Yep, buying an accordion of any kind off of ebay can be a mistake. How can anyone go out on a limb and purchase an accordion without hearing or seeing it played I'll never understand. That kind of impulsiveness is sort of common though. Would be accordion players all over get all stary eyed and nostolgic whenever they see "Cajun" accordions being sold and act to buy accordions that may very well have problems. This is due to a lack of patience and an "I need and want it now!" attitude. Remember this, playing Cajun accordion is a task that would best be started and finished with collosal amounts of patience as a major factor. But considering the small amount of money you spent on a ha-114, you now have the opportunity to see it fixed and learn something about it's insides. Now go get you a screwdriver, take the reed board off and have a look inside. But don't go pulling or picking at stuff that shouldnt be touched. Dont tear the gasket between the bellows and the reed board. Maybe you have a couple of stuck reeds which can be unstuck with a small pointed metal object. If its reed leathers that have too much play in them, they need to be reinforced or changed. Remember, the small reeds at the bottom will give less of a powerful sound because they are small. But before you do all that mess, push down all but 1 stop at a time and play all the buttons systematically both pulling and pushing. Do each stop on its own and you can narrow down the row and positions the troubled reeds are on so you don't go picking at all the other perfectly good reeds when you open that accordion. Remember, you have 40 different reeds in there got dammit, so you'll need to narrow down the trouble before taking the accordion apart by using the stops to isolate.

I will admit that my lack of patience bested me here! However, for the price, I figured the worse that could happen is a I have a nice shelf ornament, best case I could invest a couple hundred bucks to test the water to see if an accordion and I could come to some type of agreement!

I did open it up and took a peek inside. I uncovered the treble grill and immediately found some rogue valves - one of which was under one of the button paddles that was causing the button to stick 'open'.

I also removed the bellows and took a look at the reeds and found quite a few more missing valves - mostly on the high block. There is some corrosion on the reeds, but otherwise to my untrained eye they look OK. Some may be out of alignment but I'm not sure if I want to mess around with those at this point. I took a few photos - you can find them here:

http://imgur.com/a/n5OFv

After I got it back together, it did seem to play better. Before it felt like it was leaking air, but this time I felt like it took less air to make notes, and of course the stuck button is no longer stuck.

John - I have been in contact with the Krewe de Walleye. I'm going to head to a dance or jam to talk to some of the players here. I've also reached out to a few other folks but this time of year is tough to track anyone down! Until then I'll have fun figuring things out on my own!

In Amede Ardoin's time, an accordion cost a month's wages. Little has changed except inflation.

Hey Nedro, are you saying that $2500 Cajun accordions are ok? Because I dont think so. And for the black Amedee Ardoin...it was probably a years wages, but his was bought for him by a kind white farmer.

Deduct $600 worth of parts, and 85 hours of labor at $20 per hour ($1700), and that leaves $200 gross profit to operate the business.

The labor intensity is extraordinary, placing the burden of success directly upon the quality of individual skill and methods. With such a sparse return on investment, this business model sucks.

The true value of such an instrument based upon common business practices would set the price over $4000.

You're not that guy who was complaining about the $5.00 cover charge for band AND dance lessons, are you?

How's that old saying go....? You get what you pay for. But I see accordions like cars, in the fact that sometimes you can buy used and get a better deal.

Cameron

"took a look at the reeds and found quite a few more missing valves - mostly on the high bloc"
The smallest reeds=highest pitch often don't have leathers on them. If the accordion has never been opened before, the missing valves should be somewhere inside or the "outside" leathers may be under the flappers.

I had another local guy look at this box today. He pulled it a apart and looked at the reeds. He found rust on most of the reeds both inside and out causing it to sound out of tune. Other than the reeds and valves the box is in good shape and air tight. He said he could get the reeds and valves back in shape and tuned for about $350.

My question for you guys is, is it worth putting this much money into the old HA 114 or should I trade it in towards the Regal I saw at the other shop?

Sounds like he is going to order another set of HA-114 reeds from Hohner USA that costed $176.05 in 2007 and charge you another $173.95 to reinstall and tune the new ones. Maybe no wax needed as the reeds on a 114 are probably held in place by gaskets and screws only. That is a good deal come to think of it.

I just looked at an Acadian I have redone with Hohner Ha-114 reeds from Hohner and 2 rows are missing the bottom two valves, 1 row is missing the bottom five valves, and 1 row has all 10 reeds outfitted with valves. The ones that are not there are not missing....they have been left off intentionally. Only the deep sounding row has all the leathers or valves in place because the reeds are bigger.

"Maybe no wax needed as the reeds on a 114 are probably held in place by gaskets and screws only."

Having owned better than 2 dozen HA114s,113s,112s.. and their predecessors ..
I have never seen on with "gaskets".

Would you mind posting a photo?

Hey Peter Gunn, know where I can find a Hohner HA-113?

"Remember, you have 40 different reeds in there got dammit, so you'll need to narrow down the trouble before taking the accordion apart by using the stops to isolate."

Please do go on.. fascinating.

May I recommend someone who is competent to work on Hohners.

Pass on this guy.

I have owned Weltmeisters and their rebranded cousins..

Get the Hohner fixed by someone who is familiar with them.
You got ahold of the wrong guy.

Peter - thanks for the note. I found another guy who seemed to know a thing or two about diatonic accordions who was willing to work on it. He noted the reeds were in rough shape - rust on both the top and bottom. He quoted me to manually remove the rust and tune, but that was quite a bit of manual labor, so he was going to look into getting new reeds.

Unfortunately it's been a few weeks and he hasn't been able to track down replacements from Hohner or anyone else for that matter which seems a bit suspect. I told him to forget about the reeds and I'm just going to hold on to this box for now and pick up a newer box to start on.

FYI - some pics of the reeds here: http://imgur.com/a/n5OFv

Dave,

Have you looked at the reeds yourself ?

On each reed is a stamped letter , usually at the top right of each little aluminum frame.

Is there a letter and if so, is the letter "H" or "T" or something else ?

If I am not mistaken, the new Hohner reeds are no longer German made and not the same quality as your originals.

Reeds have to be very badly rusted to want to replace them.. and they are horrifically expensive for what you get from Hohner.

If they must be replaced, another option is a modest quality Italian reed or possibly the Czech made reeds which as re very good.

If you are not dealing with a ONE ROW SPECIFIC accordeon guy, no denigration or insult meant, go to a one row guy.

See if John (Elton) Doucet or Jude Moreau or Bryan LaFleur might want to tackle your box.

Dave, Call me at 337-684-6495 about your Hohner accordion J.E. Doucet

Thanks John,

If anyone can deal with this, it would be you !

Merry Christmas

Jeff

John - I'll try to give you a call tomorrow! Last few days have been busy with the holidays!

Good move, good guy.