Not For The Faint Hearted!

Disassembling an Accordion

Bass Mechanism

Part 1

If you’ve ever had an accordion that eventually

developed sticky bass buttons, or had bass buttons that

had “fallen into” the accordion, you may have

been intimidated, as I was,

about ever trying to fix the problem.

~~~

If you’ve ever ventured a peek into the

bass mechanism of the accordion, it looks like

something designed by a mad scientist.

How anyone ever conceived of all that “stuff”

I will never know. It is a very intricate

and complex thing that you just

don’t feel like tackling.

~~~

After reading John Reuther’s book on accordion

repair, and visiting several other websites,

I attempted my first bass mechanism repair on

an older, "fixer-upper."

It wasn’t really that difficult as long as

I followed a few very basic guidelines.
~~~
Before you begin, it is important to have

some way of keeping each individual bass

button/rod identified

and in the correct position so that when

you go to reassemble it, each piece

goes back into the same place

from which it was removed.

This is absolutely essential!

~~~

Some people recommend making a “jig”

or a device with 120 “holders” that mimic

the layout of the bass buttons,

so as you remove each button/rod,

you put it into a slot

that corresponds to it’s normally

installed location on the accordion.

When I started my first disassembly I noticed

that inside the accordion, the guides

for the 6 rows of 20 bass button rods

are actually arranged into 3 rows

of 40 Bass button rods.

That is to say, that starting from the

bass strap side, the diminished and 7ths chord

bass button rods are contained together in

a “guide” that holds those 40 rods.

Next, the minor and major chord bass

button rods are contained together in a

“guide” that holds those 40 rods.

Finally, the Bass and Counterbass button rods

are contained together in a “guide” that holds

those 40 rods.

So inside the accordion what you have are

three rows of 40 rods. Hence, I decided

to make a holder or “Bass Button Jig”

that had 3 rows of 40 holders.

~~~

I chose to use “Jumbo Plastic Straws” and

Cardboard to make my jig.

(Cardboard with 2 strips of double stick tape.)

(Straws stuck to double stick tape.)

I chose Jumbo Plastic Straws rather than regular

straws because my first jig used regular straws

and the fit was a bit too tight.

The jumbo straws give you some room

to play with.

~~~

There are a lot of different possibilities here,

but I was trying to do it on a budget.

I cut the straws into two and a half inch lengths,

and used double sided tape to hold 40 of those

straw segments between

two pieces of 2-1/2 inch wide cardboard.

Once I had three such sections made,

I attached them to a box and labeled one side

“Bellows Side”

and the other side

“Bass Strap Side.”

Once the jig is made, you are ready

to actually begin your disassembly.

More in Part 2, to come.