I won't be bored this winter...

[Siegmund]

We have all heard the joke about leaving an accordion in an unlocked car, and coming back to find a second one has been tossed in beside it (plus or minus the stray banjo or viola.)

I can now confirm it is true. And if you park your car beside the wrong pawnshop in Butte, Montana, on a Sunday night, this is what you see on Monday morning:



In the run-up to the Backwoods Accordion Festival (see thread in the Events section), I saw a facebook comment from a guy from Butte saying he had wanted to come up and bring some old accordions with him, but couldn't make it. I wrote to him and told him I was going to be down his way in a couple weeks.

He turned out to have eleven instruments, none his originally, that had spent 15 or 20 years in his (dry!) basement. All eleven were thankfully free of mold and rust.

I came home with eight: 3 steirische Harmonikas, one CBA, and four PAs.

The three Harmonikas are in playing condition, but use too much air. Among the others, there's a Noble Bandmaster in excellent shape except for one bass-side leak that causes one bass reed to sound continously (and we found the square of leather off the pallet loose underneath the bass machine); a Hohner Tango IIM that mostly-sorta-works but has stiff register switches, probably needs an all-over cleaning of gunk out of it; and three that need more done to them: a Noble Adam with 1 reed fallen out and a bunch of floppy leathers, a Sonarino (or something like that, it's a name I've never seen) in similar shape, and a big heavy Accordiola B-system CBA, 5 octaves LMM (6 reed blocks very close together) and 3+3 basses, suffering from several sticky keys, a fallen-out reed, and lots of old leather.

I am hopeful that these will prove to be a relatively cheap education in repairing and restoring. I am sure the forum will get to listen to me whining about how much harder it turns out to be than I think it will be.

I passed up a fourth steirische, a second Tango IIM that had spent years lying on its side in a soft-sided suitcase, and a 1930s Guerrini. I was tempted by the last -- beautiful metal grillework, 4 treble reeds, just the one palm switch to toggle between 2 and 4 reeds. The reeds looked and sounded good, but it too sat on its side for the full 20 years (in a good hard case) and probably needs every leather in the whole thing replaced, as well as having something broken in the register mechanism between the palm switch and the place the lever re-emerges from behind the keyboard. If that sounds like a project you'd like to tackle, quite sure it's for sale cheap, and I can put you in touch with the guy.

 

[Tom]

Wow Seigmund!!! I wish you the best of luck and fun! A pile of old, broken down accordions for winter repair, what could go wrong?

 

[Ventura]

i especially liked the one with the black Duct Tape repaired case..
a sure sign of care from the original owner who likely played the Dog Shit
our of that box and took it everywhere in that venerable, reliable old curved case

ain't nothin' says "Quality" like something that hasn't ever let you down
and been through the Rain and Snow and occasional Earthquake with you

ahh.. the stories that Duct Tape could tell

 

[Giovanni]

I believe that duct tape or similar Helped save the crew of Apollo 13

 

[John M]

My Dad was born in 1915, long before Duct Tape. I remember him saying that he could hold anything together with "Spit" & "Bailing Wire". I understood the "Bailing Wire" but I never understood the "Spit".
All I know is, we did huge amount of repairs with "Bailing Wire".

Edit: There must have been something to "Spit". When my dad took my two boys back fishing in our pond, he would tell them, "before you throw the line in, be sure you Spit on the night crawler on the hook". This was for good luck. My sons were 5 and 7 then and before they threw the line in they would always "Spit" for good luck. I'm sure it didn't do much good, but they sure had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish.

 

[Ventura]

i think you spit on your hands so you could grab/handle the bailing wire better

 

[John M]

I think you are right. As I remember my grandfather, when he would use the scythe, he would spit on the handle before starting to cut the field down. Also, anytime he was digging with a long handled shovel, he would spit on his hands before grabbing the handle.
My Dad didn't like the long handle shovel (just a pole in the shovel head). He always used the short handle shovel (actually had a handle at the end for your hand). He said he could work faster with the short handle. He was a hard worker and said that the "lazier" folks would use the long handled shovel. He painted a picture for me, in my mind when I was a boy, of the "WPA" workers of the '30's resting on the end of the long handled shovel (one hand on the end of the shovel and chin resting on top of the hand).

 

[lmschgo]

My Dad was born in 1915, long before Duct Tape. I remember him saying that he could hold anything together with "Spit" & "Bailing Wire". I understood the "Bailing Wire" but I never understood the "Spit".
All I know is, we did huge amount of repairs with "Bailing Wire".

Edit: There must have been something to "Spit". When my dad took my two boys back fishing in our pond, he would tell them, "before you throw the line in, be sure you Spit on the night crawler on the hook". This was for good luck. My sons were 5 and 7 then and before they threw the line in they would always "Spit" for good luck. I'm sure it didn't do much good, but they sure had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish.

Scents That Attract and Repel Fish

Learn everything about what scents will help you catch more fish and the scents that will get you skunked.

fishyourassoff.com

 

[Tom]

I think you are right. As I remember my grandfather, when he would use the scythe, he would spit on the handle before starting to cut the field down. Also, anytime he was digging with a long handled shovel, he would spit on his hands before grabbing the handle.
My Dad didn't like the long handle shovel (just a pole in the shovel head). He always used the short handle shovel (actually had a handle at the end for your hand). He said he could work faster with the short handle. He was a hard worker and said that the "lazier" folks would use the long handled shovel. He painted a picture for me, in my mind when I was a boy, of the "WPA" workers of the '30's resting on the end of the long handled shovel (one hand on the end of the shovel and chin resting on top of the hand).

Thanks John, interesting story. I do a LOT of work with these tools. (If I played my accordion as much I would be as good as *fill in the blank*.) Thanks to the internet I've been able to get real long handled shovel, hoe, rake, clam digger. The standard length hurt my back, I couldn't image using the one you speak of. The spitting on gives a firmer grip, although I don't do it.

 

[SeattleOwl]

We have all heard the joke about leaving an accordion in an unlocked car, and coming back to find a second one has been tossed in beside it (plus or minus the stray banjo or viola.)

I can now confirm it is true. And if you park your car beside the wrong pawnshop in Butte, Montana, on a Sunday night, this is what you see on Monday morning:



In the run-up to the Backwoods Accordion Festival (see thread in the Events section), I saw a facebook comment from a guy from Butte saying he had wanted to come up and bring some old accordions with him, but couldn't make it. I wrote to him and told him I was going to be down his way in a couple weeks.

He turned out to have eleven instruments, none his originally, that had spent 15 or 20 years in his (dry!) basement. All eleven were thankfully free of mold and rust.

I came home with eight: 3 steirische Harmonikas, one CBA, and four PAs.

The three Harmonikas are in playing condition, but use too much air. Among the others, there's a Noble Bandmaster in excellent shape except for one bass-side leak that causes one bass reed to sound continously (and we found the square of leather off the pallet loose underneath the bass machine); a Hohner Tango IIM that mostly-sorta-works but has stiff register switches, probably needs an all-over cleaning of gunk out of it; and three that need more done to them: a Noble Adam with 1 reed fallen out and a bunch of floppy leathers, a Sonarino (or something like that, it's a name I've never seen) in similar shape, and a big heavy Accordiola B-system CBA, 5 octaves LMM (6 reed blocks very close together) and 3+3 basses, suffering from several sticky keys, a fallen-out reed, and lots of old leather.

I am hopeful that these will prove to be a relatively cheap education in repairing and restoring. I am sure the forum will get to listen to me whining about how much harder it turns out to be than I think it will be.

I passed up a fourth steirische, a second Tango IIM that had spent years lying on its side in a soft-sided suitcase, and a 1930s Guerrini. I was tempted by the last -- beautiful metal grillework, 4 treble reeds, just the one palm switch to toggle between 2 and 4 reeds. The reeds looked and sounded good, but it too sat on its side for the full 20 years (in a good hard case) and probably needs every leather in the whole thing replaced, as well as having something broken in the register mechanism between the palm switch and the place the lever re-emerges from behind the keyboard. If that sounds like a project you'd like to tackle, quite sure it's for sale cheap, and I can put you in touch with the guy.

Wow! You’re right, that sounds like a great way to learn about restoration!