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Handmade Cajun Accordion, Pt. 6: Assembly, Completion and a Real Acadian Jam Accordion master Marc Savoy on the subjects of music, culture, cuisine, gumbo ingredients and, above all, getting the mix just right. From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-312

Marc Savoy with his handmade Cajun accordion, custom-built and specially engraved for Handmade Music.

Master accordion builder Marc Savoy likes to compare his building technique for accordions to his cooking prowess. Both require many ingredients and, taken separately, the parts are meaningless. But when they're mixed together in just the right way, you get something really special.

"We take a very simple song, a simple melody," says Savoy, "and we start adding all these ingredients to it until, before long, you've got something that tastes pretty good."

This final installment of Handmade Music's series on the Cajun accordion brings together all the individual parts previously built by Savoy to end up with a finished and "tasty" accordion.

Savoy breaks down accordion building into a few major components. There's a treble side with forty reeds underneath, a keyboard that attaches to the treble side, and a bass side with six more reeds. Marc built those components earlier, and now it's time for assembly.

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In these final phases of the project, he joins the keyboard with the treble section. He also adds the air-pumping bellows to both ends of the instrument to get a finished instrument. Then after extensive tuning, he unveils the new creation to the delight of guests at his weekly jam session in the Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana.

Materials:

table saw
half-round trim
felt
gold mylar sheets
reeds and reed mounts
screwdriver
screws
files
beeswax

	The keyboard and treble side, before they are joined with the bass side and bellows.
	Figure A

Joining the Keyboard and Treble Section

Marc Savoy has finished "building" all of the components required to make an accordion. Now he begins the first steps of the "assembly" stage.

• Marc Savoy begins assembly by securing the keyboard to the treble-side plate with two screws.

• The shanks are now extending out over the regulator holes of the treble side. Valves must be made to attach to the shanks and provide cover over the air holes. Valve keys are the pieces that push away from the faceplate when a key is depressed (figure A). In other words these pieces are the true regulators of airflow.
  
  
• With half-round wood trim, Marc cuts lengths to cover the rows of holes. Using the table saw, each length is cut with a forty-five degree angle at each end.

• The lengths are wrapped with gold mylar and placed over felt strips to create the accordion's valves.

• Once he's made ten valves, each is attached to a keyboard shank.

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