My fifth project: Paolo Soprani 25/24 (AKA Alpha)

[Jose EB5AGV]

Well, this is the one

I had looked for this kind of project for some time, as my real first full restoration project. I needed an accordion cheap enough to be sacrified if things work out not as planned, with plenty of problems so I can practice repair techniques on it and, ideally, small enough so it would be easy to set aside, probably in parts, if I needed to recall my music devoted workbench for something else. And here is it!. I have no clue on date for it, but it seems pretty old. Any hint welcomed!









So, what do you think?

Internally is where the project becomes interesting. It has been badly treated, poor little accordion!





This is a full view of the reeds blocks and loose reeds:



I have been able to put each one on its place, so now I will keep that order when removing them to clean all the gunk used during years to fix them at place, and then will revalve and rewax them. BTW, I would love to hear from you about which kind of valves would you use: plastic, leather, mixed?. I am planning my first large order of material for this and other projects



The pallets need also some work, but the mechanism seems to be complete and not damaged, just needs some cleaning and alignment



And the grille is a beauty!. I would say it is hand carved. Lovely !



So keep tuned to see how this accordion gets back to life after decades of neglect!. I am confident it could be saved, as the reeds are in good shape and all the bits are present, just need to sort out plenty of things on this one, the Alpha Project!

 

[Ventura]

nice choice

i agree, when you see the irregularities in the cutouts in the
grill it very much seems they were hand-crafted one by one

while the hardware suggests 1930's, i do tend to think
of those decorative strips 2 by 2 by 2 by 2 as coming
from an art Deco Styling Excelsior introduced when their black
models surprised the accordion world, so perhaps yours
is not that long before WW2.. many Italian makers were stylistically
influenced by New York, which really was, i think, the center of the
Accordion universe during that period

my question would be.. was this an actual production model
or was it more a salesman's sample ? either way it will be so
much fun to play once you have restored it

when i pull out the little grey mouse of a Hohner that i restored
many years ago, i always tell people that i can only get it to let
me play the songs it knows from when it was young.. and so i play
VolksMuzik from the old days on it for them.. you may find this
Paolo can only play Tarantelle and Mazurka and of course Calabrisella Mia

 

[Tom]

It’s a beauty. Good project, will be nice to see how you finish it. Good luck!

 

[PhiliGol]

A cute box which desires your dedication and skills.

55 de DF8CF

 

[Jose EB5AGV]

I have begun working on the treble reeds. This is one of the blocks:



Here is the reeds block in the middle of the cleaning process (the final result is pretty good, here is not yet close):



How someone could think that white silicon would work?. Look at this reed, which for sure didn't produce a sound!




This is the other side if the block, once the reeds have been removed:



I am now removing all the wax and other things from the wood support. But I wonder how to clean the reeds, which so far look more or less like this :



I am thinking on using the ultrasound cleaner. But I am not sure of which cleaning liquid to use. I would put the reeds inside a zip lock bag with the cleaning fluid inside and then that floating on the ultrasonic cleaner.

Any idea of what to use?