Founder, Carlo Petosa, passionately began crafting accordions by hand, one at a time; a practice that continues to this very day. He was unaware that he was giving birth to a legacy that would pass down to his son, grandson and now great grandson; who would continue to carry on the same tradition spanning a century of accordion manufacturing.

In the basement of his home in Seattle, he single-handedly devoted himself to the task of constructing his instrument. In these humble surroundings, hunched over his workbench, Carlo was completely absorbed in his work and totally oblivious to anything else. Here, he meticulously and painstakingly measured, hand-cut, shaped, and honed pieces of wood and metal which were transformed by hand over several months into beautiful one-of-a-kind accordions. Carlo ran a one-man operation with no assistance, only himself – just how many accordions he built in this way will never be known. We do know, however, that many of these accordions are still intact today and available to be seen at Petosa Accordions headquarters, part of a collection on display of dozens of early 19th, 20th, and 21st century accordions.

In 1955, Petosa Accordion Company moved from the humble workshop in Carlo's home to 313 NE 45th St. Seattle, Washington. Carlo and Joe also had the foresight to expand the business in 1945 by creating a partnership with our factory in Castelfidardo, Italy known as Zero Sette Co. In Seattle, Carlo and Joe continued to build and refine the Petosa professional artist model accordions while the factory in Italy built all Petosa student models – later manufacturing the same high quality that goes into every Seattle-built Petosa. As in the early days, it still takes upwards of a year and sometimes longer, to build a Petosa from start to finish. As Joe Sr. says, ‘you can’t hurry quality’. The time involved in producing each accordion makes high-quantity production impossible. The wood used in the instruments must first be aged years before it is ever cut and shaped into accordion pieces. After a box is made, it must dry, age and season at minimum an additional 6 weeks. ‘A quality accordion is like a quality violin. You can’t just stamp one out, or make one on an assembly line with machines’.

Thanks to Rock n' Roll, the accordion industry as a whole laid mostly dormant throughout the late 70's, 80's and 90's.  As a highly successful accordion manufacturer, the company needed to get creative and chose to fulfill the needs of busy Seattle musicians. In 1977, now Petosa Music, focused on continuing the craft of building the world's highest quality accordions while offering a vast array of musical instruments and gear for the modern music scene. Joe Jr. and brothers established the company as one of Seattle's premier music stores that specialized in premium products and as always, focused primarily on customer service.  The motto still driving the company today, 'A product is only as good as the customer service behind it'.

After 94 years in Wallingford, a new era of business required a revamped facility that would offer a more suitable environment for modern times. In 2017, the company moved its headquarters north to Lynnwood, WA. The new location provides a much improved customer experience with a devoted parking lot, studios for demonstration purposes, an optimized service facility and shipping department to keep up with e-commerce, and much more. On any given day, the Lynnwood location will be active with visitors from all over the world.