Hi Owen,  The first thing you should do is take the extra springs
off the reservoir.  The folks who made these mechanical marvels knew
what they doing and changing part of the design is a big mistake.
One exception is when you discover that someone else has tried to
'improve' the design.  In that case, you should put it back to the
original design as near as possible.

I suspect that there is some sort of problem with either the reeds or
the associated valves.  So the first thing to do is to check the reeds
themselves and make sure that they are clean and operating correctly.
While you're at it, take a good look at each valve and make sure that
it moves easily and doesn't leak.  Hopefully, this will fix your
problem.  If not, read on.

I don't have a Bijou so I can't take it apart to give exact details but
I'll offer the following.

The reeds are arranged across the front of the organette but the tracker
bar is oriented front to back.  If you follow an individual tracker bar
hole (note) it goes vertically down through the wooden tracker bar and
then it makes a 90 degree turn and goes right or left 'inside' the flat
surface of the top panel until it comes out into the appropriate valve
chamber.

That top surface is composed of 2 layers.  The bottom layer (about 1/4"
think) has a series of channels that go from each hole at the bottom of
the tracker bar to each of the reed valve chambers.  The top layer
(about 1/8" think) is then glued on top of all those channels, creating
'tubes' that connect the tracker bar holes to the valve chambers.

Unfortunately, this top panel sometimes comes partly unglued allowing
air to escape or even leak into adjacent tubes.  And sometimes these
tubes get filled with crude (please excuse the technical term) and you
have to figure out how to clear it out.

In your situation, I'd start with cleaning the reeds and maybe re-
covering the reed valves and pray that that solves the problem.  Messing
around with those internal tubes can be a real challenge.  Fortunately,
it's all put together with hide glue that is sensitive to heat and
water.  And you should use the same glue.

If I hear that you've used white glue, yellow glue, contact cement,
epoxy or (God forbid) Gorilla glue, I'll come and find you and give you
a good tongue lashing!

Good luck,
Craig Smith
Upstate New York

By the way, If you can't fix it yourself, you should contact Harold
Draper, who has restored dozens of similar organettes.