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Vile Toxic Fumes-New Beltuna Bellows

It comes to mind that it is weird and disturbing to have run into questions of this kind about boxes in this specific size and configuration produced by two different Italian houses. It doesn't prove anything. But it is disturbing.
 
This thread is worrying me since I know that there are factories in China and elsewhere (North Korea I am told) that are deliberately setting out to decieve buyers.
I would try to get this instrument to a known reputable dealer/repairer to ascertain its provinance if it were mine.
As others have implied, those fumes could well be life changing if one is exposed to them for even short periods; the effects might not even be immediately evident but could lead to chronic debility.
Good luck with whatever you chose to do, but be careful of your health.
 
The dealer I purchased from is reputable to my knowledge and experience. But they're on the other side of the US from my location, and the purchase was four years ago. Where I am located the closest dealer of repute is over a thousand miles away.

However, I do have very trustworthy techs/repairers/restorers, one being a used dealer of several decades. It's a hundred degrees where I am and they're each over an hour away in even hotter locales, so I won't be zipping out there immediately. But I will be definitely taking this instrument to one or both for perusal.

I don't believe they'll be able to definitively ascertain anything, just an assessment. One is the person who dealt with grease on the mechanism of the supposed new Bugari I described above, and opined without any suggestion from me, that the internal build work looked Chinese. But he did not definitively "ascertain" that was the case. He could just eyeball and say, in my experience this looks more like what I see on the inside of Chinese-origin boxes. We'll see what their take is on the fumes on this bellows.

I'm unsure this instrument was wholly China-made. The wood stain sunburst and French polish finish on the chassis is beautiful work. Of course, I was flabbergasted when my tech came out with his take on the supposed Bugari.

Re health concerns: No, I won't be playing this instrument again, until the bellows have been replaced, even if I pay for the work myself. That is for certain.
 
The confounding elements are that several, previously Italian and German , brands are now known to be of mostly Chinese origin but are still labelled, for example, "Made in Germany ", when that clearly doesn't make sense.
Another fact is that many European sounding names, e.g. "Paloma", have nothing to do with Europe.
Finally, the supplier in question appears to also be a supplier of other, known to be Chinese made, products.
So, what's real anymore?🤔
Caveat emptor!!!
 
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yes, they tightened the parameters specifically because of the original shipment
of E. Soprani's snuck into Europe by "M" and re-labled as "made in Italy"

there are specialty Bellows manufacturers in Europe, mostly
excellent, competitively priced, and nearby. The chance any
reputable factory would source bellows from China is zilch
as there is no upside, and no-one is doing the kind of Volume
in a single size that could justify the risk or offer any significant savings

different countries and trade zones have different systems to protect
against substandard or even hazardous products... in the USA we have
Underwriters Larboratory, for example, as protection against electrical
and electronic devices, to which all such items must be submitted before
Customs and the US Govt. will permit their release for sale. This was actually
why the EVO was not marketed in the USA or dealerships opened, because
they decided it was too expensive to get the UL listing vs: how many
units they could hope to sell in the USA

(i have no idea how Petosa eventually skirted this)

frankly, i do not think there are very many Accordion Buyers
with the kind of throw away money you have that allows you to
be satisfied not to have the keyboard issue taken care of and
just leave it in the case for years and years..
i expect you have burned the case in the firepit as the smell
would have saturated the absorbent cloth after all these years ?

it is kind of unfair, as you now have posted how horrible it is,
but Beltuna has no chance to defend themselves or their product
as they were never given a chance to either correct it or determine
why it is so loose and noisy and smelly (if not their fault) especially since
you absolve the Dealer of any possible input into the creation
of said problems

maybe last century when Beltuna's teenagers first started building accordions
as school shop projects,
MAYBE then they MIGHT have made some noisy actions as they were learning
how to build things

but this century ? not a chance
 
]]]frankly, i do not think there are very many Accordion Buyers
with the kind of throw away money you have that allows you to
be satisfied not to have the keyboard issue taken care of and
just leave it in the case for years and years..
i expect you have burned the case in the firepit as the smell
would have saturated the absorbent cloth after all these years ?[[[

Your assumptions are unfounded on a number of points, and your sarcasm and ad hominem nastiness speak for themselves. About you.
 
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Come on guys, OB's done us a great favour by sharing a situation we would otherwise not known existed.
Ventura's shared an off the cuff opinion from the perspective of considerable technical experience.
Let's not bicker about frank statements: all good and valuable input to our community here.
I'm sure no offence was meant by anyone.
All good learning!🙂
 
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While there are many fakes going around you can typically "smell" them (not literally of course) from a mile away. The Beltuna that was shown in the listing is way too perfectly looking like a genuine Beltuna to be anything but a genuine Beltuna. But I must say that (mechanical) problems with Beltuna accordions are not unheard of. People I know who had issues had no problems in getting Beltuna to rectify them. The smell issue is the first I heard of though. It is possible that the "new accordion smell" (not unlike the "new car smell" that normally evaporates quickly becomes worse and more difficult to remove when the accordion stays (new) in its case without being played for a significant amount of time. Airing it out should help. Putting it in its case with baking soda (in a bag that lets air through but not the baking soda itself) for some time may also help. And doing the same with ground coffee may also help. Playing the accordion (preferably outside to let the fumes dissipate into the air) a lot may also help.
In the past accordions with problematic smell were very common but they were old accordions used for decades in a smokey environment. Getting the odor of smoke out was always a very time consuming process (with a lot of airing out, baking soda and/or coffee) and often without completely acceptable result.
Note that in the manufacturing processes of accordions new materials and also chemicals are sometimes tried and found to be improvements or not. In the case of problems I have never known any accordion company to launch an official recall of instruments to get them fixed under warranty, not even in the infamous case of the "Klebemorino". (This was not a morino-specific problem but a generic problem when new self-adhesive pallets were introduced and used by several accordion manufacturers for a few months before the "sticky" problem with these pallets became clear. Everyone immediately abandoned the use of the new type of pallets, but nobody did a recall of the accordions to replace the pallets.) The Beltuna smell problem may be a similar thing: there may have been a bellows production run in one of the bellow-making companies that resulted in the unforeseen smell... who knows. They are not going public with such incidents...
 
Ventura said:
i didn't even realise people sell new stuff through Reverb,
i only knew it as an online version of a music-go-round when it began and
have never really paid much attention to it since
Click to expand...
Oh for God's sake... it's Liberty Bellows!! :D
Don't be shy, they are usually very good to talk to and you really should at least talk to them.
You are both in the USA, no reason not to, even if 10 years later!
(psst... no harm, no foul, thanks for sharing!)
 
Beltuna has an email address on their web site, and the stateside Beltuna dealer is only a phone call away. It leaves me wondering why the OP takes the time to compose lengthy detailed posts about the problem, yet seems to resist any suggested attempt to contact either the seller or manufacturer.

It doesn’t add up.
 
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