How do I... open up a Scarlatti 12 bass accordion?

[Rosie C]

I have a little Scarlatti 12 bass accordion. At Morris rehearsal last night the band was me on the Scarlatti, a drummer with a 16" drum, and a mandolin player using a guitar amp. I had expected the accordion to be loud enough un-amplified but the dancers couldn't hear it very well.

I'm thinking to fit a microphone inside the case if there's space. But I'm failing at step one as it's not obvious (to me) how to open the case. There's two chrome thumb screws above the keyboard but they're very stiff and don't seem to actually do anything as they turn. There's also some chrome studs either side of the bellows, but they seem fairly fixed.

 

[debra]

This "accordion" appears to be pretty standard: there are bellow pins you can remove (front side and back side) and then you can separate the treble side and the bass side from the bellows. There is a special tool for removing bellow pins but if you are gentle with a bolt cutter or not so gentle with pliers you should also be able to get them off.
But the first thing to so is to unscrew the bolts on either side of the grille and then remove the grille to check whether there is room to place microphones under the grille.
If you do manage to install mics in this little accordion that will easily more than double the value of the accordion...

 

[Rosie C]

Thanks for the advice, now I know the bolts are meant to unscrew I can be a bit more determined!

 

[jollyrogeraccordions]

A quick way to mic your accordion is to get a T.bone cc75 from Thomann and velcro it to the grille. Buy two and velcro the second one to the bass side, if you want to amp the bass too. Fitting internal mics is not an easy or straightforward job.
See https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_cc75.htm
You do need phantom power for this mic..but Thomann do have other mics too.

 

[Rosie C]

A quick way to mic your accordion is to get a T.bone cc75 from Thomann and velcro it to the grille. Buy two and velcro the second one to the bass side, if you want to amp the bass too. Fitting internal mics is not an easy or straightforward job.
See https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_cc75.htm
You do need phantom power for this mic..but Thomann do have other mics too.

Thanks. I was coming to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be easy. I already have two similar mics that I use with flute and recorder - I'm hoping to be able to use those.

 

[Rosie C]

But the first thing to so is to unscrew the bolts on either side of the grille and then remove the grille to check whether there is room to place microphones under the grille.

I found time this morning to have another go at the grille. The bolts were a bit tight, but they did come off.

There might be space, at least to try adding microphones. But two weeks in I'm already thinking of upgrading to a better instrument, so I think I'll leave this one original as it might end up being part-exchanged.

Just for interest I've included some photos. I found it quite interesting!

 

[Rosie C]

How strange, I logged in today and there's this old post from me as the "featured post". I'm playing a different accordion now, but I've still not got a good microphone option. I played publicly on Saturday and realised to late that the left hand side of the bellows ("as any fule kno") making it hard to use an external mic.

 

[debra]

How strange, I logged in today and there's this old post from me as the "featured post". I'm playing a different accordion now, but I've still not got a good microphone option. I played publicly on Saturday and realised to late that the left hand side of the bellows ("as any fule kno") making it hard to use an external mic.

The software for this forum appears to randomly select a post from the past to present as "featured post". So there was no human intervention in the selection of your old post.