Leather valves with plastic reinforcements

[Brassodemolish]

I found a French online retailer that sells "premium" valves that they claim are used by high end Italian manufacturers. Anyone here have experience with using them?

 

[Ventura]

did you want us to each do a google search for this French online retailer

 

[Brassodemolish]

did you want us to each do a google search for this French online retailer

Sorry. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to post links.

https://www.lamalleauxaccordeons.fr/en/517-premium-reed-leathers-50-pcs.html

 

[Ventura]

seems like a decent price, but shipping may double the cost
or more to the USA

 

[kanderso]

I have ordered from him. Happy with the product (buttons and valves) and with the communication. I had a friend in Paris forward my order from there because if you're not in Europe, the shipping charge is prohibitive.

 

[debra]

It is true that Italian accordion manufacturers use leather valves with plastic boosters. That doesn't change the fact that these are rubbish: the plastic boosters lose their strength over time and do not continue to hold the leathers flat to the reed plates after for instance 15 years of being pulled open by gravity (which happens with leathers in cassotto or Winkelbaß when the accordion is stored on its feet).
The even higher-end Italian manufacturers realized not long after these valves were introduced they were bad news and they stopped using them.
Here is what happens. After about 10 years of use you can see that the leathers are just find on the lefthand side and are staying open on the righthand side. When the accordion stands on its feet the leathers are in horizontal position. The ones you see on the right are hanging down and are being pulled open by gravity. The ones you see on the left are laying flat on top of the reed plate, so gravity cannot pull them open.
The effect when you play is that with low notes in the M register, upon pull, when the note needs to start the airflow first needs to suck the valve closed before the airflow really tries to get the reed to play. In the L register this happens on push.
Because this problem very very slowly gets worse and worse players typically do not notice that the low notes have more and more difficulty to start and the players just start thinking that what they are experiencing with the slow notes is "normal accordion behavior". No, it's not. It's a fault caused by having leathers with plastic boosters.

 

[petch]

Very informative Paul @debra, is it hard for a technician to replace the plastic boosters with metal ones? Or just a tedious task?

 

[debra]

Very informative Paul @debra, is it hard for a technician to replace the plastic boosters with metal ones? Or just a tedious task?

Not hard at all, just tedious when you need to do a lot of them. I replaced them in my Pigini bass accordion, and in my AKKO bayan. It's never going to be my new hobby...

 

[Beemer]

Why are plastic boosters, as in your photo, shorter than the leather?

 

[debra]

Why are plastic boosters, as in your photo, shorter than the leather?

Plastic boosters, just like metal ones, are typically a bit shorter than the leather. Some leather valves with plastic boosters do have the boosters the same length. But then, most valves have a few layers of plastic boosters, the bottom one the longest, and then each layer shorter and shorter.