fake Weltmeister bellows gussets

[Ike Milligan]

Someone brought me a Weltmeister with fabric instead of leather bellows
diamonds and it wouldn't hold any air pressure. I told the customer to
try spraying the fake leather corners with Scotchguard but this seemed
not to work.
He said he would take it back to Liberty Bellows but so far he hasn't
gone back.
Anyway these fake leather corners hold air at first but later after a
few years lose the ability to stop air from permeating.
I thought this was only an issue on some cheap Chinese accordions but
was surprised to see that issue in a "German handcrafted" Weltmeister.

[Len Killick]

I've seen the same thing on the 60 bass 2 voice Weltmeister Rubin made around 20 years ago. It's a fabric with some sort of plastic coating which must crack after some time. I don't know if this was a one off experiment or if they still do it. I have not seen it on any bigger models.