About The Accordion Shop
FREE MAINLAND UK DELIVERY
UP TO 5 YEAR GUARANTEE
PART EXCHANGE
FREE STRAPS & CASE
Open 7 Days A Week
FOURTH GENERATION · FOUNDED IN 1927
The Accordion Shop
The Accordion Shop is a family-run specialist accordion retailer based in Sunningdale, Berkshire. Founded in Bristol in 1927 by the professional accordionist Handel Lovell, the business has been owned and run by four generations of the same family for almost a century, and has traded from its current showroom on the A30 near Ascot since 1993. We sell new and used piano accordions, button accordions, melodeons and digital instruments, hold around 150+ in stock at any one time, and provide repair, restoration, part exchange and valuation services. We are official dealers for most of the major Italian and German makers and are accredited by the Music Industries Association as a Trusted Music Store.
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We are, as far as we know, the longest-established accordion specialist in the United Kingdom. What that means in practice is that between our staff - professional musicians, teachers and technicians - there is well over 100+ years of experience in the trade, and someone here has almost certainly seen your instrument, or one very like it, before.
What We Do
We sell accordions.
Around 150+ at any time, from 8 bass children's instruments under £300 to hand-built 120 bass Italian professional models. New instruments come direct from the factories we represent; pre-owned instruments are checked and serviced before they go on the floor.
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We repair them.
We work with specialist free reed technicians across the country.
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We buy them.
In part exchange against something from stock, or outright.
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We give honest advice.
Nobody here works to a sales target, which means we can tell you the truth. Sometimes that's steering you towards a lighter instrument than the one you came in for, because weight is the reason most first accordions end up unplayed. Sometimes it's telling you the accordion you've inherited isn't worth the cost of restoring.
How we sell
We don't use high-pressure sales techniques and we don't work to targets. Customers are welcome to come in, browse, play and compare instruments at their own pace, and we'll happily demonstrate anything in the showroom and explain how it works.
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This isn't a philosophical position so much as a practical one. An accordion is a physical instrument that has to fit the person playing it - weight, reach across the treble keyboard, bellows resistance, the sound of the tuning. Two instruments with identical specifications can feel completely different. Nobody can tell you which one is right from a photograph, and we don't try to.
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Most people who come to the showroom spend an hour or more here. That's the point of the place.
Four Generations, Since 1927
Handel Lovell was a professional accordionist, composer and bandleader who started selling instruments in Bristol in 1927. His son Coe ran the business from London after the war; Coe's son Bev opened the Staines shop in 1969 and moved to Sunningdale in 1993; and today Bev's son Chris runs it , the fourth generation of the family in the trade.
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Very few music retailers of any kind have been in the same family for that long. Almost none have specialised in a single instrument the entire time.
Accreditations & Dealerships
Music Industries Association — Trusted Music Store
We are accredited by the Music Industries Association, the UK trade body for the musical instrument industry, as a Trusted Music Store.
Official dealer
We are appointed dealers for Cooperativa, Brandoni & Sons, Excelsior, Paolo Soprani, E Soprani, Bugari, Scandalli, Hohner, Weltmeister, Moreschi, Roland, Chanson, Corelli and Korg
Being an official dealer means new instruments come direct from the factory with a full manufacturer's warranty, and that we can order specific configurations - tunings, couplers, finishes - rather than only selling what happens to be in a distributor's warehouse.