Know about Cooperativa L'Armonica?

[dj-Sandwich-Ham]

So a complete stranger gave me an old Cooperativa Larmonica Stradella 120 bass for nothing.
>
Shockingly, the bellows are nice and tight (she utilized some duct tape bellows repairs) and all of the reeds sound when they should and only when they should.
Some of the features seem pretty quirky to me: for one thing, the two bass voices are toggled with one big button instead of selected with two switches. Also, the reeds are tacked against a leather gasket instead of waxed into place.
Does anybody know anything about this company? I found about a paragraph about them on this forum and little else. All I have to go on for age is that a black & white picture of the same model was labeled 1950s by the ebayer selling the pic :lol: Im hoping some of you can just look at the styling and guess a decade.
Since it actually plays perfectly well and was also free, Im inclined to try my hand at tuning the few reeds that are sounding off (and clean up some of the bellows repairs that like to stick together). If I end up removing a reed block for some reason (even the valves are pretty good) is there any procedure for working with this gasket system or is it just a matter of being very careful with a tack hammer? The nails are probably single-use only?

>

Both useful and thoroughly useless information is appreciated!

 

[Pipemajor]

If you put "cooperativa" into the search box at the top right hand side, you will get loads of info on these accordions. Virtually all accordions made in France or for the French market have pinned in reeds and they are much easier to work on than waxed in reeds.

 

[triskel]

I can't see your photo, but you're dealing with an accordion by a top-quality maker. If it was mine, I'd have it worked on by somebody expert with such instruments.