this means that I didn't tightly seal the air chamber when I reassembled everything. Does this sound right? Any suggestions for troubleshooting?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[SubBase]

If you suspect wind leakage around the gaskets, I use a smoking stick of incense to find the leak; wave the incense around the perimeter of the windchest while pumping, and the smoke will be sucked in where the gap is.
With old rubber cloth, just the act of disturbing it during disassembly can be enough to make a hole.
Web tutorial can be found here at the "reed organ repair" button: www.reedsoc.org
Casey

[RickReid]

Thanks for that advice. I partially disassembled the organ again and found that I had mixed up a couple screws of different lengths. Also, some parts were out of their previous alignment a little bit. It's working better now, I think. I haven't given it a proper, full-volume test yet, though, because I finished late at night. I'll try using incense to test for leaks as you suggested. I'll also read the repair info website. Thanks!