Hohner Black Dot - Noisy Treble Buttons

Hi folks,

This is my first post here and I’m hoping somebody may have encountered this issue and may be able to offer advice.

I recently bought a Hohner Black Dot two row button accordion and while it’s in great condition, there’s quite a lot of noise from the treble buttons when releasing them. It’s as if the button arm hits the keyboard and I have noticed the alignment of the buttons seems a little off - most buttons are rubbing off the keyboard, and although this isn’t causing any issue I’m just wondering if aligning it might help the noise, as opposed to gluing felt to the underside of the keyboard or the button arms.

Before I go taking it apart I’m wondering if anyone has successfully tackled this issue with a Hohner before?

I’m new to Irish trad music and thanks to the Session I’ve learned so many beautiful songs, I have been reluctant to play for a while with the button issue so if anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.

Many thanks, Jamie.

My experience has been that generally the pallets get hard and the noise is the pallet hitting the pallet board when you release. They may still seal just fine, but just are noisy on release. Felt underneath can help with the "buttons sinking in the holes" issue on some Hohners, but not sure if that would help with the issue you’re describing. I have a lovely restored 1934 Hohner reworked from C/F to B/C with modern reeds that is quite clacky on release, I just figure it gives the instrument some character. Bass side is even clackier than than treble.

If you are on Facebook there are all kinds of groups dedicated to both accordion repair in general and to diatonic Irish boxes specifically.

All part of the charm! Welcome to the family.

Search the forums over at melodeon.net. Probably 20 years of threads on that very topic by now!

As Michael Eskin has commented, the pallets can harden over time. Sometimes the noise can be part of the instrument’s charm, but it can become overpowering. An experienced repairer can sort this out, and could look at any possible realignment of the levers if that is a problem. Another improvement many Hohners benefit from is to reduce the button travel so they don’t disappear into the keyboard.

I’ve just had the pallets replaced and button travel reduced on a very clackety old Hohner, and it’s transformed it.

Thank you so much for all your advice, I really appreciate it! I will attempt to reface the pallets myself and see if that makes a difference, I discovered a repairman by the name of Lester Bailey on YouTube who shows the process on an old Hohner. I will report back some day soon if this has resolved the issue. Many thanks!

If you’re going to do it yourself, CGM Musical Services is a good source of spare parts:

http://www.cgmmusical.co.uk/CGM_Musical_Services/Welcome.html