Used Accordions -- A Survival guide

How to make the most of your "found" or vintage accordion.

Caveat Emptor

Maybe you found an abandoned accordion, or perhaps were given one that belonged to a more or less remote ancestor or relation. Or you bought it sight seen, or unseen online, untested. Whatever its provenance, it is likely that it is not a new state-of-the-art top-of-the-current line accordion.
Or maybe you just are thinking about buying an accordion, in which instance the information provided here, might be of use in determining how to find a good accordion and how to judge its potential.

Not to worry!

You may have felt a sort of magnetic attraction! There could be a good a reason for this. As to what that reason is, is beyond the scope of this treatise, and for philosophers, psychologists and maybe even theologians to ponder. Anyway I won't go there. Further along, I will say more about how to judge the condition of an accordion. You should always use your own judgement and not a a seller's, unless of course you yourself are the seller. If you paid a nominal sum for this incredible find, you probably did not make a really really bad deal. The old accordion that you now possess is unique in important ways. In the first 3/4 of the 20th century and before, accordion were mostly hand-made, and a stupendous variety of models and brand-names were produced. These hand-crafted accordions could never be replicated for what you have spent.

New accordions are not cheap.

There are of course the Chinese accordions, often masquerading under Italian and German names. These are very cheap and you get less than you pay for. The Chinese accordion will soon go out of tune, and the parts will quickly wear out. Mostly they can't be satisfactorily repaired or tuned. New European accordions are of course very expensive.

Use Accordions

Used European accordions, however, can often be had for salvage value. The cost of restoring one of these, which will be about as good as a new one, sometimes better, is substantially less than buying a new European accordion.

How to find restorable used accordions, or maybe OK as-is

The important thing is to be able to see the actual accordion before making an offer on it. When you buy online like from ebay, unless you are an experienced accordion technician, the deck is stacked. On ebay you will pay too much, and most of the time get something that needs expensive work. So check the local classifieds on craigslist.org.

Checking it out

First check all the tone switches to see if they work. Listen for notes that play all the time whether a key is pressed or not. Play all the keys and buttons in both bellows directions, on all tone switch settings, and listen for reed problems. If the notes sound funny, it is likely to need a complete reed overhaul. This is the most expensive repair. If something is rattling inside, likely it needs a reed job, as the stuff that holds the reeds in place, the reed-wax, has given way, and the reeds are falling loose.
The second most expensive repair is usually bellows work. Repairing the bellows is often only a temporary solution, and new bellows are often needed. Air leaks, however, can come from a number of places besides the bellows, and those repairs are usually much less costly. For instance, the bellows frame gasket can be leaking. A musty odor can warn of corrosion on the metal parts including the reeds, caused by storing the accordion in a damp place. Mold can also cause the bellows to need replacing when the accordion dries out, as the materials will shrink and dry-rot. As of today, new bellows cost anywhere from $400 to $1000, with the usual cost $550, and are custom made.
Reed tuning with complete cleaning, new wax, etc. averages about $1000, less for smaller accordions and more for larger ones based on the total number of reeds.
The least expensive is mechanical repairs, and the top of that list is new key-valve pads. If the keys on the treble keyboard are raised high, and make a whacking noise when the key is let off, the valves will have to be replaced. This runs around $200 and up. Usually the bass valve pads don't have to be replaced, but that job is about the same cost. Mechanical repairs like sticking keys and buttons are usually the least expensive to fix.
None of this applies to Chinese accordions which are seldom repairable, and most of them won't stay in tune and sound awful compared with accordions with good reeds and construction from Europe.

New accordions vs. used, cost comparison

A restored accordion, with new bellows, reed work and mechanical repairs, will still cost substantially less than a roughly equivalent new European accordion. The purchase price unrestored should be $0 to $200. Even if the accordion is full-sized and $2000 were spent to have it fixed, the equivalent Euro accordion would cost at least $4000 tp $12,000.

Accordion specifications, sizes, etc.

PA Piano keyboard accordion.
CBA Chromatic button accordion.
DBA Diatonic button accordion.

"Piano" Accordions

The standard full-sized piano accordion has 41 treble keys and 120 bass buttons. The keyboard goes from F to A and has 41 keys, 24 white and 17 black. It measure 19-1/4 inches from the outer edge of the "F" key to the outer edge of the "A" key and the keys are 20 millimeters wide. It generally has 4 sets of treble and 5 sets of bass reeds, 41 reed-plates per treble set and 12 per bass set, referred to as 4/5. total reed-plates 224.
The medium or "Ladies" size has an 18 inch keyboard and is often 3/4 or 3/5 meaning 3 sets of treble reeds and 4 or 5 sets of bass reeds. Total reed-plates 171 or 183.
The junior entry-level 120 bass accordion sold to students during the height of accordion popularity in the 20th century, has a 17 or 17-1/2 inch keyboard, and usually 2 sets of treble reeds tuned an octave apart, and 4 sets of bass reeds or 2/4. Total reed-plates130.
On any of these accordion, the reed sets in the treble can be low medium or high octave also referred to as, Bassoon, Clarinet and Piccolo sets of reeds. These are often referred to in specifications as L, M, and H, for Low Medium and High. An accordion with LMH treble would have one set of Bassoon, one of Clarinet, and one of Piccolo tuned an octave apart. A few accordions have what's referred to as a "half-octave" set which is a perfect fifth above the Clarinet set.
To get "musette tuning", or tremolo, you would need at least two sets in the same range, e.g., MM. So an accordion with LMH 3 sets of treble reeds could not be tuned "musette". This is not to be confused with "French Musette" tuning, which is a technical designation for a particular type of tremolo tuning requiring 3 sets in the same range, e.g., MMM.
Later on in the last half of the 1900's LMMH, LMH, and LM became more popular reed arrangements, than the MM, LMM, and LMMM.

Some common types of accordion and their differences.

Before 1920 Piano accordions were rare. But then some accordion makers seem to have decided to promote a standard 41 key 120 bass accordion, called in Italian Fisharmonica, roughly translated as F accordion, because the keyboard goes from F to A. The Fisharmonica has been extremely successful starting about the middle 1920's, as it tapped into the vast reservoir of people who could already play the piano or organ keyboard. Before 1920, most accordions were either Chromatic or Diatonic.
The Diatonic accordion plays a major scale when pressing or pulling the bellows, the Chord notes, e.g., C E G when squeezing and the other 4 notes of the major scale, like D F A B when drawing in air. It could also be in other keys of course, and may have 3 or 4 rows of buttons each row in a different key, e.g., G C F. The basic Irish diatonic accordion would have two rows in keys a half-step apart like C#/D.
The Chromatic accordion has a keyboard in a "Staircase" arrangement, usually buttons, but sometimes white keys. that divides the 12 tone Chromatic scale into 3 series, C D# F# A, B D F G#, and G A# C# E. There are two keyboard systems, C system and B system. The C system has the C row on the outer edge away from the bellows, then then next row is the B row, and then the G row. The B system has the B row on the outside, then C and then G rows, up toward the bellows. There could be a-s many as 6 rows with duplicate keys or as few as 3 rows. The extra rows allow playing in any key without changing the fingering, making transposition between different keys easier. Many people who play CBA consider it superior to PA.
A rare system is the "checkerboard" keyboard promoted by the late John Reuther, which divides the 12 tone scale into two series, C D E F# G# A#, and C# D# F G A B. It takes its name from the square keys being black or white as to whether they are sharps or naturals, giving the keyboard a checkered appearence. These are very seldom seen today.

Either the Checkerboard or the Chromatic are easier to play than Piano once it is learned, as the fingering is neutral as to which key one is playing in, and key transposition is natural. The DIatonic is used almost exclusively for folk or ethnic music.

Differences between pre-war (WWII) and more modern accordions.

To be continued...

Back to Ike's Accordions Home page