Another 'What do I have' Post - I Need Your Expertise!

[Spencer]

This is a 'what do I have' post, but I need to preface this first. Apologize in advance for the ramble...

I am new here! I am humbled by everyone's knowledge of something that as of just 24 hours ago, I knew absolutely nothing about. I will also say that in those 24 hours, I have a new and intense appreciation for the accordion and the complexities of mastering this thing. I am a drummer. I got my first drums for Christmas in 4th grade, some 46 years ago. Before I got that best Christmas gift ever, my mom insisted that I take piano for at least a year. After all, she was a music teacher, and all my older brothers played a 'musical' instrument. Like many kids back then, I loathed piano....practice, lessons, the music I was learning. It was just miserable to me. Obviously, I regret all that now and sitting down at the drums and singing to my wife is not exactly romantic.

Being a lifelong drummer, I also do some buying and selling of vintage drums/parts etc. Show me a set of drums and I can probably tell you everything about it - brand, era, condition, value and on. In my quest for my latest drum score on Marketplace yesterday, I stumbled on a post nearby, selling some random junk drums and an accordion. The seller indicated they knew nothing about them and just needed them gone. I immediately Googled the only marking on the accordion (I messaged the seller to send me anything that identified it)...a U.S. patent nameplate saying, "U.S. Patent, N.25278e3084584, ITALY 803335, OTHERS PENDING, MADE IN ITALY". The first thing that came up was Excelsior Cosmos III. It looked like the Marketplace one other than the missing 'COSMOS III' label on top. I then discovered there were other accordions that shared this same U.S. patent nameplate. However, unlike all the others, other than missing the 'COSMOS III' label, it all looked the same. Needless to say, I think I spooked the seller by my uncanny interest in his accordion and not the drums. He decided, after sending me the pics of the nameplate, to list the accordion and drums separately and claimed he now had two bids on the accordion at $235. I offered $250 to pick it up right then. He agreed and here I am.

I have never played an accordion. Never been in the same room as an accordion. Asked my wife, "how do we plug this thing in?" She replied, "maybe you should message the guy back and ask." Curiosity got the best of us, and my wife YouTubed how to hold an accordion. I sat on the couch and set the mysterious monstrosity on my lap and was pretty impressed that I could 'Yankee Doodle' sideways and actually get a decent sound. I learned a ton in that hour. You get no sound if you don't bellow and note at the same time. You must push one of the bass levers down before you get any accompaniment bass sound using all those crazy buttons on the bass side. Quite frankly, it was really fun!

I'm not interested in learning piano anymore at this stage in life. That's just learning to play piano, let alone this confusing contraption. I'm selling it. I need advice. I'm not 100% sure what I have or the value of it. It plays great. Seems in tune. The case is great. Bellows are a little dusty and musty (I did learn on YouTube how to remove them and clean them) and a couple white keys have been cracked at the tips and re-glued. The straps are a little worn. I don't see any real damages on the outside. I am going to pull the pins and clean up the bellows here soon which will give me a peek inside. But like I said, it sure sounds good. There are a ton of buttons and knobs on the front that all seem to work also. Well, at least I detect changes in tones and sounds when I monkey with them all.

Remember, I already mentioned that I am humbled by the knowledge on this forum. I hope you take a couple more minutes to impress me some more and help me determine if I made a good move in taking a flyer on something I knew absolutely nothing about. Attaching pics as is without any clean-up.

Thank you all and it was a pleasure meeting you!

-Todd

 

[debra]

What you have here is an accordion with lots of electronics, which may or may not be complete... People really don't want such electronic accordions because the electronics is at least seriously outdated and in many cases incomplete or broken. What remains is a reasonable accordion (likely made by Excelsior by the looks of the bass registers), in unknown condition.
What often happens is that such an accordion is bought by a repairer/reseller who removes the outdated electronics, puts on a new grille and then markets the accordion as just an acoustic accordion. It may then be worth at least twice of what you paid, but the work to achieve that state (plus maintenance and tuning) would cost at least twice of what you paid as well...

 

[Dingo40]

Welcome, Todd!
What you have is a bit of a "pig in a poke"!
This appears to be a typical electronic accordion of its day (1960s to1970s).
At that time, they consisted of an amalgam of analogue ( reeds/valves/ couplers etc) and electronics such as are found in the electronic organs of the day: a kind of musical "Siamese Twin ".
You could play them purely like any acoustic accordion, or plug them in and morph into an accordion-shaped Hammond Organ.
Depending on the design, they often had additional external black boxes of electronics to generate the various Hammond-like effects. They all had external speakers and they weighed a ton!
They did a remarkable job for the times and enabled a single accordionist to substitute for a four or five piece dance band in a pub or club...including the drummer!
Quite often, the (stand alone) acoustic part was of very good quality, capable of surviving the rather shorter shelf life of the contemporaneous electronics, which became obsolete and unrepairable, but still adding weight to the instrument.
Consequently, attempts were often made to ditch the electronics and convert the accordion to purely acoustic. Just imagine having to refashion the grill to cover up for all the electronic switches!
This does rather make it a bit like taking on the restoration of a vintage vehicle.
Great if you have the skills, interest and time.
On the other hand, there's plenty of others to chose from that don't have the hassle.

 

[Ventura]

there was one version of the cosmos which had only
2 top quality treble reeds, both in a tone chamber,
pro construction throughout the accordion itself

the bass side mechanism does have the extra tips on the aluminum
rods for triggering spring contacts

in other words, if you wanted to re-build one as a modern MIDI accordion
using current electronics, it would probably outplay the best of todays $8000 digitals
and hybrids

but finding one in re-buildable condition would take some incredible luck

 

[Tom]

Welcome Todd!

Interesting story. I also started on drums before transferring to accordion. Unlike you however, I sold all my drums including a TrapKat that I really should have kept.

What is unclear from the story is whether the electronics still work on the accordion. I don't know if those had a dedicated sound module like a Cordovox or just a midi out cable. (Ventura would know.) Working electronics might bring the value back up to what you paid. Without that, I fear you may have difficulty recouping your investment.

Anyway, good luck!

 

[Spencer]

I appreciate all the advice and help! It was super nice of you folks to share your expertise with this noob!

Based on what i garnered from your responses, I felt stuck with a massive, overweight, not totally useless behemoth. I wiped it down, listed it on Marketplace for $300 and settled for $200 at a net loss of $50. I don't consider it a loss in the least. I learned a ton about something that I thought was a non-existent, thing of the past. What I have learned about the instrument, the history, and just knowing accordion aficionados exist in droves, is worth every penny to me (more than 40K members in a Facebook 'buy and sell' group alone?).

The guy that bought it knew what he was doing. After his hour long drive, he pulled up at the gas station, asked to see it, and opened it in the back of my SUV. I was watching to see if he was doing the 'sniff test'. He surely was inconspicuous about it. He hit a couple keys, took it out of the case, strapped it on and proceeded to check the bellows for leaks. I knew what he was doing, but asked anyway. He said there was a tiny leak but that it was not a big deal. He tested all the keys, hit a couple buttons, tested the base buttons before setting it back down. He removed part of the cover over the electronics and said, like some of you, usually this old, the electronics do not work, but he has a 'friend' that works on these and might have him go through it. He handed me two bills, we shook hands and parted ways.

All in all, I am happy for what I know now. However, I think I'll stick to my world of drums. I feel better at home

Thanks again!

-Todd

 

[Valski]

There's a joke about the drummer who was tired of hearing drummer jokes so he decided to switch instruments. After much thought he decided on the accordion and he heads out to his local music store. Once there, he asks to see the accordions and the clerk tells him to have a look at these Instruments which are at the back of the store and he'll be happy to show him any that catch his interest.
After a few minutes our friend the drummer comes back to the desk and states that he's interested in "the big red one ". The clerk says, "oh, you must be a drummer ". "How did you guess " says the drummer. "Well, that big red one is our radiator"!

I wasn't poking fun of drummers because a good one is priceless, however it was too hard to pass up on the chance to relate the joke.

 

[Tom]

Maybe only Todd will appreciate this, but as a former drummer at my first accordion gig, the lead guy said we all needed to be playing in the same key. I said, "No problem, I brought mine!"