Cordovox

[Ike Milligan]

I feel I should post something here.

Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.

So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)

Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.

I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.

Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

[Alan Sharkis]

On Thu, 1 Feb 2018 13:11:53 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan
I feel I should post something here.
Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.
So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)
Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.
I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.
Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

What you did and what you suggested probably worked out to your client
having a decent accordion. There were several companies that made the
Cordovox instruments and they were, by and large, decent accordions
without the electronics, which, if your customer pursued them, would
have cost him a ton of money for equipment that would be hard to
repair because the individual electronic parts are no longer widely
available.

On the other hand, there were some people who developed midi retrofit
kits for the Cordovox. I don't know if these are being sold anymore;
they were being sold some years ago. A question in my mind (and maybe
yours) is if those retrofits still rely on the mechanical contacts in
the Cordovox. Today's midi units use much more reliable Hall Effect
transistors and magnets on the key rods to trigger midi signals.
Maybe somebody here has that answer.

Alan

[Ike Milligan]

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Thu, 1 Feb 2018 13:11:53 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan
I feel I should post something here.
Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.
So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)
Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.
I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.
Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

What you did and what you suggested probably worked out to your client
having a decent accordion. There were several companies that made the
Cordovox instruments and they were, by and large, decent accordions
without the electronics, which, if your customer pursued them, would
have cost him a ton of money for equipment that would be hard to
repair because the individual electronic parts are no longer widely
available.
On the other hand, there were some people who developed midi retrofit
kits for the Cordovox. I don't know if these are being sold anymore;
they were being sold some years ago. A question in my mind (and maybe
yours) is if those retrofits still rely on the mechanical contacts in
the Cordovox. Today's midi units use much more reliable Hall Effect
transistors and magnets on the key rods to trigger midi signals.
Maybe somebody here has that answer.
Alan

I don't know if this is "that answer" but that particular Cordovox had 2
multi-pin outputs, and it had mechanical contacts on a bus bar.
Therefore, I guess and midi output would have to come from energizing
the contacts and the bus bar and feeding that through the pins on the
male contacts into appropriate cables using the same kinf of connectors.

[Alan Sharkis]

On Sat, 3 Feb 2018 17:51:14 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Thu, 1 Feb 2018 13:11:53 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan
I feel I should post something here.
Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.
So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)
Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.
I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.
Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

What you did and what you suggested probably worked out to your client
having a decent accordion. There were several companies that made the
Cordovox instruments and they were, by and large, decent accordions
without the electronics, which, if your customer pursued them, would
have cost him a ton of money for equipment that would be hard to
repair because the individual electronic parts are no longer widely
available.
On the other hand, there were some people who developed midi retrofit
kits for the Cordovox. I don't know if these are being sold anymore;
they were being sold some years ago. A question in my mind (and maybe
yours) is if those retrofits still rely on the mechanical contacts in
the Cordovox. Today's midi units use much more reliable Hall Effect
transistors and magnets on the key rods to trigger midi signals.
Maybe somebody here has that answer.
Alan

I don't know if this is "that answer" but that particular Cordovox had 2
multi-pin outputs, and it had mechanical contacts on a bus bar.
Therefore, I guess and midi output would have to come from energizing
the contacts and the bus bar and feeding that through the pins on the
male contacts into appropriate cables using the same kinf of connectors.

From what I've read and heard, some models of Cordovox would need to
have two resistors bypassed, and the contacts in good, clean
condition, and then the midi adaptor would plug into those two
connectors on the grill. There would be additional connectors for an
external 9V battery and to an external arranger keyboard or other
sound-producing device. The adaptors are still being made, by the
way. You can find them on eBay and other places. A fellow named Ron
Uhlenhopp makes them. There is another model for those Cordovox
accordions that have three connectors on the grill, and if I'm not
mistaken, those don't require bypassing any resistors.

Is it worth doing? That kind of depends on the requirements of the
individual accordionist. I, for example, wouldn't touch it. My
accordion has midi in it because at one time I was playing with a
group of guys and we needed instrumental sounds that we didn't have.
It probably came at greater cost than that adaptor plus a good
arranger keyboard, but it's a professional installation that doesn't
depend on that contact bus which we know will corrode over time. It
has a sound generator that can produce a ton of instrumental sounds,
and can still connect to an arranger keyboard if I need that to
happen.

People who play Roland V-Accordions have the whole shebang in one unit
plus a whole lot of other connectivity and sound programming options.
But I guess those with Cordovox accordions in good acoustic condition
might be interested in the adaptor, just to provide more sounds and
get them into the digital world.

Alan

[Ike Milligan]

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Sat, 3 Feb 2018 17:51:14 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Thu, 1 Feb 2018 13:11:53 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan
I feel I should post something here.
Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.
So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)
Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.
I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.
Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

What you did and what you suggested probably worked out to your client
having a decent accordion. There were several companies that made the
Cordovox instruments and they were, by and large, decent accordions
without the electronics, which, if your customer pursued them, would
have cost him a ton of money for equipment that would be hard to
repair because the individual electronic parts are no longer widely
available.
On the other hand, there were some people who developed midi retrofit
kits for the Cordovox. I don't know if these are being sold anymore;
they were being sold some years ago. A question in my mind (and maybe
yours) is if those retrofits still rely on the mechanical contacts in
the Cordovox. Today's midi units use much more reliable Hall Effect
transistors and magnets on the key rods to trigger midi signals.
Maybe somebody here has that answer.
Alan

I don't know if this is "that answer" but that particular Cordovox had 2
multi-pin outputs, and it had mechanical contacts on a bus bar.
Therefore, I guess and midi output would have to come from energizing
the contacts and the bus bar and feeding that through the pins on the
male contacts into appropriate cables using the same kinf of connectors.

From what I've read and heard, some models of Cordovox would need to
have two resistors bypassed, and the contacts in good, clean
condition, and then the midi adaptor would plug into those two
connectors on the grill. There would be additional connectors for an
external 9V battery and to an external arranger keyboard or other
sound-producing device. The adaptors are still being made, by the
way. You can find them on eBay and other places. A fellow named Ron
Uhlenhopp makes them. There is another model for those Cordovox
accordions that have three connectors on the grill, and if I'm not
mistaken, those don't require bypassing any resistors.
Is it worth doing? That kind of depends on the requirements of the
individual accordionist. I, for example, wouldn't touch it. My
accordion has midi in it because at one time I was playing with a
group of guys and we needed instrumental sounds that we didn't have.
It probably came at greater cost than that adaptor plus a good
arranger keyboard, but it's a professional installation that doesn't
depend on that contact bus which we know will corrode over time. It
has a sound generator that can produce a ton of instrumental sounds,
and can still connect to an arranger keyboard if I need that to
happen.
People who play Roland V-Accordions have the whole shebang in one unit
plus a whole lot of other connectivity and sound programming options.
But I guess those with Cordovox accordions in good acoustic condition
might be interested in the adaptor, just to provide more sounds and
get them into the digital world.
Alan

it's good that you and they are having some fun and making a lot of
different sounds. Once I had a Leslie organ someone gave me, and I
enjoyed playing with it. For me the accordion is not an electronic
instrument. i like to fix up old pre-war accordions and play old music
like polkas, tangos, waltzes, a bit of simple jazz, etc. The old polka
music sounds better on an old accordion. Somebody sent me a CD of polka
music with a lot of electronic sounds, and it was to me boring.
I have never used a MIDI accordion, and have no plan to.

[Alan Sharkis]

On Mon, 5 Feb 2018 10:28:40 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Sat, 3 Feb 2018 17:51:14 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Thu, 1 Feb 2018 13:11:53 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan
I feel I should post something here.
Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.
So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)
Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.
I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.
Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

What you did and what you suggested probably worked out to your client
having a decent accordion. There were several companies that made the
Cordovox instruments and they were, by and large, decent accordions
without the electronics, which, if your customer pursued them, would
have cost him a ton of money for equipment that would be hard to
repair because the individual electronic parts are no longer widely
available.
On the other hand, there were some people who developed midi retrofit
kits for the Cordovox. I don't know if these are being sold anymore;
they were being sold some years ago. A question in my mind (and maybe
yours) is if those retrofits still rely on the mechanical contacts in
the Cordovox. Today's midi units use much more reliable Hall Effect
transistors and magnets on the key rods to trigger midi signals.
Maybe somebody here has that answer.
Alan

I don't know if this is "that answer" but that particular Cordovox had 2
multi-pin outputs, and it had mechanical contacts on a bus bar.
Therefore, I guess and midi output would have to come from energizing
the contacts and the bus bar and feeding that through the pins on the
male contacts into appropriate cables using the same kinf of connectors.

From what I've read and heard, some models of Cordovox would need to
have two resistors bypassed, and the contacts in good, clean
condition, and then the midi adaptor would plug into those two
connectors on the grill. There would be additional connectors for an
external 9V battery and to an external arranger keyboard or other
sound-producing device. The adaptors are still being made, by the
way. You can find them on eBay and other places. A fellow named Ron
Uhlenhopp makes them. There is another model for those Cordovox
accordions that have three connectors on the grill, and if I'm not
mistaken, those don't require bypassing any resistors.
Is it worth doing? That kind of depends on the requirements of the
individual accordionist. I, for example, wouldn't touch it. My
accordion has midi in it because at one time I was playing with a
group of guys and we needed instrumental sounds that we didn't have.
It probably came at greater cost than that adaptor plus a good
arranger keyboard, but it's a professional installation that doesn't
depend on that contact bus which we know will corrode over time. It
has a sound generator that can produce a ton of instrumental sounds,
and can still connect to an arranger keyboard if I need that to
happen.
People who play Roland V-Accordions have the whole shebang in one unit
plus a whole lot of other connectivity and sound programming options.
But I guess those with Cordovox accordions in good acoustic condition
might be interested in the adaptor, just to provide more sounds and
get them into the digital world.
Alan

it's good that you and they are having some fun and making a lot of
different sounds. Once I had a Leslie organ someone gave me, and I
enjoyed playing with it. For me the accordion is not an electronic
instrument. i like to fix up old pre-war accordions and play old music
like polkas, tangos, waltzes, a bit of simple jazz, etc. The old polka
music sounds better on an old accordion. Somebody sent me a CD of polka
music with a lot of electronic sounds, and it was to me boring.
I have never used a MIDI accordion, and have no plan to.

Ike, I agree with you. The accordion is not an electronic instrument.
Midi is just an add-on that has practical value for some of us, but
not all. I cut my teeth on midi while I was involved in a
midi-karaoke newsgroup but I never used the midi in my accordion to
create those midi files. For that, and for a lot of other projects I
do, I use a midi controller keyboard. I've tried recording midi with
the accordion to instrument tracks in my DAW and making the audio come
out of software instruments, but it's a real pain doing it that way.

If I want to record my accordion it's a lot easier to take the output
from its internal mikes right into audio tracks in the DAW.

Take care.

Alan

[Ike Milligan]

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Mon, 5 Feb 2018 10:28:40 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Sat, 3 Feb 2018 17:51:14 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
On Thu, 1 Feb 2018 13:11:53 -0500, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan
I feel I should post something here.
Having neglected keeping my website up to date, search engine placement
probably suffered. To be honest I don't care much. but anyhow I get more
reaction from local people now probably because Google has some
preference when their location is known, or they ask based on location.
So a young guy emails me about a repair, and I suggested he bring it
over, because I charge nothing to look. But first to possibly save him a
trip, I ask to see a picture, because if it had been some worn-out
shrunken student 120 bass i would have advised to do nothing and look
for another accordion. (Nothing I have for sale is cheap enough to
interest most diddlers.)
Well it turned out to be a Cordovox, which normally I would not touch,
but all it had was a pulled up key and collapsed bass from when it got
shipped back to him by someone who charged $100, just to look at it and
wanted $700 to fix it, nothing to do with electronics as the generator
was missing.
I repaired the bass and fixed the key in a little over an hour, for
whatever cash he had handy. (Hint) it was way under $700.
Under the grill was a lot of electronic switches, and a hinge to move it
out of the way. Not thinking about how it would look afterwards, with
permission I cut the 50 or so wires and dispensed with that, which left
a huge gulf over the key rods when the grill was put back on. To pull
the cables out would have left a huge hole into the bellows area.
But he was happy as a clam, because someone gave it to him when he was
in high school and it hadn't been working for years. I suggested he get
some silver cloth and clear rubber glue to cover up the wide holes in
the front.

What you did and what you suggested probably worked out to your client
having a decent accordion. There were several companies that made the
Cordovox instruments and they were, by and large, decent accordions
without the electronics, which, if your customer pursued them, would
have cost him a ton of money for equipment that would be hard to
repair because the individual electronic parts are no longer widely
available.
On the other hand, there were some people who developed midi retrofit
kits for the Cordovox. I don't know if these are being sold anymore;
they were being sold some years ago. A question in my mind (and maybe
yours) is if those retrofits still rely on the mechanical contacts in
the Cordovox. Today's midi units use much more reliable Hall Effect
transistors and magnets on the key rods to trigger midi signals.
Maybe somebody here has that answer.
Alan

I don't know if this is "that answer" but that particular Cordovox had 2
multi-pin outputs, and it had mechanical contacts on a bus bar.
Therefore, I guess and midi output would have to come from energizing
the contacts and the bus bar and feeding that through the pins on the
male contacts into appropriate cables using the same kinf of connectors.

From what I've read and heard, some models of Cordovox would need to
have two resistors bypassed, and the contacts in good, clean
condition, and then the midi adaptor would plug into those two
connectors on the grill. There would be additional connectors for an
external 9V battery and to an external arranger keyboard or other
sound-producing device. The adaptors are still being made, by the
way. You can find them on eBay and other places. A fellow named Ron
Uhlenhopp makes them. There is another model for those Cordovox
accordions that have three connectors on the grill, and if I'm not
mistaken, those don't require bypassing any resistors.
Is it worth doing? That kind of depends on the requirements of the
individual accordionist. I, for example, wouldn't touch it. My
accordion has midi in it because at one time I was playing with a
group of guys and we needed instrumental sounds that we didn't have.
It probably came at greater cost than that adaptor plus a good
arranger keyboard, but it's a professional installation that doesn't
depend on that contact bus which we know will corrode over time. It
has a sound generator that can produce a ton of instrumental sounds,
and can still connect to an arranger keyboard if I need that to
happen.
People who play Roland V-Accordions have the whole shebang in one unit
plus a whole lot of other connectivity and sound programming options.
But I guess those with Cordovox accordions in good acoustic condition
might be interested in the adaptor, just to provide more sounds and
get them into the digital world.
Alan

it's good that you and they are having some fun and making a lot of
different sounds. Once I had a Leslie organ someone gave me, and I
enjoyed playing with it. For me the accordion is not an electronic
instrument. i like to fix up old pre-war accordions and play old music
like polkas, tangos, waltzes, a bit of simple jazz, etc. The old polka
music sounds better on an old accordion. Somebody sent me a CD of polka
music with a lot of electronic sounds, and it was to me boring.
I have never used a MIDI accordion, and have no plan to.

Ike, I agree with you. The accordion is not an electronic instrument.
Midi is just an add-on that has practical value for some of us, but
not all. I cut my teeth on midi while I was involved in a
midi-karaoke newsgroup but I never used the midi in my accordion to
create those midi files. For that, and for a lot of other projects I
do, I use a midi controller keyboard. I've tried recording midi with
the accordion to instrument tracks in my DAW and making the audio come
out of software instruments, but it's a real pain doing it that way.
If I want to record my accordion it's a lot easier to take the output
from its internal mikes right into audio tracks in the DAW.
Take care.
Alan

Fake bear