Need help to fix this electronic accordion

[ploxigg]

Hello everyone. I recently bought an Excelsior electronic accordion from a family friend who knew nothing about accordions and inherited the accordion and sold it to me quite cheaply because I am an experienced player myself. The "acoustic" of it without the electronics works really fine but when I plug it in to an amplifier (Im not sure of the word, not really familiar with electronics in instruments) only the left side (bass) comes out of the speaker,

I have tried to press and turn the different buttons on the accordion but I have not heard a single tone from my right side of the accordion. My first instinct is that the outlet and the plug miss one "spike" but I havent seen a similar outlet and dont know if that is making this problem as the bass gives sound. I would be really happy if I get the right side to work as well and will try to look elsewhere on repair shops nearby, and have already contacted the store that sold it many years ago to the first owner and see if they have some expertise there.

Does someone have experience of these kind of electronic accordions of Excelsior or can find/have an instruction book of it? I will attach pictures of the instrument here and if you could take a look it would be really appreciated.

 

[Ventura]

the organ/accordion main connector is fairly robust, the pins
are somewhat self-cleaning so usually make contact,
but yes one of the wires where the cable connects may have
lost it's solderjoint

of course you must have plugged in ALL the 3 audio outputs to a Mixer
at once ? not just the Bass one ?

and you do mean the electronic bass is working, not the bass microphones ?

so this would be a transistorized organ/accordion with Microphones, designed
and built by CEMEX/Excelsior in Italy. this technology is of course very old
and parts or scematics mostly non-existant, but the accordion itself could be
a nice candidate for upgrading to MIDI, as it will already have the linkage
for electronic switching built into the mechanicals, as well as (likely)
reed-mute shifts left and right

 

[JerryPH]

Looks very similar to the older Iorio S3 series that also used the same plugs and layout. I had to have the cable replaced a long time ago, but worse than that, a lot of the parts have a shelf-life that is well passed. You will need someone that’s experienced an older style electronics to fix that one. My own S3 is missing a part that is discontinued and I never asked the man that was fixing it for me before they passed away.

 

[ploxigg]

the organ/accordion main connector is fairly robust, the pins
are somewhat self-cleaning so usually make contact,
but yes one of the wires where the cable connects may have
lost it's solderjoint

of course you must have plugged in ALL the 3 audio outputs to a Mixer
at once ? not just the Bass one ?

and you do mean the electronic bass is working, not the bass microphones ?

so this would be a transistorized organ/accordion with Microphones, designed
and built by CEMEX/Excelsior in Italy. this technology is of course very old
and parts or scematics mostly non-existant, but the accordion itself could be
a nice candidate for upgrading to MIDI, as it will already have the linkage
for electronic switching built into the mechanicals, as well as (likely)
reed-mute shifts left and right

Hi, thanks for the reply. Its correct, I plugged in all three to the amplifier, and also tried different mixes of just one at a time, everytime the bass output was connected it made noice in the speaker.

If I understand it correctly, electronic bass is for instance drums etc that is coming out from the speaker, and bass microphones is just making the normal bass louder. If so, the electronic bass is working as it plays a drum sound in the speaker and also works when im not moving the accordion (Its called bälg in swedish, i googled and it said its bellow in english but you understand, without moving it back and fourth it does drum sounds just when i press the buttons).

Oh okay that is interesting. Is upgrading to MIDI a thing you can do yourself or does it require a lot of expertise? If its DIY, are there easy tutorials to follow as well with what equipment needs to be bought? Thank you so much for your replies.

 

[ploxigg]

Looks very similar to the older Iorio S3 series that also used the same plugs and layout. I had to have the cable replaced a long time ago, but worse than that, a lot of the parts have a shelf-life that is well passed. You will need someone that’s experienced an older style electronics to fix that one. My own S3 is missing a part that is discontinued and I never asked the man that was fixing it for me before they passed away.

Do you mean someone that is experienced just in old style electronics or someone that needs to be experienced in old style accordion electronics specific to electronic accordions? Thanks for your reply

 

[JerryPH]

No just the basic electronics.

 

[JKJ]

Do you mean someone that is experienced just in old style electronics or someone that needs to be experienced in old style accordion electronics specific to electronic accordions?

You might ask around - chances are someone close is experienced with electronics and might easily trace circuits and identify/fix continuity and component problems. I have several friends (besides myself) with such experience and good test equipment. One guy in particular I know could even design/rebuild almost any circuits from scratch.

Do you have Maker’s clubs in your area? They are usually a hotbed of enthusiasts. Another possible resource is to contact a local school with a robotics program.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

A MIDI retrofit is a good idea, but one best left to an accordion repair person who does it.