The accordion is a fragile instrument. Made mainly of wood and metal, built with the precision of a goldsmith, it is often necessary to have it repaired if it is not properly maintained.
Indeed, if there is one golden rule that all self-respecting accordionists in the world know, it is that an accordion needs to be maintained.
Maintaining your accordion allows you to keep the strength of your instrument, its tuning and to avoid going to your accordion maker too often, in short, what happiness.
At Fonteneau Accordions, we see too often accordions coming back in a bad state due to a bad handling, a fall or a lack of maintenance.
This is why we give you here 10 simple and free tips that will allow you to save a few trips to your shop in Nantes.
Let's go!
1- ALWAYS store your accordion standing on its legs
And NEVER flat on your back! How many times have we seen accordions come back for repair because of this? Hundreds, maybe thousands of times... It is very simple: it allows the "music skins" inside the instrument to remain in vertical position when the accordion is at rest. Thus your instrument will age better and you will have less maintenance costs. The repair of the "music skins" is one of the main maintenance expenses with the tuning and avoiding it costs you nothing.
So at home, store your accordion upright, not on your side, not on your back, upright! This will save you a lot of trouble later on...
2- Your accordion is afraid of high temperatures.
Your accordion can withstand about the same temperatures as you. So, if it is very hot, it prefers to stay in the shade. It can't stand to stay in a vehicle parked in the sun...like you!The undesirable effects of high temperatures on your accordion are:
- The wax that fixes the voices on the bed frames will melt.
- The "music skins" will dry out.
- All the materials composing your accordion will work and expand for the metal or shrink for the wood, which may lead to many problems (compression, deformation, etc...)
3- Your accordion needs to warm up.
Your accordion is a wind instrument and as for any wind instrument, it needs to warm up! Remember to let it breathe and to play all the notes on the full stop before starting to play so that each blade gets to room temperature.
If your accordion is not warmed up, you will have an imprecise sound emission, you will lack in tune and in the worst case: you risk breaking a blade!
4- The little stripes on your accordion:
If your accordion has suffered some small scratches, you can erase them and give it back its shine by rubbing with a very soft cloth and some special cream to make copper shine (we recommend the Miror brand which will give you a good result for a reasonable price). You will then find your accordion with a beautiful shiny body!
Please note! This technique only works on celluloid. Do not use it on painted or varnished accordions.
5- Twisted buttons:
Did you know that bent buttons are the first cause of failure on accordions?
These problems are almost always due to handling errors.
To avoid this, the rule to remember is: Never touch the buttons when handling an accordion.
You can take your accordion from underneath, or even from the sides, but please, not from the keyboards.
What we have seen most in Nantes is a twisting of the keys of the outer row of the basses (7th and 7thdim) which is very often linked to the fact that the accordionist puts his accordion away by holding it by the left hand keyboard.
The other mistake that we frequently see consists in holding his accordion by the keyboards in playing position... Your accordion has legs, so it might as well be used for something.
6- Avoid humidity:
Wooden accordions (especially diatonic ones with open keyboards) are often more sensitive to humidity which can make the wood of the keyboard swell and the right hand keys will then tend to get stuck.
If your heating is not very efficient, it is likely that the hygrometry is higher at the floor. Store the instrument high up, on a piece of furniture, a cupboard...the air will probably be drier there and your accordion will be better off.
7- Falls:
A bad move, a slippery hand and it's a disaster... A fall, is certainly what will cost you the most in repairs.
A simple gesture to avoid falls: Always put the accordion on the floor on its feet, never on a chair, an armchair or a sofa.
Once on the floor, it will not fall any further, I promise.
8- Insects:
For wooden accordions, it can happen that xylophagous insects come to attack your accordion by laying eggs in the joints of the instrument. Their larvae devour the wood of your accordion which then takes the consistency of a biscuit and loses its mechanical properties. The outer film remains in place for a long time and thus makes the attack invisible at first. This makes it probably one of the worst accidents, because it is often detected too late.As a precautionary measure, place pieces of wood from the same area as your instrument in the case. camphor tree (easily found in the shops) which has insect repellent properties.
9- The bellows :
To limit the wear at the back of the bellows, think first of the good adjustment of the straps. Indeed, in playing position, your body must be in contact with the right hand body of the accordion. The bellows are offset to your left. The contact between you and the back of the bellows must be minimal. For this purpose, the right shoulder strap is always set longer than the left shoulder strap to promote this shift.If the strap loops rub on the back of the gusset, consider wrapping them with a protector. You can find suitable protectors and straps right here: Accessories
10- The accordion does not sleep in the car:
A little message for the professional accordionists who come back from work sometimes very late at night: The accordion should never sleep in the car!
Indeed, after having played in an often quite warm environment, the accordion risks being exposed to the cold of the night. Its raw steel blades will then undergo a condensation phenomenon which will not fail to cause corrosion problems (detuning, etc...)
So, even if you are very tired, make a last effort to bring your accordion home before going to sleep. It will thank you.
CONCLUSION
You now know how to avoid the most common problems. Follow this list and your accordion will be better off.
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