sending accordions by courier etc

[george garside]

in another thread on here somebody is complaining about having received a box with the bass 'down'. Whenever I send a box by post or courier I lock the bass and include a note telling the buyer how to unlock it.

george

 

[Mityr]

George is absolutely right using this method.
After i received a bashed up box, I spent some time reading up on how to send accordions safely by post.
It doesnt safeguard it entirely as big drops and hits still can crack and destroy old, dried up wax on the reed blocks.
This link is a good start, if you are interested in reading more

Cheers,
Mityr

 

[george garside]

good clear instructions. I use the cardboard method on any box with more than 12 ( direct acting) bass i.e on ANY box with a 'bass engine'

george

 

[Waldo]

Upon an exam of my two accordions, I notice that the bass side pistons on both [Beltuna & Artista] instruments are blocked from moving below the button board by the felt lined limiting strip. The addition of some cardboard here certainly would stop any movement at all. [BTW: There are several locations where this protective cardboard must be placed, NOT solely one, see below.] But, would these cardboard pieces be necessary when the buttons/pistons are limited in their movement as described above? The button tops will not move below the button board [and then become loose] without removing the aforementioned limit strip. My Paolo Soprani, on the other hand, could suffer dreaded "button collapse".
As a side note, Liberty Bellows sent my new Beltuna with only one of the two required locations (strips) blocked! Ignorance? Who knows.

Press on....

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hello George,

I guess I have just been lucky. Of my three accordions, only one was delivered by courier; the other two were picked up in person.

The one which was delivered (my Galotta) arrived in perfect condition, though no additional precautions were taken in its packing.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[debra]

I have also been lucky. One of my accordions was a supposedly used Bugari 540/ARS/C which was sold to me by someone in Italy and was shipped by courier (to the Netherlands). It was in a gig bag (not a hard case) and packed rather carefully in a larger cardboard shipping box. It arrived sound and safe (and was apparently completely new, plastic still wrapped around the shoulder straps and the bass strap. I would never have gambled on this had it not been at an incredible auction price (between 1/3 and 1/4 of what a very reasonable dealer would ask).

 

[george garside]

i have received accordions by courier that have arrived ok without the bass being locked. However it is so easy to block the bass that I take no chances when sending them. I would also advise anybody taking one as hold luggage on a plane to block the bass.

george

 

[JerryPH]

Several videos on youtube that discuss bass blocking, here is one:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu2TywkhN-xlYfKw3gR8bbfEhIfFtti87

 

[Mr Mark]

Another lucky one. Although there were a couple of buttons that fell in when I took it out of the packing, unbelievably none had fallen in during shipment (lots of labels on the box indicated which side up so faith restored in the posties!). There was no case but it was packed tightly in a lot of dense Styrofoam (giving at least 6" of protection all around) - so much so the dimensions of the containing cardboard box were approximately 3'x2'x2'!! By the time it arrived 6 weeks after order from the Ukraine :shock: (the seller had good rep on eBay) - it looked like the box was dropped it out of the airplane on the way by - thankfully the accordion was fine. Other than blocking the bass this method seems to work pretty good and I would feel confident using this in lieu of a hardshell case.