Accordion Repairs

A refurbuishment job on a Fontanella - I stripped all the reeds off, relaced every valve and waxed the reeds back in again.

Accordion Repair, Tuning, Maintenance and Refurbishment

I am based in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, Wales, U.K.

Phone George on 07814 439566

Excelsior for Repair
Excelsior for Repair – You can see the valves curling away from the reed plates.

There is always something wrong with an accordion! After doing my own accordion repairs for years I have started to do repairs for The Accordion Shop who have branches in Sunningdale and Rochdale as well as for private customers.  Having said that I’m happy to give advice if you want to mend your accordion yourself (or goto this brilliant accordion repair site run by George Bachich)

A refurbuishment job on a Fontanella - I stripped all the reeds off, relaced every valve and waxed the reeds back in again.
A refurbishment job on a Fontanella – I stripped all the reeds off, replaced every valve and waxed the reeds back in again.

I have an engineering degree, and attended a great accordion repair course with Paul Flannery. I have also visited accordion and reed factories in Italy’s “accordion capitol” Castelfidardo where I was able to learn from some brilliant tuners and builders.

Fixing sticking keys on a little Galotta
Fixing sticking keys on a little Galotta

I stock a variety of spare parts and have the necessary specialist tools and equipment for tuning and re-waxing reeds. I also repair leaks, free stiff keys and couplers  as well as mending microphones, electronic bugs and MIDI systems. I do repairs on bass mechanisms, transit damaged boxes, and bellows.

Doing some electronic repair on a Beltrami with a Musictech MIDI system installed
Doing some electronic repair on a Beltrami with a Musictech MIDI system installed

 

I charge £40/hour plus parts. The time taken for jobs varies enormously and some things can be improved very swiftly. If you can get your sick box to Narberth in Wales I can have a quick look and we can take it from there. If we think it’s worth going ahead with more work I’ll give you a quote. Give me a ring on 07814 439566 or email info@georgewhitfield.co.uk

 

About to do some waxing on an Excelsior
About to do some waxing on an Excelsior
Bellows repairs are tricky but not impossible!
Bellows repairs are tricky but not impossible!
Bellows corner after repair
Bellows corner after repair
Repairing a transit damaged Cooperativa
Repairing a transit damaged Cooperativa
Accordion repair workbench - notice the bellows fitted underneath for quick testing of reed blocks outside the accordion
Accordion repair workbench – notice the bellows fitted underneath for quick testing of reed blocks outside the accordion – air comes through 2 holes that you can see in the worktop

There are more pictures of accordions inside and out in my Accordion Gallery

Innards of a Hohner Arietta IIM
Innards of a Hohner Arietta IIM
About to do some tuning!
About to do some tuning!

Repair Blog

Here are some blogs about accordion repair:

Hohner Atlantic

Accordion Keyboard Repair

Fitting a Microphone System