So your new ebay bargain melodeon has turned up, Well Done! Hopefully you will be the proud owner of a nice old box for a reasonable cost. There will almost certainly be some things which need doing to your new pride and joy to get it in to tip top playing condition! We will run through some of these here and with patience you can tackle all of these yourself. Alternatively you could tackle the easier bits and have someone do the harder jobs for you .
Assessment . (Difficulty rating 1 (easy))
First step. The shake test. Turn the box around, upside-down and give it a gentle shake. If there are things rattling around loose go straight to dis-assembly. Assuming there is nothing loose inside and once you have cleaned up the outside let’s see what it sounds like.
Press the Buttons
Play each button push and pull, they should all sound relatively equal with a clear sound. If there are any which don’t sound, or if (particularly among the lower notes) there is a farty flappy parrp sort of sound from some notes , it is likely that your new box will need new valves and wax.
There is always a little bit of clacky noise from the pallets when you release a button. If this is very pronounced the pallets will probably need re-facing.
Bellows
Hold the keyboard end upwards and see how long it takes for the bellows to drop from completely closed to about 8 inches open. Take note as to whether the rate of opening speeds up or remains steady. Few accordions are completely airtight but if this takes any less than about 5 seconds some attention may be required. New bellows gaskets or pallet facings may can reduce air consumption. If the speed of opening increases as they open there is a possibility that some of the leather corners will need repair.
Unless it has passed all of these tests It is time to open her up! Normally this is done by pulling 8 bellows pins out. If you haven’t got the tool for this you can normally get them out with careful use of a set of side cutters, pliers or even a fork. Put a bit of tape on the case around the pins if you are using one of these methods to avoid scratching the box. For some boxes you will need to take the grille and back off to access a couple of screws. Once inside blow out any dust and confirm any suspicions you have gained from the above steps
Now you know the full picture these links will give you some guidance on how to proceed