September 28, 2025
Before I even start, I want to thank Paul from the bottom of my heart. Without his generous gift, I would NEVER be able to advance on a project.
You see, back in January 2023, my uncle gifted me my grandfather’s accordion… the one that my grandfather had wanted to get fixed, but instead it was returned with the money taken as well as no repairs done and the treble reed blocks missing.
This is what it looks like:
I looked around for replacement sources, found nothing that worked and even had a generous man send me reed blocks that we hoped would fit all the way from London England without luck.
Today, I can look forward to actually making a huge jump forward in taking my grandfather’s accordion and making it functional and playable. You see, Paul had a very similar accordion in the museum section, and when I inquired as to first if he would sell it and if yes, how much, his response was instant, he just offered it to me at zero cost.
What an amazing gift, and I now have a source for a LOT of the parts needed to restore my grandfather’s accordion. Here are the two side-by-side so we can see the similarities and differences.
My grandfather’s one is the one on the right and is the older one and in worse condition, but it is the one with the tremendous sentimental value to me and I will take everything I can from the donor accordion to make this one come to life.
There are some touches that are much nicer on the older accordion… the gold metal flake of the keys, the better design of the grill, the red outline all over the accordion, the subtly nicer font used for the word “Soprani” and a few other touches.
That said, as much that is nice on the older accordion, there are many facets that need a lot of help and things that are pretty bad but are going to stay that way… for example the treble keys, they are curved/warped but are beautifully coloured, so though the all white keys are way better shape, the original keys stay for the time being unless a reason comes up that I cannot use them. It would be a lot LESS work if I just upgraded the newer accordion, but that is not going to happen.
This is going to be a topic that takes a LOT of time to get close to completion… I have to see what fits, what doesn’t, what needs to be fixed or replaced and I want to keep that original old style flavour there. It has to look old but sounds a bit newer. I also am going to be learning on the fly and I know that the process is going to be a very long one. It’s going to take a lot of time as I am in no real rush and will work on them slowly whenever I feel.
More to come as I advance on this project!