How is the cabling done from the bass side on a digital accordion?

[Mike K]

Curious as to how they run cables for the electronics from bass side to treble side. Are all the electronics on treble side? never seen the inside of one. My teacher YEARs ago had moved the bass pickups on mine from the treble side to the bass side and used a stretch cord. It caused me endless problems. I eventually moved it back to the other side. That constant movement of the bellows was an issue with connections and durability, plus had to rig up some rubber bands to control it so it did not get caught in the bellows.

 

[dak]

In an old MIDIfied accordion of mine, they ran zigzag flat ribbon cable near the bellows folds to the other side. You can see a bit of the ribbon cable on the right side of the photograph (obviously I wasn't aiming for including it). The zigzag would be orthogonal to the bellows folds I think, with the turns long enough that it just lies across the bellows folds and will not slide down into them. That's an old Excelsior with Merkimidi, no idea whether factory-installed.

 

[JerryPH]

It really depends on the company. Some used the coiled cable, some used a wide ribbon cable. The trick with the ribbon cables was to make sure it was longer than required and then fold it in to a wave and often taped to the bellows, then the stretching movement was minimized and lasted decades.