Thought about replacing valves in my accordion, turns out there is more. What should I do?

[usz]

Hey everybody. In december, I got this wonderful Hohner Verdi 3b at a local second hand for 450 Swedish Krones (40 eur). I didn't play accordion before, but I study music in school and was (still am) professional at guitar. Since then I've been playing it more and more, learning about the history and community around this instrument.
I found a post on this forum with a list of all Hohner models (I believe, maybe it was all accordion models from known brands), and it said that this model is from late 30s - early 40s. And the age is showing.

It is more than playable, and I've been enjoying it a lot, but wanted to get it into a better shape. This website, https://accordionrevival.com/ACCORDION_REPAIR1.php#Why_replace_old_leathers?, says that old bent leather valves can cause trouble with tuning, which my accordion seems to have on certain keys, nothing critical, just inconstant tremolo, and a lot of it is probably due to the valves, since it changes the pitch as I draw and/or blow.
I thought that replacing the leathers should be my first course of actions, since I already opened my accordion before and saw how bent they were.


This time, when I opened it to take the photos, I also noticed that one of the reeds on the bass side has fallen off. It must have been a recent issue, since it wasn't like that the last time I opened it, which was in December. You can see it lying in the corner of one of the photos. I then managed to put it back in, after taking off the bellows, and noticed that there was already a mark from, what I think was a previous nail, suggesting that reed has been insecure for a while now (you can see what I mean in the close up photo). Does it mean they also should probably be re-waxed?

Besides that 2 of the bass keys on the last (the diminished chord) row are getting stuck if I press on them. But I only noticed it right now, since I didn't really used that row. Should be fixed, but is not something critical for me. Unless I should be worried about it, let me know.

So what do you folks think I should do? Should I try replacing the leathers myself and see how it goes from there or give it to a qualified repairman? Part of me wants to do it myself, since I want to learn more about the instrument and it's just nice to do things yourself. I'm also young and have a lot of free time still. But maybe it will be way out of my league, let me know what you think.


P.S. I really like the sound of this one. I found another accordion at a different second hand, it was much smoother to play, much smoother and nicer, not as rough to play and more responsive, with an according price of 267 eur. But it just lacked something in the sound, that I can't describe. Maybe mine sounds better to me becuase it has very old wood, I'm not sure.


Photos:
1-3: Exterior.
4: Bass side reed blocks. You can see the fallen reed at the top.
5: The said reed mentioned in 4, but inserted back.
6-7: Treble side, at 2 different angles.

 

[Glug]

It looks to me like it's mostly just a bit old, I can't see anything terminally damaged.

In theory you would remove all the reeds and rewax them all and replace the leathers, and then tune it.
That's something you could learn to do fairly easily - but first practice on a cheap junk accordion rather than the one you want to keep.

In practice I would suggest rewax that one reed and replace any dodgy valves and see what the result sounds like.

Waxing: Easy way is to use a temperature controlled soldering iron to melt accordion wax around the wood/reed join after you've cleaned it up.
I use this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07X3CZ3FJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 and accordion wax
from CGM Musical but it's available many places. Also worth checking the state of the wax on other reeds - basically very old wax tends to get brittle.

Dodgy valves: if the leather is too bent you can hear the valve slap shut just after you start playing a note, that can also make the pitch change slightly. Once you start noticing that you will probably want to change all those valves. You can do the ones on the inside fairly easily too, just get some locking tweezers and a head torch.

Tuning: Easy to damage reeds if you haven't tried tuning before. I would leave it for later. Probably worth recording how it's currently tuned though - I mean measure the freuquency of each reed on push and pull.

Hohner Accordion List: https://www.accordionists.info/threads/hohner-accordion-list.173/

Edit:
I'm suggesting trying waxing and valving it yourself because
1) it's easy and cheap to do it yourself
2) If it goes wrong you can just clean up and do it again - you can't really damage the accordion
3) This accordion is so old that paying somebody to do it would be enough money to buy another accordion.
4) it's quite fun and you learn more about how accordions work.

AccordionRevival is the go to reference on how to do this stuff, or search on here / or ask.

 

[debra]

Clearly the wax is gone (hardened, brittle) and needs replacing. That is also the time to replace the valves. The larger reeds require leather valves with booster springs, but smaller reeds can be done with plastic valves which are relatively cheap and don't require careful placement and adjustments to metal booster springs which is not something for a beginner in accordion repair.
When you get everything off and cleaned, start with putting the valves on just one side of the reed plates (the "inside"). Then wax the reed plates in place and only after that (and cleanup of any spills) put the outside valves on.
For waxing: start with the bottom and top and only after that fill in the space between the reed plates. To avoid making a mess, put some painters/masking tape on two adjacent reed plates (right to the edge where the gap is), then fill in the gap, and after that remove the tape. This keeps everything clean and goes much faster than just pouring the wax and then having to do cleanup.

 

[jollyrogeraccordions]

Just so you are aware…removing, revalving, rewaxing, tuning a big PA like this is a *very* long job. You'll get about halfway through one reed block and wonder what on earth you've taken on. Podcasts help, except of course when tuning.

 

[usz]

Thanks for the tips everyone!

Clearly the wax is gone (hardened, brittle) and needs replacing. That is also the time to replace the valves. The larger reeds require leather valves with booster springs, but smaller reeds can be done with plastic valves which are relatively cheap and don't require careful placement and adjustments to metal booster springs which is not something for a beginner in accordion repair.

By "larger reeds" do you mean those on the bass side? Or just the largest ones on the treble side?

Also what would be a good place to buy materials? Valves in particular, since I can imagine that leather quality would matter here. I can buy beeswax from people I usually get honey from , but maybe there is something special about the type of wax that should be used. Please let me know

 

[debra]

Thanks for the tips everyone!

By "larger reeds" do you mean those on the bass side? Or just the largest ones on the treble side?

Also what would be a good place to buy materials? Valves in particular, since I can imagine that leather quality would matter here. I can buy beeswax from people I usually get honey from , but maybe there is something special about the type of wax that should be used. Please let me know

The larger reeds are the ones that definitely have a (metal) booster spring. When you buy plastic valves then all the valves you need that are larger than the largest plastic valves definitely need to be leather plus booster.

As for the wax, accordion parts and tools suppliers sell the right mixture. Accordion wax consists of bees wax, resin and a tiny bit of linseed oil. Different suppliers will use a different ratio between bees wax and resin.

 

[usz]

The larger reeds are the ones that definitely have a (metal) booster spring. When you buy plastic valves then all the valves you need that are larger than the largest plastic valves definitely need to be leather plus booster.

As for the wax, accordion parts and tools suppliers sell the right mixture. Accordion wax consists of bees wax, resin and a tiny bit of linseed oil. Different suppliers will use a different ratio between bees wax and resin.

From what I can see, none of my valves have booster springs. Can it change the sound of the instrument or is it just a cost cutting measure by whoever worked on it before? The accordion is pretty old too, even for "old accordion" standards, so maybe it's just something that newer accordions have?



Also my question about the trusted suppliers remains. I just don't want to get overcharged or get bad quality materials.

 

[debra]

From what I can see, none of my valves have booster springs. Can it change the sound of the instrument or is it just a cost cutting measure by whoever worked on it before? The accordion is pretty old too, even for "old accordion" standards, so maybe it's just something that newer accordions have?



Also my question about the trusted suppliers remains. I just don't want to get overcharged or get bad quality materials.

I find it hard to believe that no valves have booster springs. But... they may not be a metal strip. Some accordions come with large valves that have a few (typically two) layers of plastic over the leather, and these act as a booster spring. They are easy to work with (less work glueing the valves in place) but steel booster springs still work perfectly after 20 years and the plastic ones are likely to loose their strength by then.

I buy my valves from Carini (www.carinidena.it) in Castelfidardo. So far they have all been good.
(There is/was another supplier in Castelfidardo, mrs. Letizia Bompezzo, but I don't know whether she is still available.)

 

[cass]

As a fellow newbie, I have a couple of suggestions to add. All of the things mentioned above are likely to be needed but do heed the warning in one of the posts. what you are considering will be worthwhile and will give a great deal of satisfaction when carefully completed BUT it takes a long time, especially when you are learning. My suggestions are 1: prior to doing anything else, clean the reeds per Accordion Revival, then play the instrument for a while to enjoy it. the tuning may be improved, you may be satisfied with the function of the accordion. 2. when you decide you want to "revive" the instrument, spend some time looking at the workings and learning how things are put together and why. do some research on this forum and other places on-line. Enjoy your new addiction.

 

[Airy]

@usz Because you live in Europe: In Castelfidardo they offer 5 day DIY accordion repair workshops. Maybe worth looking at. Of course beside the workshop cost you would need to pay for the hotel or B&B.