Infrastructure supporting accordion preservation in America?

[Ike Milligan]

Are there any people doing good repair work? I have seen used accordions
where very bad repairs were done, but I have heard of many people who
claim to do accordion repairs.
People have called me complaining of bad work or have shown it to me.
Most recently a guy had a really clean double casotto accordion he had
taken to a music store and the guy told him to buy a cheap used
accordion at a yard sale to replace reeds that had fallen out of the
carriers. When I looked under the bellows frame on the bass side the
missing reeds were there.
A lady phoned me about a well-known accordion store where she took her
accordion to get a treble key fixed, and the owner called in a teenage
boy who played with it and didn't fix it, and they charged her for it.
It was apparently just a bent up key.

[ciao_accordion]

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[Ike Milligan]

Post by ciao_accordion
hey Ike
it is a shame when music store "professionals" pretend to be
knowledgeable rather than simply admitting they don't know
(but will help you find out if they can)
deceptive practices are still widely used in
our niche (accordions) particularly
but the customers want to believe in the myths,
so they are part of the problem too...
it has been at least... what... 45 years now since
the Scandalli name actually physically meant something
that was actually connected to a factory, or an owner,
who had any stake in supporting their well earned reputation
instead, the brand name and it's famous models have been raped
to within an inch of their lives by a multitude of "owners"
or companies that secured name rights for a time
but the general public prefers the myth.. being unable to actually
tell the difference when they play a real Scandalli,
vs something that looks like a scandalli
there is a "real" scandalli just came up on the NewYork Craigslist
(Long Island) for $1000
it is an incredible bargain (for a professional or
someone with discerning tastes)
but it is old.. ugly.. heavy.. and it has no "cachet"
compared to the new ones marketed around the corner
all shiny and looking like Super Sixes
really, it is sad
ciao
Ventura

Ciao Phil: Old accordions are nearly always in need of 40 hours of work
to be usable. I am playing an accordion marked "Scandalli Camerano" as
you may know and last night I made plenty on the street. I did have a
typical pre-war Scandalloi I had bellows made for, as the one i am using
now has. The one i am using now is unique, as you know from having seen
and commented on it. The machine stamped metal mechanisms of the
keyboards would wear out do to metal-on=metal issues. That big one I had
tuned very carefully full French Musette using a strobe tuner and a
spreadsheet. bobby Lyle bought it and was happy with the sound but he
became disillusioned when people in the cafe were commenting on the
noisy keyboard. i eventually found one to use for keyboard parts, but by
then he had given it to his recently deceased relative, and i can't get
oit back now by trading for it.. It had 2 palm switches on the treble
for LMMM LM MMM and M. Scandalli made many of those back in the day and
the reeds were excellent.
later on the modern designs were heabier, and of course culminated in
the Super VI copy of the Settimio Artist VI. After that it was slowly
downhill for the brand and as you say it was bought out, but of course
any institution of mortal beings will change and the 2nd law of
thermodynamics will erode the putative entity of the same name.

[ciao_accordion]

oh Ike i recall your serious tuning experiments and perfection
through the years...
was telling a young fella about you just last Saturday
at the acc club meeting... he is a huge afficionado of old
tunings and old reed instruments (including accordions)
and has studied and thought on it much.. including the
old Pipe Organs and Harpsichords and Bach and eye yi yi
barely could hold up my end of the conversation !

he brought a small portable reed organ he had repaired
to the meeting and played it for us.. was like something
a traveling Preacher must have had in the old West times.

yes, a company like Zildjan (cymbals) is rare to have
held itself true to its history and family growing into
it for generations all seeking improvement and to add to
the reputation.. Martin Guitars is another..

ciao

Ventura

[Ike Milligan]

Post by ciao_accordion
oh Ike i recall your serious tuning experiments and perfection
through the years...
was telling a young fella about you just last Saturday
at the acc club meeting... he is a huge afficionado of old
tunings and old reed instruments (including accordions)
and has studied and thought on it much.. including the
old Pipe Organs and Harpsichords and Bach and eye yi yi
barely could hold up my end of the conversation !
he brought a small portable reed organ he had repaired
to the meeting and played it for us.. was like something
a traveling Preacher must have had in the old West times.
yes, a company like Zildjan (cymbals) is rare to have
held itself true to its history and family growing into
it for generations all seeking improvement and to add to
the reputation.. Martin Guitars is another..
ciao
Ventura

Hi. Phil.
Last night the weather was bearable and I got a fair amount of applause
playing the 37-key 2/5 accordion with the new bellows I had tuned in
Well-Tempered "Joung" system that was an option on my strobe emulator.
Money comes in too.
I don't know what "joung" means on the options but it seems to be
similar or the same as Thomas young Temperament Number II that was
described in Jorgensen's book of historical temperaments published by U.
of Michigan. I chose it because it is not so far off Equal Temperament
as to avoid creating rough sounding intervals in remote keys.
My software has a couple dozen choices pre-set including just
intonation, which might be good for some instruments.
The names of the well-Tempered systems in my software are unfamiliar. I
tuned another accordion in something mentioning "Bach" and was using it
some of the time to actually play Bach and other things, but it needs
new bellows and has a badly designed keyboard from the 1920's.
Those are the only 2 accordions i have applied Well Tempered systems to,
but I find it sounds better than factory tuning, which generally isn't
even accurately tuned or else the accordions I have examined are
drifting out due to old wax, which may still hold the reeds in, but
seems to cause the reeds to go sharp from some air getting around the
plates.