Photo Essay: How to Secure the Basses

Text instructions at How to Ship a Squeezebox

In September of 2003, the House of Musical Traditions received a shipment of a new 120 bass accordion from the manufacturer, a company selling decent student quality European-made accordions. They had not secured the instrument's bass mechanism prior to shipment, the instrument had endured some rough handling by the shipper, and as a result there was damage to the basses, something which is routinely seen on older accordions, less frequently on new instruments. This was not the first time this had happened to us, but it was the first time with this particular dealer. When I phoned them, they said they never packed their accordions with any special attention to the basses, and had not had any problems. What follows is a detailed photo essay showing exactly what happened and how to prevent it.

One way to tell you have a problem, even if it is not obvious from the outside, is to strap on the accordion and pull gently on the bellows. If you hear any notes sounding even when you are not pushing any buttons, then there is a possibility that one or more bass buttons are not in their proper position, causing air to reach the bass reeds. The instrument is NOT supposed to make any music unless you push down on a button or key. A note sounding continuously could also come from the treble side, if one or more treble valves are leaking air. This is also quite common on older accordions and is not necessarily related to shipping damage.

This particular accordion was making a horrible racket from the left side, so you didn't need to be an expert to know something was wrong.

See next picture.

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© 2005, Wendy Morrison

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