Don,

"All" European accordion builders use mostly Hohner made straps hardware.

Only LA box builders use D-rings and in my humble view it's a real eye sore to say the least as in order to affix this ugly hardware down ( witch BTW was never, when designed, destined to be used in conjonction with accordions purposes in mind)one has to use a large screw, witch invariably, "pierces",right trough the middle of the accordion lovely decorative strip "GASP"!!!!!!!!.

I'm pretty sure that Hohner and other straps screw holes are enough wide apart to avoid the strip completely, should the strip be narrow enough.

I remember asking "Junior" once to make for a very narow strip, thus avoiding this very unfortunate visual design "faux pas".

As you may know European accordion buiders would "never" dream of using D-rings, and I know the argument, that "who cares", as this is our product and so there, but you know Don, they were making accordions long before Americans did, and since "All" LA built boxes use "a lot" of European made parts, why not do the same for straps holding harware.

They stiil hod the fort on us in craftsmanship.

I though that MR.MIllER at one time supplied Hohner parts, would'nt hurt to ask his grand son, if indeed he still does.

Don,

Sorry to hear about your bad experience!

Re: hardware, I have purchased D-rings, straps, etc.
from Larry Miller

http://www.accordions.com/bonteecajun/

I'm not sure if he still supplies parts because he's
told me that he's heading into accordion retirement

Good luck on your recover mission ..

--Big

Actually, that is not shocking at all, but it is sad.

It seems that everything is total crap these days, and most of it seems to come from China. Screws that I buy at Home Depot split in half while being screwed in with a hand screw driver under normal hand torque. My plumber replaced a couple shut off valves that started leaking when I used them to shut off water to a faucet that needed some washers replaced. The valves were not that old - maybe 6 years. They had cheap plastic stems. And it seems that you cannot even obtain valves of higher quality. The list goes on and on.

Anyway, sorry for your bad experience. I hope you can make it work for you. My first accordion was a German made HA-114, and it is still going strong.

-David

There's a fella in Scotland- Charlie Marshall, "CGM musical" who supplies lots of hohner parts, they're all listed the CGM musical website.

Had a bad experience with the modern 114 myself as a first accordion, sent it back.
The old german 114s are cracking instruments and cost half the price of a new one- so get it sold!

Hi AJ,

I had the same thoughs about Hohner 114c,
I bought one 03-04 months ago to start playing accordion
but did not much anything with it,
and quicly went into searching the real box thing,

But 114's are light and funny to play, and they deserve a second look:
I did a lot of air lacks debugging with mine (second hand),
changed the spoon springs to heavier ones (safety pins)
and changed the right hand springs to lighter ones
(I made them myself with piano string: 0.70mm was too strong, but 0.65mm is good to me)
a little bit rough but funny:

Sounds like you've got it sussed Christophe- I'm envious of your tinkering skills!
Nice tune.