By Gaines I. " Ike" Milligan
accordiondoc@mindspring.com
I personally answer all accordion repair questions sent to the link below !

If that link is down try accordiondoc@mindspring.com

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Accordion Care Tips!!!

Accordion Bass Problems

You can remove the left side of you accordion and send it in separately, and I can fix it for you. for how to do this, see below.

One frequent problem with accordions is a malfunction of the bass section. Most accordions are 120 bass and have a somewhat complicated looking bass mechanism. If anything goes wrong in there it can make the accordion unplayable due to constantly sounding notes. Sometimes the repair can take a couple of minutes, other times several hours. Avery common problem, caused by roughness in shipment, is that all the bass buttons fall down and appear stuck about even with the top of the panel. there are only 12 springs holding up 80 chord buttons, on a 120 bass accordion. If a couple of rods get jammed, causing one or more buttons to keep sounding, they can often be teased back into position, taking care not to bend anything out of adjustment. It is never a good idea to force any part of the accordion mechanism by bending it.
Sometimes the whole accordion bass section will be sluggish due to some corrosion on the friction parts. this can sometimes be helped by very lightly placing a thin lubricant on the metal parts only. If oil gets on the wood, or the valve pads it can cause an expensive and/or time consuming accordion repair to be needed.
An air leak in the bass section can sometims be caused by a sticking air button, usually located in the top corner of the back panel. If the back panel of the accordion is removed, it can usually be seen whether the button can be put back in the right position to stop the air leak, or maybe it can be temporarily repaired by taking the bellows frame loose accordiondoc.home.mindspring.com/bellows.htm and taping over the air release valve hole.
If these remedies fail it may be necessary to disassemble the accordion bass mechanism and while it is apart, go ahead and overhaul it completely, including the valves. If the accordion bass comes out in one section, most noteably in Hohner and Scandalli accordions and Scandalli copies such as the Chinese brands, then the repair of the bass key valves is usually simpler. That's because it is very rarely necessary or desirable to disassemble a one-piece accordion bass machine. In most accordions, however, the bass has to be disassembled piece by piece, and the many parts kept in order for re-assembly. I could throw them all in a box and shake them up, and still know how to put them back together, but I'd rather not, so I lay them out in rows on a table. Some people make a rack with 120 or more holes to hold the bass rods.

How to remove the bass side of the accordion for shipment

(The mechanical action is not inside the bellows, but inside the back panel.)

There should be several pins next to the bellows, that can be removed by prying out with a butter knife, or sometimes have to be pulled out with pliers. there will be six, seven or rarely eight such pins (rarely, screws are used, usually on very old accordions) and sometimes on the top and bottom side, so be sure to get them all out (to avoid cracking the bellows frame, if one is left when you separate it). Also If the accordion has electronic mics or pick-ups installed, be sure that you can unplug the microphone or other wire running through the bellows to the other side. It is of course easier, less hazardous, and cheaper to send the left side only for repair, if that is the only thing you need fixed, rather than the whole accordion. In rare cases where the bass still has a problem that requires having the whole accordion there to trouble shoot, you can always send the whole accordion a second time, and the work is guaranteed so that you will only pay shipping. This has never happened yet.

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