I spent an fascinating day with the accordion repair gentleman. My first accordion, a newly acquired old Hohner Verdi III needed a couple of minor touches. He beat a sticking bass button into submission, coaxed a reluctant treble reed to play nicely, and leveled a few piano keys. He invited me to watch how he works, almost an Intro to Accordion Repair 101.
Here he's removing the second of two bass machine sections:
o
Testing every reed. His test bellows is held with clamps to the underside of the work table, operated from below with knee power.
What an enjoyable time! I've read books and web sites and have seen pictures of lots of accordion guts but there is nothing like watching the master at work on my own instrument, explaining everything as he goes. When finished he treated me to a mini-concert playing the Hohner, presumably for testing but to me it looked like he was just having fun! I brought a guitar and even got a taste of accompanying him on some polka numbers. Good clean fun!
Now all I have to do is learn how to play accordion...
JKJ
Here he's removing the second of two bass machine sections:
oTesting every reed. His test bellows is held with clamps to the underside of the work table, operated from below with knee power.
What an enjoyable time! I've read books and web sites and have seen pictures of lots of accordion guts but there is nothing like watching the master at work on my own instrument, explaining everything as he goes. When finished he treated me to a mini-concert playing the Hohner, presumably for testing but to me it looked like he was just having fun! I brought a guitar and even got a taste of accompanying him on some polka numbers. Good clean fun!
Now all I have to do is learn how to play accordion...
JKJ
