As I collapse around the edges I restrict my repair activities more and more to routine tasks.
A valve here and there, a backstrap replaced, a bit of key alignment, the occasional pallet or reed plate rewax.
Yestereve (slopping over to this morning in a big way) I pulled the keys off my LMMH double cassotto 49 tone CBA to track down and remove crud- every four score years, need it or not... Multiple axles, hard leather loops to link the 1/4 and 2/5 rows- and convoluted key arms which simply beggar description in English.
Dissassembly, after the usual shift mechanism removal was doable, if a bit painstaking. Laying things out in order was the biggest obstacle.
Reassembly was an experience I had forgotten; piano accordions merely require a bit of wiggling to get the axle(s) to slide in through the key arm pivots; no big deal. Not so a CBA. Having gotten it all back in over hours (in the excruciatingly "this before that twisting and turning" puzzle extravaganza that is a CBA keyboard), it is one thing I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. As I finished up both cats were hiding under the bed upstairs and the dog was huddled in the corner.
Never again.
Used to be child's play- now someone needs to track down a child to help me because it about killed me.
A valve here and there, a backstrap replaced, a bit of key alignment, the occasional pallet or reed plate rewax.
Yestereve (slopping over to this morning in a big way) I pulled the keys off my LMMH double cassotto 49 tone CBA to track down and remove crud- every four score years, need it or not... Multiple axles, hard leather loops to link the 1/4 and 2/5 rows- and convoluted key arms which simply beggar description in English.
Dissassembly, after the usual shift mechanism removal was doable, if a bit painstaking. Laying things out in order was the biggest obstacle.
Reassembly was an experience I had forgotten; piano accordions merely require a bit of wiggling to get the axle(s) to slide in through the key arm pivots; no big deal. Not so a CBA. Having gotten it all back in over hours (in the excruciatingly "this before that twisting and turning" puzzle extravaganza that is a CBA keyboard), it is one thing I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. As I finished up both cats were hiding under the bed upstairs and the dog was huddled in the corner.
Never again.
Used to be child's play- now someone needs to track down a child to help me because it about killed me.
Last edited: