roy v simonds

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I picked up a Schylling toy accordion at a yard sale in 2008.
I had seen these in gift shops and toy stores for ages,
and when the price was right ( 3 bucks! ) I snatched it up.

The previous owner was a kid ( who was running the yard sale! )
and it already had some wear on it.
I have a toddler and he put it through even more use,
until eventually it stopped working.

It no longer played any notes and had something clunking around inside.
So I decided to fix it. First, I had to figure out what was keeping it together.
I unscrewed the hand straps but that wasn’t it.

Then I opened the Bass key section thinking I could get in that way.
No, but I could see the bass pallets over the reed holes on the other end. :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

There were however simple little threadless bolts holding the bellows to the piano section.

Little bolts in a paper cup and some tines and leathers:

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Upon first opening, the loose “harmonicas” I found (aka Reed Ranks) :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

The padding was falling off from wear or the loose ranks banging into them :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Bass Section :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Loose Reeds. Not to be confused with Lou Reed. :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Gasket rotted away & loose fasteners :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Broken Reed Rank :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Worn leathers & broken tines :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

So I took some Elmer’s glue & reglued the leathers & reglued reed to the rank :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Some tines are still missing, but that sort of adds to the honky tonk.

Refastened the Reed Rank & some leathers still worn out, but attached:

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Bass Reed Rank fastened on :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

I also replaced the rotted gasket with a rubber band :

From Schylling Accordion Teardown & Repair

Now it plays pretty well. I’m pretty good at the intro to “Smoke on the Water”!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accordion