Accordiana

[Joey8514]

Hello, I have recently aquired an old Accordina from a gentleman that passed away. He was a professional musician and has owned this instrument for about 50 years. That's my understanding. I'm trying to find out a little more about it and it's value. Here are some pics any help would be appreciated

 

[ColoRodney]

These are pretty highly regarded accordions when in good shape. As indicated on the accordion, they were built by Excelsior, which is a highly regarded brand. But the Accordiana line was less expensive, and perhaps built to less exacting standards. But what matters more than anything is the condition it’s in. Did the owner maintain it and keep it in top shape?

Also, these full-size accordions are pretty big and heavy, so there’s not much of a market for them these days. Those looking for such an accordion can often obtain a used top-of-the-line Excelsior instead, which have more cachet.

 

[debra]

Quality wise this was (and hopefully still is) a good instrument (not top of the line but good).
However, in terms of usability the rocker-switch design has been superseded by the large rows of register switches you see on almost all accordions. On this one you select L, M, M+ and H separately or combinations thereof. So when you play something with the low reed and you want to switch to a tremolo M-M you have to press 3 switches: turn off the L and turn on both M reeds. A lot of music written (or arranged) for accordion requires changing registers very fast, and that's not really feasible with this rocker design.

 

[ColoRodney]

Yes, the rocker-switch design is slower to select a particular register combination, but it also keeps you from having 11 or more switches to choose between, which can create problems of its own. Whether it's a plus or minus depends on how you approach your performances and what kind of music you play.

I recently acquired a similar Accordiana (though without the added microphone system). If yours is like mine, there's a "palm switch" under the keyboard for quickly turning all four reeds on.

That said, I don't anticipate a lot of use for it, and although I'm having my tech fix a few problems it has, I'll likely sell it to someone who wants it (if I can find such a person).