Busso Music School

I have taken two accordions to Mr. Busso for routine maintenance. One was a 50 year old full-sized (41/120, 4/5) accordion that hadn’t been serviced in 10 years, the other was a smaller (37/96, 3/5) instrument that was only a few years old.

On the initial visit, Mr. Busso listened attentively to my reasons for bringing each one in. Then he spent quite a bit of time with each instrument, testing each key and register, taking a quick look at the reed blocks and the overall interior condition, and making detailed notes of everything. He presented me with a summary of all his findings, including a price estimate for each. The list of issues on the older one was a little long (which didn’t surprise me) and I elected to have most, but not all, of the work performed.

I was treated fairly and respectfully by Mr. Busso at all times. All the repairs I approved were done properly and at the quoted price, and he even spot-tuned a few reeds on the old accordion that were quite a bit out of tune, at no extra charge. He did not charge me for routine cleaning of the newer one either because he thought it was in such nearly-new condition, it hardly needed anything.

Note that the store does not have regular hours and is open by appointment only, so it can sometimes be difficult to reach someone to get a status report on repairs and to setup follow up appointments. To complicate matters further, repairs are done offsite, presumably by someone working for or under contract to the company; this adds the potential for additional delays and communication difficulties. It took a little longer than expected to have the repairs completed and to get my accordions back. The issue of communication is the one area I think definitely needs improvement; if it wasn’t for that I would have given Busso Music 5 stars.