Accordions

[PAT A RALPH]

Robert,

I do not get into "heavy" stuff.  Having a mechanial knack, I loved to get
into things and see how they worked.   47 years ago, at the age of 10, I
wasn't working on them, just playing them.  But at 16 when I got my TItano
Cosmopolitan and started over blowing reeds, I did tune a few reeds and have
patched bellows corners, rewaxed a reed or two that have come loose or
located reeds from suppliers when an accordion came to me with one broken.
Complete overhauls are not my bag.  Defner, in Long Island, NY can do that.
Also, there are a couple other companies in the US that will do it.

By the way, the Cordovox 251A was one with the BIG umbilical cord that was
MIDIed by another tech in St. Louis.  So it was fun determining what was on
each of the six wires of the cable attached for mikes and power to the
internal MIDI unit correct the broken wire.  (This accordion still needs a
sequencer to get sound, the contacts and their data just go out through a
MIDI plug, so it has MIDI Out only.

Ken Gerler

----- Original Message -----
From: robert goodale <rrg@nevada.edu>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 10:12 AM
Subject: Re: Accordions


> OFF TOPIC-  sorry about the accordion tangent folks.  Hang loose a little
and
> you might learn something just in case you get the urge to join us crazy
squeeze
> types.
>
> PAT A RALPH wrote:
>
> > Last night I located a broken wire on a mike system in a MIDI retrofited
> > Cordovox Model 251A
>
> Ahhh yes, the infamous Cordovox!  I'm not very familiar with the later
models
> but I know the early ones were absolutely awful.  Heavy as all get out and
the
> actual accoustic accordion was of the worst quality.  Are these still in
> production under this name?
> I know someone who has a nice MIDI accordion of some sort, seems pretty
nice.
> I've always been more of an accoustic man myself.  I figure if you want
MIDI buy
> a keyboard.  Of course my tastes could change with time.
>
> > Monday, I picked up a professional model full size that just needs the
dust
> > cleaned off the reeds so they all respond properly, basic tuning seems
> > "close"
>
> This sounds like a lucky find.  What flavor is it?  You sound accordion
techy,
> do you do repair?
>
> Rob Goodale, RPT
> Las Vegas, NV
>