Interesting documentary

[Dingo40]

Even if you don't speak Italian!??
A peek at the elves at work behind the scenes.
It's all in the hands!
Interesting how easily a new axle rod slides in (all the keys falling into place), how casually the tuning is achieved (and with what basic equipment!) and how simply the the outer cellulose coating may be applied!
A joy to see!??

 

[debra]

The most impressive point for me is at 37:30 when the keyboard worker pulls out the axles for the keyboard and everything stays perfectly in place (instead of the keys all flying off).
Don't be fooled by how simple the procedures look in the video. The whole video (of less than one hour) represents a total of many many hours of work by many people before an accordion is finished!

 

[JerryPH]

I've not looked at this video... is this the one where the guy actually blows in to the reeds? I had to laugh because I have a friend that I think saw this one and because of his reaction to how wrong it was and how damaging the moisture will be and cause the eventual potential rusting... lol

OK so looked at a few minutes of this, its not the video I thought it was... and youTube translate is completely ridiculous, it makes more sense when you hear him speaking vs what he is doing rather than read the translation from Italian to English.

 

[Dingo40]

Jerry,
Not this one, but I do know the one you mean ?

 

[boxplayer4000]

Many of those skills demonstrated here don't lend themselves to modern mechanisation methods and certainly the video shows sceptics just why an accordion can be so expensive. The video locations are charming and so lo-tech. It's almost possible to feel the warm, almost dusty atmosphere.
Is somebody suggesting an Italian blew on a reed? Sacre Bleau!! This should be passed on to harmonica/mouth organ players asap.

 

[JIM D.]

In the video showing the axles pulled without the keys flying off, well it's just a keyboard that has been installed & aligned before
the springs are installed. As for blowing in a reed, it's done frequently when only one reed in a reed block needs attention.

Watch this at 25:00 ----

 

[debra]

In the video showing the axles pulled without the keys flying off, well it's just a keyboard that has been installed & aligned before
the springs are installed. ...

No it's not. Before the guy pulls the axle he presses keys repeatedly and you can see the springy action, so the springs under the keys have definitely been installed. (He is pulling just one out the two axles though.) And there is no interruption to the video there either, so it's not a trick.

 

[Chickers]

DINGO:
Thank for sharing the video---you certainly come up with some good videos, and topic of interest.
Interesting video, but I find the most appealing to me is the accordion solo at the beginning.
Anyone have any idea of the title and the artist ?
I would to add that to my "learn-to-play" list.
Thanks,
CHICKERS

 

[jozz]

when i saw this, i wondered if it would be possible to get in touch with an old retired craftsman in such a town

and obtain all their blueprints, specialized tools, practical jigs, etc.. to build a box from scratch

rather than every step from scratch and reinventing the wheel along the way

 

[JerryPH]

In the video showing the axles pulled without the keys flying off, well it's just a keyboard that has been installed & aligned before
the springs are installed. As for blowing in a reed, it's done frequently when only one reed in a reed block needs attention.

Watch this at 25:00 ----

Haha! That's the one!!!

 

[debra]

when i saw this, i wondered if it would be possible to get in touch with an old retired craftsman in such a town

and obtain all their blueprints, specialized tools, practical jigs, etc.. to build a box from scratch

rather than every step from scratch and reinventing the wheel along the way

It might be possible... but as you can see in the video it takes many different skills to build an accordion and each factory has "old craftsmen" (or women) specialized in one or more of these skills, but likely no one with all the skills. Only accordion repairers need to have all the skills...

 

[Ric46]

Even if you don't speak Italian!??
A peek at the elves at work behind the scenes.
It's all in the hands!
Interesting how easily a new axle rod slides in (all the keys falling into place), how casually the tuning is achieved (and with what basic equipment!) and how simply the the outer cellulose coating may be applied!
A joy to see!??

Thanks, Dingo. I'm speechless. This video is amazing, impressive, beautiful, and much more but it's also a little sad, for me. It's a pity there are no English subtitles for you. I wish I could translate it for you but I am only a basic (very basic) English speaker so I think it would be too hard for me. Maybe in 21 weeks

 

[Dingo40]

Ric,
Thanks for the kind thought (translation), but that could be too much work. As it is, I feel I have already got a lot from the clip in its present (untranslated) form and am quite happy with it. It certainly has a charming, nostalgic quality about it that is quite touching.
All good!??

 

[AccordionUprising]

In the video showing the axles pulled without the keys flying off, well it's just a keyboard that has been installed & aligned before
the springs are installed. As for blowing in a reed, it's done frequently when only one reed in a reed block needs attention.

Watch this at 25:00 ----

Strikes me that they seem to be making a single accordion. Unless this is a day when all the apprentices are off, the images of that older, dusty historic workshop at the beginning seem like foreshadowing. How can this version of the industry survive for another generation? ?

 

[Dingo40]

AU,
It seems to me they are making a documentary about how it used to be done with some of the original artisans, as a historical record? ?

 

[Ric46]

AU,
It seems to me they are making a documentary about how it used to be done with some of the original artisans, as a historical record? ?

I think so. Dallapè stopped the factory in Stradella in 2010 and sold the brand to Roland. In this documentary, full of anecdotes, they explain a lot of things more than the accordion production for example:
1) The history of Dallapè from Trento to Genova and accidentally to Stradella, and his first accordion in 1871
2) the workers, the factory in 1928 reached 290 workers (90 for decoration only)
3) the export market (their first market was Yugoslavia, before the Balcan war, they were very popular there). In Yugoslavia, the word Dallapè was used as an accordion synonym.
4) The imitation at 16.15 they show a fake Dallape made in Yugoslavia with some Castelfidardo parts .
4) customization, they once produced for a customer a grill with Sofia Loren's face!
5) "special customer" they made an accordion for the Vatican (the organtone model), for Stalin and for partisans

I hope you could understand something in this post very confused I just wanted to share with you some anecdotes of this video
.

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks Ric?
It is a great clip and very interesting to watch.
You've also connected some of the dots for me.
All in all very good!??

 

[Glug]

You can turn on sub titles (auto-generated) in Italian and then have it translate to english.
I'm not certain the result is particularly accurate though.

 

[Ric46]

You can turn on sub titles (auto-generated) in Italian and then have it translate to english.
I'm not certain the result is particularly accurate though.

I tried but for me it's very inaccurate

 

[Pipemajor]

The translation is hilarious. I think it is easier to understand the Italian