The main faults liable to be encountered appear to be:
- Air leaks
- Worn bellows’ parts
- Distorted parts such as bent key rods
- Damaged exterior bodywork (celluloid, trim and metal fittings)
- Worn moving parts such as keyboard axles and register mechanisms
- Distorted parts due to long periods in unsuitable storage conditions.
The skills required in dealing with these faults are probably mostly ‘mechanical’ though the expertise required when tackling larger bodywork celluloid repairs is definitely specialised.
Since a lot of information on bodywork repairs is already in the public domain it is not intended to repeat the information here. A very useful book on the subject is ‘Accordion Repairs Made Easy’ by John Reuther which is published by Deffner of New York or ‘The ins and outs of the accordion’ by Thierry Benetoux – click here for more details.
3 Comments
Hi ,
I am an 67 yr old accordeon player and have ben playing on and off since I was 11 yrs. old. My bad back lomits my playing to a degree so a have become an organist/keyboard player. But my first love is still the accordeon. I own an “el cheapo” Chinese Parrot, a copy of the Scandalli, which at the time, was a good buy. It is still not too bad.
I need to give you my first impression of your website. I am totally blown away by it and your obvious dedication to what you are doing. Keep up the good work. I may even attempt to have a go at one or two bad notes.
Thanks Theo.
The ‘Parrot’ was not too bad as I remember. I hope you keep on playing.
Robert
I have found the Reuther book to be pretty dated, and not very thorough in its treatment of accordion repair. It may be a good beginning point, but only because there is so little else available. The Benetoux book appears more thorough, but it is hard to tell because the translation to English is so poor. I’m guessing that whoever translated it to English did not understand the relevant English technical terms, and settled for a literal translation, or a dictionary translation, which misses the mark to such a great extent that it is often impossible to understand what Benetoux is trying to say. I think it might be better to read it in French. The bottom line is that there is a great need for a more thorough and understandable treatment of accordion repair. Your website looks like a valuable step in that direction.
On another note, the most common fault, which should be at the top of your list of “main faults”, is curled leathers.