Accordions
Buy and sell accordions in Costa Rica.
A three-row button accordion bought for norteño or vallenato and a full-size piano accordion share a name and little else: they are learned differently, tuned differently and hold their value for different reasons. Both come new and pre-owned, as do children’s 12-bass starters and Roland’s electronic V-Accordions, which never need a reed tuned. The accordion has played Costa Rican típica music beside the guitar and the marimba for generations, so an older piano accordion for sale is often a family instrument that spent years in a wardrobe. Ask when it was last played before you ask the price.
Button accordions, piano accordions and the electronic V-Accordion:
the button accordion is diatonic. Each button sounds one note as the bellows open and another as they close, which suits the quick runs of norteño, vallenato and cumbia and means a player has to choose a key before buying. Hohner’s Panther, Compadre and Corona share one layout: three treble rows and 12 basses. A piano accordion plays the same note in both directions, with a keyboard under the right hand and rows of bass buttons under the left, and it is sized by those basses: a 48-bass suits a child or a beginner, while a 120-bass is the full instrument and roughly twice the weight. Roland’s V-Accordions copy both layouts electronically, with a headphone socket and no reeds to drift. A norteño group pairs the accordion with a bajo sexto listed under guitars, and a pianist coming from pianos and keyboards will recognise the piano accordion’s right hand at once and its left hand not at all.
Two reeds per note and the tremolo they make:
the number of reed sets, which players call voices, changes the sound more than any finish does. A Panther has two treble voices and a Corona three, and boxes with switches let you choose which sets sound. Tune two reeds on the same note slightly apart and they beat against each other, giving the wet, shimmering sound of norteño; tune them together and the accordion sounds dry and clean. Changing it is a technician’s job, so ask before you buy.
From a Panther to an Anacleto, by way of the unbranded box:
the Panther is Hohner’s entry diatonic, and a Corona costs two to three times as much new; above both sit the Anacleto line and hand-built Italian boxes, at several times a Corona’s price. Unbranded boxes built to the same three-row layout cost less than a Panther, but they are hard to retune and few buyers want one second hand. A good accordion barely wears with playing, so a used Hohner that was kept cool and dry holds most of its value. What brings the price down is the work it needs, and a replacement set of bellows alone eats a fair slice of what a new Panther costs. Price a used one against that repair, not against its age.
A used accordion that spent years under a zinc roof:
it may have reeds working loose, because each is fixed to its block with wax that softens in heat, and a car parked in the sun does the same damage. Start with the bellows closed and nothing pressed, then pull and push: there should be no hiss of air and no faint note. Play every button or key in both directions and on every switch. A note that buzzes or stays silent often means a reed has come away from the wax, and one that sounds sour against its neighbours is out of tune. Check the metal bellows corners and the tape along the lower edge, where a belt buckle rubs through, and press every bass. Last, compare the badge, serial plate and grille with photos of the model the seller names: an unbranded box in a Corona’s shape is still an unbranded box.
The key and the bellows strap when an accordion changes hands:
it starts with the title, because players search by model and key, and to them a Corona in G and the same box in F are different instruments. Add the number of voices and switches, when it was last tuned and any reed or bellows work, which a player will hear anyway. Photograph the grille, the bass side and the bellows pulled fully open. Someone making the trip from San Ramón to Liberia for a Corona will want ten quiet minutes with the straps on, and once you have agreed, fasten the bellows strap before it goes in the car: a box carried loose can fall open and strain its folds.