Preparing for Castelfidardo Repair course

[niels]

hi all, been away for a while ... Hope you're all doing well

Holiday starts tomorrow, will be slowly heading south to Italy.

I am preparing for the Accordion Repair Course. Will be taking three accordions with me to work on.
First is a Marinucci piano accordion, simple model. Some of the keys stick sometimes.


The other two are CBA. One is a Victoria which had a crack repaired but not finished nicely. Hopefully I can learn how to get that done correctly.



The third is a Hagström / Universal, a decent accordion, did some work on it already. But some notes sound rough, can't figure out what causes it.



Very much looking forward to the coming weeks!

 

[Tom]

In bocca al lupo Niels!!!!! I hope you have a great time at the course. I am very jealous. Ciao!

 

[PhiliGol]

That looks you're preparing it seriously - "patients" with specific symptoms to work on.
Hope the course fulfils your expectations and we get some insight on your take-aways.
Buon viaggio!

 

[JerryPH]

Are you taking ALL the courses or one of the more advanced? I think they have a specific curriculum that they follow on each course. The reason I am asking, if you are there for the first course, it is (as Paul mentioned), pretty basic and things like cellulose repair won't be covered.

 

[Siegmund]

If you are going only for Tier 1 you may well find it better to take only the first of those three with you. She'll certainly look at whatever you bring with you, but you're unlikely to cover everything needed to fix all three in the first course.

Have a great time - I liked tiers 1 and 2 enough to go back for 3 and 4. (I just got home from that, after taking some additional vacation time after tier 4 finished.)

 

[jozz]

hi all, been away for a while ... Hope you're all doing well

Holiday starts tomorrow, will be slowly heading south to Italy.

I am preparing for the Accordion Repair Course. Will be taking three accordions with me to work on.
First is a Marinucci piano accordion, simple model. Some of the keys stick sometimes.


The other two are CBA. One is a Victoria which had a crack repaired but not finished nicely. Hopefully I can learn how to get that done correctly.



The third is a Hagström / Universal, a decent accordion, did some work on it already. But some notes sound rough, can't figure out what causes it.



Very much looking forward to the coming weeks!

so how did it go?

 

[niels]

so how did it go?

First day of the course today. Enjoyed it a lot, positive kind people. A group of nine from America, Portugal, UK (2), Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Netherlands, Italy.
Work for today was taking apart the keyboard, cleaning, putting it back together again. Nice result, two sticky keys now move freely again.

 

[niels]

Are you taking ALL the courses or one of the more advanced? I think they have a specific curriculum that they follow on each course. The reason I am asking, if you are there for the first course, it is (as Paul mentioned), pretty basic and things like cellulose repair won't be covered.

Hi Jerry, will be doing Tier 1 and 2.

 

[Giovanni]

Have a great time tell us all on the forum we would love you to give us a little report
If you can find the time.

 

[niels]

Thank you all for the reassuringly positive replies.
Yesterday was day two in which the left hand side was explained and we took apart the bass mechanism and put it back together again.
It is an intricate mechanism and learning it was hard on the brain and the fingers. Also the old Marinucci was not easy, construction wise it was a bit different and some of the rods were heavily oxidated. But after a long day it was back together again. The only thing i wanted to do afterwards was go to the sea and have a swim. That got me back on earth again
An important thing we learned yesterday was how to lay out and store all the bits properly so as not to get them mixed up. We used trays that can be stacked up. Very handy i think .
Edit - also important is marking and numbering the rods, just simple things that reduce making mistakes.

 

[niels]

Yesterday morning, after finishing the last bits of bass mechanism work we were shown various types of bass mechanism. For the most part the basic idea is two rows of single bass notes and four rows of accord sounds. But there are many variations on this, and the construction is even more diverse. Which makes it helpful and important to understand the basic principle and figure the thing out from there.

In the afternoon we visited Carini, the accordion parts shop. I got myself some bees wax and a left over bellows, for to make a tuning table at some time. Like with accordion repair work, shopping at Carini requires a lot of patience.

Later in the afternoon we were shown the basics of tuning a reed. Where to file or scratch, why not to use a dremel .

And as some of our little company will be leaving today, yesterday we were invited to a lovely dinner in a local restaurant. As one of the course members had brought his accordion along it evolved into a cheerful fun night.

 

[niels]

This morning we were Introduced to:

waxing. Learning to apply wax with several tools, right temperature, filling the valve shoes the right way.

bellows. How they are put together, how to fix leaks, which materials, glue. Replacing the gasket around the bellows frame.

celluloid. How to solve it in acetone, how to apply it.

The afternoon was about tuning. How to file or scratch, pretuning, outside and inside the accordion.

That was the end of tier 1 and after a short exam we were presented with our Certificate of Participation.

 

[niels]

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it has given me the confidence to try all these things at home.
One day off now, and then onwards with tier two.

 

[JerryPH]

I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it has given me the confidence to try all these things at home.
One day off now, and then onwards with tier two.

Thanks for the updates and what's happening. I see that they seem to offer a lot more than I thought. I may need to consider doing what you have done next year!

 

[niels]

What can I say Jerry... Just highly recommended

Today we learned the basics of reeds, cleaning them and reinstalling them using a wax spoon. Many things went wrong... Wax on leather tongues, holes in wax seal... All good, it just wants a lot of practice.

 

[niels]

Day two of tier two. This morning we learned about registers, left side and right side. We took them apart, cleaned them, put them back together. Delicate stuff, to be handled carefully.
In the afternoon we learned about the cba keyboard and how to take that apart. Chin registers, master switch. Construction of free bass mechanism.
Some more about registers sp. wet and dry tuned reeds. And to top it off a demonstration how to make a reed by hand.
Tomorrow we will be practicing tuning inside the accordion .

 

[niels]

Day three. We learned how to go about tuning an entire accordion. Finding the basic octave in 8 ft, locate them in reed block, right order to tune, and work from there. Bass side was simpler. Same procedure basically.
In the afternoon we learned how to make springs for under the keys an ha a demonstration on how to shape the rods for the keys.
Maybe i left out things... It is hot here, and i am tired.... Hard work this.

 

[debra]

Sounds like the courses have become more intensive than when I took them. We did not cover disassembly and reassembly of a cba keyboard, nor chin switches or convertor mechanisms. Making a reed by hand is something we practiced in Tier 3, and also changing the function of registers, making new bass pistons... in short, the more intricate parts of difficult repairs and modifications. Of course practice makes perfect. A lot of things you learn to do when you encounter them for the first time during repairs. But some things you really need to see demonstrated before trying (like for instance celluloid repair). During the courses I got to see problems in different accordions (brought by fellow students). I got to see the first accordion with a woodworm infestation for instance, got to see completely different bass mechanisms, etc.

 

[Siegmund]

In my tier 2 in 2023, we took apart one CBA treble keyboard as a group, and were *shown* the inside of a converter mechanism, but didn't mess with it. We didn't see chin or palm switches. (But in my Tier 3, Elke said something like "have you forgotten from Tier 2?" when I asked a bunch of questions about how chin registers worked - so maybe this is something she sometimes does in Tier 2. I would guess it depends whether someone brings an instrument that has chin switches with them to Tier 2.)

 

[debra]

In my tier 2 in 2023, we took apart one CBA treble keyboard as a group, and were *shown* the inside of a converter mechanism, but didn't mess with it. We didn't see chin or palm switches. (But in my Tier 3, Elke said something like "have you forgotten from Tier 2?" when I asked a bunch of questions about how chin registers worked - so maybe this is something she sometimes does in Tier 2. I would guess it depends whether someone brings an instrument that has chin switches with them to Tier 2.)

We were told to bring a piano accordion to Tier 1 and 2, not a cba. But my (now) good friend Edwin brought a cba anyway and when Elke told us to pull out the axle for the keyboard he did the same and washers and bushings were flying everywhere... He did manage to put everything back together before the end of Tier 1. (He had over four decades of experience in accordion repair and still learned a lot during all four Tiers.)