Ike Milligan
2018-02-05 15:43:37 UTC
Right now I am fixing up a Hohner Musette IV, which is about the newest
thing I want to work on. That's an Atlantic IV with LMMM instead of
LMMH. The rubber grommets that lift 20 of the 41 keys were worn out, but
fortunately I had replacements Len Killick sent me from Germany a few
years ago.
The keyboards on these Atlantic accordions work great, and are fun to
play, except on most of them the rubber parts wear out, and the rubber
grommets are hard to come by.
The other thing that wears out is the so-called "steering box" which is
the bubble with rotating arms that transmits the motion from the treble
switches to the slide inside the accordion. This part seems impossible
to get from Germany and the corresponding part on Italian accordions
does not wear out, since the German version has a plastic body, and the
Italian has a metal body. Once the box wears out, the tone switches are
useless, and the accordion is useless.
Once a retired machinist offered to make them for me free, but I have
lost his phone number.
Hohner may have had a Swiss branch at one time, that I am told was who
made the "Musette" model which had 4 long reed blocks instead of the 8
divided blocks like the Atlantic line, and single rod vlave lifters
instead of the compound lifters with the grommets. It was 4/5 instead of
4/4 but the bass blocks looked the same except there was an extra block
for the 12 highest notes.
Someone sent me one of those, but the steering box is worn out.
Also I have an Atlantic IV with straight treble valve lifters for all 41
keys that has a removable resonator cavity instead of the roll-up window
shade mute. The steering box on that one is in the middle and not on the
end, but I haven't checked to see if it has a metal body like the
Italian ones.
thing I want to work on. That's an Atlantic IV with LMMM instead of
LMMH. The rubber grommets that lift 20 of the 41 keys were worn out, but
fortunately I had replacements Len Killick sent me from Germany a few
years ago.
The keyboards on these Atlantic accordions work great, and are fun to
play, except on most of them the rubber parts wear out, and the rubber
grommets are hard to come by.
The other thing that wears out is the so-called "steering box" which is
the bubble with rotating arms that transmits the motion from the treble
switches to the slide inside the accordion. This part seems impossible
to get from Germany and the corresponding part on Italian accordions
does not wear out, since the German version has a plastic body, and the
Italian has a metal body. Once the box wears out, the tone switches are
useless, and the accordion is useless.
Once a retired machinist offered to make them for me free, but I have
lost his phone number.
Hohner may have had a Swiss branch at one time, that I am told was who
made the "Musette" model which had 4 long reed blocks instead of the 8
divided blocks like the Atlantic line, and single rod vlave lifters
instead of the compound lifters with the grommets. It was 4/5 instead of
4/4 but the bass blocks looked the same except there was an extra block
for the 12 highest notes.
Someone sent me one of those, but the steering box is worn out.
Also I have an Atlantic IV with straight treble valve lifters for all 41
keys that has a removable resonator cavity instead of the roll-up window
shade mute. The steering box on that one is in the middle and not on the
end, but I haven't checked to see if it has a metal body like the
Italian ones.