MoreorlessMusic
Member
I have enjoyed reading many of the interesting topics on this site, and I suspect I will be asking for specific advice before very long.
I have recently commenced playing a 72 bass accordion, a lovely Hohner Arietta 1M, that I enjoy playing very much.
When I started feeling the need for a little more real estate north of F#, I decided to bid for a 120 bass Hohner Pirola 111 that I saw listed on Trademe NZ.
The Pirola is quite an interesting accordion in that it is amazingly compact and light and much of it is fabricated from aluminium rather than wood. I listened to someone playing one on a Youtube video and fell in love with the sound and the look of it.
The listing on Trademe had very little written detail, but the instrument looked quite good in the photos, and the seller claimed to be a “professional musician repairer tuner trader performer with more than 50 year’s experience”.
I won the auction with a bid of $551, which was just above the hidden reserve price, and had to pay a further $20 towards the shipping as I am in the South Island of New Zealand, rather than the North Island where the trader lives.
In spite of the seller assuring me that the accordion would be well packed, it arrived in its original case that had some “fragile” tape stuck to it, but no outer carton around it, and inside the case there was just one unsecured layer of bubble wrap protecting the instrument, and no attempt had been made to secure and protect the bass buttons.
The metal grill at the front behind the keyboard had come unfastened at one side in transit, but other than a bit of an extra bend in the grill there was no obvious travel damage done, however the accordion was quite shabby, dirty and tired looking. The keys on the keyboard were not level, and some of the bass buttons would rise rather slowly after being pressed.
Prior to attempting to play I discovered that the accordion straps had been put on with the longer right strap where the shorter left should be, so I unbuckled them and swapped them over in their correct order. They were the old style narrow straps that probably came with the accordion when it was new.
There had been enough clues at this point to prepare me for what followed when I pressed some notes, but the noises that came out from the poor instrument were like a sick animal moaning, whimpering and crying in pain. And not all of the notes sounded, although one stuck down and howled continuously when pressed and would have to be prised up again to shut it up. Some notes also brought in a sympathetic unwanted second one that was not supposed to be there. It was all very disheartening. When I stabbed at some bass buttons, there was a cacophony of out of tune chords, and other animal sounds. The bass coupler selectors didn’t appear to be working properly, one was unmoving and the other two stiff.
After having a sit down and a cuppa, I undid the various fastenings that allow easy access into this model of accordion and I had a peer at its innards.
Some nasty clear glue had been smeared around in places that it shouldn't!
Peering further inside at treble reeds and valves....
Some of the problems with sound production were easy to see straight away, as someone had re-attached two of the reeds on the treble side with the inner reed facing outward... and in so doing had made messy use of a clear glue rather than wax, and had left some air gaps around the reed plates.
Then a look at the bass....
One reed in the bass section had also had some “restoration”, this time probably with a soldering iron to melt the wax, and the plate had been placed at a drunken angle that allowed a gap around it for the air to whistle through.
When I later carefully lifted the reed blocks out I also discovered a valve that was completely missing on one of the inside reeds. There was also rust on many of the reeds and it remains to be seen if they will be salvageable. Running a straight edge along the underside of the reed blocks showed that they could do with levelling as the two that I checked tended to warp up towards the ends.
There were a number of less serious things wrong that will be easy to fix, such as a bend in some of the metal mechanism that the front couplers are attached to above the keyboard.
The keyboard will need levelling,
and there is cosmetic work that could be done to the case where it has been scratched or badly touched up. I haven’t looked at the bass mechanism at this point, to be honest I am a little frightened of what I will find.
I realise I have been somewhat conned regarding the condition of this accordion, it is in very poor condition and the seller even continued the fiction of its virtues after the sale was made and in an email to me proclaimed... “Many thanks for the purchase of this beautiful Hohner Accordion I'm giving you my personal warranty for A period of 5 long year's free service”.
I suspect there is almost zero prospect of me getting my money back if I ask for it and shipping the accordion would be quite costly, so I am probably going to have to keep it.
I think I will have to look at it as an extremely expensive educational toy, and use it to learn re-valving, cleaning reeds, re waxing, tuning, manual dexterity, patience and other handy skills!
I made a short video of me testing what notes on the keyboard sounded and also a quick sample of the bass. I thought it would be a useful point of reference if I do try to restore this sad little instrument!
Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.
Many Thanks!
I have recently commenced playing a 72 bass accordion, a lovely Hohner Arietta 1M, that I enjoy playing very much.
When I started feeling the need for a little more real estate north of F#, I decided to bid for a 120 bass Hohner Pirola 111 that I saw listed on Trademe NZ.
The Pirola is quite an interesting accordion in that it is amazingly compact and light and much of it is fabricated from aluminium rather than wood. I listened to someone playing one on a Youtube video and fell in love with the sound and the look of it.
The listing on Trademe had very little written detail, but the instrument looked quite good in the photos, and the seller claimed to be a “professional musician repairer tuner trader performer with more than 50 year’s experience”.
I won the auction with a bid of $551, which was just above the hidden reserve price, and had to pay a further $20 towards the shipping as I am in the South Island of New Zealand, rather than the North Island where the trader lives.
In spite of the seller assuring me that the accordion would be well packed, it arrived in its original case that had some “fragile” tape stuck to it, but no outer carton around it, and inside the case there was just one unsecured layer of bubble wrap protecting the instrument, and no attempt had been made to secure and protect the bass buttons.
The metal grill at the front behind the keyboard had come unfastened at one side in transit, but other than a bit of an extra bend in the grill there was no obvious travel damage done, however the accordion was quite shabby, dirty and tired looking. The keys on the keyboard were not level, and some of the bass buttons would rise rather slowly after being pressed.
Prior to attempting to play I discovered that the accordion straps had been put on with the longer right strap where the shorter left should be, so I unbuckled them and swapped them over in their correct order. They were the old style narrow straps that probably came with the accordion when it was new.
There had been enough clues at this point to prepare me for what followed when I pressed some notes, but the noises that came out from the poor instrument were like a sick animal moaning, whimpering and crying in pain. And not all of the notes sounded, although one stuck down and howled continuously when pressed and would have to be prised up again to shut it up. Some notes also brought in a sympathetic unwanted second one that was not supposed to be there. It was all very disheartening. When I stabbed at some bass buttons, there was a cacophony of out of tune chords, and other animal sounds. The bass coupler selectors didn’t appear to be working properly, one was unmoving and the other two stiff.
After having a sit down and a cuppa, I undid the various fastenings that allow easy access into this model of accordion and I had a peer at its innards.
Some nasty clear glue had been smeared around in places that it shouldn't!
Peering further inside at treble reeds and valves....
Some of the problems with sound production were easy to see straight away, as someone had re-attached two of the reeds on the treble side with the inner reed facing outward... and in so doing had made messy use of a clear glue rather than wax, and had left some air gaps around the reed plates.
Then a look at the bass....
One reed in the bass section had also had some “restoration”, this time probably with a soldering iron to melt the wax, and the plate had been placed at a drunken angle that allowed a gap around it for the air to whistle through.
When I later carefully lifted the reed blocks out I also discovered a valve that was completely missing on one of the inside reeds. There was also rust on many of the reeds and it remains to be seen if they will be salvageable. Running a straight edge along the underside of the reed blocks showed that they could do with levelling as the two that I checked tended to warp up towards the ends.
There were a number of less serious things wrong that will be easy to fix, such as a bend in some of the metal mechanism that the front couplers are attached to above the keyboard.
The keyboard will need levelling,
and there is cosmetic work that could be done to the case where it has been scratched or badly touched up. I haven’t looked at the bass mechanism at this point, to be honest I am a little frightened of what I will find.
I realise I have been somewhat conned regarding the condition of this accordion, it is in very poor condition and the seller even continued the fiction of its virtues after the sale was made and in an email to me proclaimed... “Many thanks for the purchase of this beautiful Hohner Accordion I'm giving you my personal warranty for A period of 5 long year's free service”.
I suspect there is almost zero prospect of me getting my money back if I ask for it and shipping the accordion would be quite costly, so I am probably going to have to keep it.
I think I will have to look at it as an extremely expensive educational toy, and use it to learn re-valving, cleaning reeds, re waxing, tuning, manual dexterity, patience and other handy skills!
I made a short video of me testing what notes on the keyboard sounded and also a quick sample of the bass. I thought it would be a useful point of reference if I do try to restore this sad little instrument!
Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.
Many Thanks!
