Extremely Worthwhile Trip to Jim D.’s Shop

[John M]

Last week I drove to Jim D.’s shop to pickup up my Excelsior and Ace accordions that I took to him for a “tune up” a few weeks before. The distance from my house to his shop is 600 miles (about 10 hr. drive) one way; so I made the trip up and back twice. I did the drive since I didn’t want to take the chance of the accordions being damaged in shipment. I am glad I took them to Jim as he pays attention to every detail and does repairs as if they were his own accordions. My Excelsior had a bad chip at the bottom that was broken through to the wood. He used a black epoxy that he finished off to the point where you cannot see where the damage was. Maybe he was a body man at one time. The bass buttons were sticking on the Ace and the base shift register was very difficult to operate. All is fine now. Many other issues were also fixed.

If you need a repair and can get your accordion to Jim’s shop, do it. You will be happy you did. Jim is the man!

John

 

[Zevy]

Last week I drove to Jim D.’s shop to pickup up my Excelsior and Ace accordions that I took to him for a “tune up” a few weeks before. The distance from my house to his shop is 600 miles (about 10 hr. drive) one way; so I made the trip up and back twice. I did the drive since I didn’t want to take the chance of the accordions being damaged in shipment. I am glad I took them to Jim as he pays attention to every detail and does repairs as if they were his own accordions. My Excelsior had a bad chip at the bottom that was broken through to the wood. He used a black epoxy that he finished off to the point where you cannot see where the damage was. Maybe he was a body man at one time. The bass buttons were sticking on the Ace and the base shift register was very difficult to operate. All is fine now. Many other issues were also fixed.

If you need a repair and can get your accordion to Jim’s shop, do it. You will be happy you did. Jim is the man!

John

John - I did the same thing a while back. I must add that Jim is also very much into accordion cases as well. He fixed up my case and did a great job. Three cheers for Jim D!

 

[Eddy Yates]

Okay. You guys are shaming me. I complain about the nearest good accordion technician being 700 miles away!

 

[nagant27]

I also made the trek a few years back and had the same great experience! Definitely Worth the drive.

 

[nagant27]

Btw what’s the ace look like? Can u post a few pix?

 

[Thomas N]

At some point I'm going to request the services of Jim D. to completely restore my Excelsiola Van Damme 930 accordion. I don't think there's anybody else whom I trust to do it. It was my first "professional" accordion way back in 1983 or so. Many little things wrong with it and I rarely play it because of the issues.

I'm in California and Jim is far away, but I'm thinking about shipping it along with a blank check and telling him to take as long as he wants.

 

[nagant27]

I think you are right in that Jim will get it fixed, and it will be fixed right. He did my excelsiola 740 and it’s still my main playing accordion, and I have a few. We are lucky to have him on this site.

 

[debra]

Nothing beats decades of experience, when it comes to being able to fix problems. But Jim adds patience and a constant willingness to help to that. He is a very valuable asset here on the forums, but obviously also in the "real world".

 

[John M]

Btw what’s the ace look like? Can u post a few pix?

Here are couple pics of the ACE
The treble has 4 reed blocks, LMMM. The Celeste is a beautiful musette. The violin is nice with less tremolo.

 

[Ventura]

interesting !

so i guess the Trafficante's early on sourced their Titano's
from ACE

a friend, Ralph Striker, (jazzman) spoke fondly of his ACE
and missed it dearly.. sort of how i remember my childhood
HubCap 140 bass Scandalli an uncle had loaned to me for a year
during my youth !

enjoy !

ciao

Ventura

 

[Tom]

Beautiful!

 

[nagant27]

Yes it’s a nice looking accordion. Titano badges?

 

[JIM D.]

The Ace accordion Co. was established in 1945 with American made accordions. In 1955 they became associated with Traficante. in Minneappolis
in 1955. After 1955 Emil Baldoni started imported Ace accordions from Italy. The Italian Ace Accordion closed in 1986. The Ace in these Pic's
is an American model of the late 40's early 50's. It has the shift slides in the reed blocks as was the norm for Italian and American made accordions
up to the late 40's. The "T" on this ones grill is a Traficante Badge which resulted in these models wildly referred to as Titano Ace models. After 1955 the "T" badge was no longer used on Ace models and only used
on Traficante's Italian Victoria made Titano's .

 

[nagant27]

Great information. I love accordion history.
As for the slides in the reed blocks, any reason they got away from this design? Was it just easier to make, simpler?

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I can only guess, and I leave it up to guys like Jim D. and Paul DeBra to verify or dispute this. I was once in a repair shop in NYC and I saw one of the workers working on slides from reed blocks. The slides would hardly move. The worker disassembled them, put them on a piece of plate glass, rubbed them with steel wool, reassembled them and they moved freely. i don't know if this problem is common in later designs or what the cure may be.

 

[JIM D.]

Up until the 50's most all accordion workers were skilled in woodworking and the shops were equipped with woodworking
tools. The workers were skilled in making reed blocks with an internal channel that the slide operated in. When new these internal
reed block slides worked well, but in time with usage would tend to leak & loose air pressure and cause the reeds to leak air into other reeds.
I've worked on these old leaky blocks and involves layering the old slides with a layer or layers of aluminum tape to seal them properly.
Once the aluminum tape is laid on the slide it has to be trimmed to the cutouts in the slide. Some times more than one layer is needed.
Once this is done the slide is coated with graphite (teflon these days) and the slide worked until it slides easily in the block.
After the mid 40's machines were installed in some factories and machine workers hired to produce aluminum or brass plates that
the slides worked in under the reed blocks. These new style plates & matching slides provided a leak free slide machine.
By the 50's most all shops used these well machined slide plate & slides in all their models. Unlike the older slide & block that in time
would wear & leak air pressure, the newer style machined plate & slide design when kept clean & dry lubed will last for the life of
the accordion without leakage.
This is the tape I use to layer & build up old aluminum slides used inside wood reed blocks. ---


Amazon product ASIN B0778PTNHK

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks, Jim!??

 

[nagant27]

Good info once again. I just want to make sure I understand. Are you using the aluminum tape to make it thicker because over time the wood wears down from all the sliding? Do you use the spray dry lubricant here also that you mentioned in another thread?

 

[JIM D.]

Yes in time the aluminum slide & the block will wear and cause air leakage. The tape takes up for the wear. This slide inside the reed block
design works well but in normal use in 20 years will begin to wear & start leakage.
The aluminum tape adheres so well it becomes a part of the slide. If trimmed properly & dry lubed the repair should last for another 20 years.

 

[nagant27]

I understand. Thanks Jim once again. I’ve seen this design in a couple accordions only. An old prewar vintage type one, and an older Italo American. Very Cool to see the evolution of design in accordion making.