1924 Guerrini -- work

[ike milligan]

Down this new thread, I want to post pictures of the work on the 1924
Guerrini.

The bass had somewhat collapsed in shipping, so took out the chord
buttons and fixed that, photos will be posted with link.

Once I had done that, I played a few bars on it, and I must say now,
this is the San Francisco Guerrini finest example of musette and
marvelous tuning I have yet encountered. Tunes I played last summer on a
couple of other old restored accordions will be "coming to life" as
never before.

The reeds are polished a mano "bombata" and perfectly clean. The
leathers are calf-skin exactly like in the old Guerrinis, and not curled
even after 90 years. It smells resin-y like no other than Guerrini. The
inside smells like redwood or some aromatic tree like of a Guerrini S.F.
which if you had ever smelled it, you would know.

The pictures which I impulsively snapped while working will show:

The bass partly assembled.

Several pictures of the treble keyboard after I drilled, tapped down and
pulled the spindle from the other side.

All the keys taken out.

Next, I will sand down the aluminum fondo which is dirty and slightly
corroded, and re-pad the valves. I will probably spray a bit of lacquer
on the aluminum valve plate so it will hopefully be good for another 90
years. Some beetles noshed on the felt padding under the keys, all this
you will see in the half dozen pictures I snapped, and a few more as I work.

The keys will be reamed and get a bigger spindle, probably the
nickel-alloy 2mm ones left over from the brass-flange Basili keyboard I
posted about earlier (or did I).

[ike milligan]

Post by ike milligan
Down this new thread, I want to post pictures of the work on the 1924
Guerrini.
The bass had somewhat collapsed in shipping, so took out the chord
buttons and fixed that, photos will be posted with link.
Once I had done that, I played a few bars on it, and I must say now,
this is the San Francisco Guerrini finest example of musette and
marvelous tuning I have yet encountered. Tunes I played last summer on a
couple of other old restored accordions will be "coming to life" as
never before.
The reeds are polished a mano "bombata" and perfectly clean. The
leathers are calf-skin exactly like in the old Guerrinis, and not curled
even after 90 years. It smells resin-y like no other than Guerrini. The
inside smells like redwood or some aromatic tree like of a Guerrini S.F.
which if you had ever smelled it, you would know.
The bass partly assembled.
Several pictures of the treble keyboard after I drilled, tapped down and
pulled the spindle from the other side.
All the keys taken out.
Next, I will sand down the aluminum fondo which is dirty and slightly
corroded, and re-pad the valves. I will probably spray a bit of lacquer
on the aluminum valve plate so it will hopefully be good for another 90
years. Some beetles noshed on the felt padding under the keys, all this
you will see in the half dozen pictures I snapped, and a few more as I work.
The keys will be reamed and get a bigger spindle, probably the
nickel-alloy 2mm ones left over from the brass-flange Basili keyboard I
posted about earlier (or did I).

http://accordiondoc.home.mindspring.com/Repairing-1924-Guerrini-Accordion.html

Here is the link to the nascent page where I have posted a few pictures
of the accordion and repairs in progress. If you see an update here and
if you want to follow the progress with more details, then click the
link again and have another look.

[ciao_accordion]

an excellent start, and thanks for the details

you are fearless in the attempt, harder working by far,
and this classic Guerrini is obviously in good hands

i would appreciate pics and explanations of the reeds
that will elucidate your earlier description of them,
what you mean by the terms and how one could tell etc.

interesting how the round hole air-flow was still used
on the MMM sets, but square on the shift L set... i've
seen that a few times, and i'm guessing that the round
hole system was more cost-effective and time-effective
given the technology of the day, but they would have to
use stamping and machine processing for the shift slider
and so might as well stay square and get all the air possible,
but not until later years were the non-shift sets squared up,
and then finally all reeds had slides and shifts under
them once the Excelsior rocker's pushed everyone to
follow suit one way or another. of course i'm guessing...

neat idea using the drill chuck - I have a loose spare
and will use it in future (soon actually)

so I have one of those "ZOOM" by Samson digital recorders
(the blue one with higher end audio and internet resolution
video in one unit) and if you want to use it for some
of your finished rebuilds for posting on youToob, i'll
bring it up someday (just stick your own SD card in it then
pull it out when we're finished and stick it in your computer)

[ike milligan]

I will keep you posted for new URL.

[ike milligan]

On 4/25/2015 10:24 AM, ike milligan wrote:
http://accordionville.com

The other site this was on, accordiondoc.hime.mindspring.com is a free
site, and you get what you pay for.

I ported everything to accordionville.com

Stay tuned for more progress, and I will notify of any updates.