Well, things were messed up enough inside that I didn't want to try it myself. There are many minor repairs that I would undertake, but most things having to do with reeds is where I draw the line. In fact, a reed fell out a couple years ago, and I tried to put it back, but somehow it had gone WAY out of tune, so I took it back out and just left it out for a long time.
Also, I had been procrastinating on getting it tuned anyway, so that was obviously a good time to do the whole deal. Larry said that one of the reeds was so bad he had to replace it, but I'm not really sure what that was all about.
Like I said, for $100 and a quick turnaround (like a week) it was totally worth it to have a pro take care of things.
By the way the reeds were not screwed in place before (as you deduced). I didn't know that Larry was going to do that, but I don't mind that he did.
There's a guy name Boaz Rubin who is supposedly a master accordion builder. He now works for Hohner and he did a repair on my Ariette. Not sure of costs as mine was under warranty, but you can reach him here.
Hal
Boaz Rubin,
Manager, Accordion Department
HOHNER, INC
1000 Technology Park Dr.
Glen Allen, VA 23059
Phone 804-515-1900 xt 3006
Fax 804-515-0347