From: rsholmes@rodan.syr.EDU (Rich Holmes)
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
Subject: Re: Button accordion info req
Date: 19 Aug 92 16:12:37 GMT
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
In-reply-to: edwardd@yang.earlham.edu's message of 18 Aug 92 16:41:14 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.114114.19379@yang.earlham.edu> edwardd@yang.earlham.edu writes:

>I think the bug has bit me good.  I have just consumed by recent issue of
>Concertina and Sqeezebox magazine and have decided to look for a button
>accordion to learn. I play English concetina and know nothing about
>accordions. I want to play Irish music, particularly for contra dances.
>I really want an affordable learners instrument in a useful key.
>
>What should I look for?  I'm used to being able to play in any key on
>my concertian. Will I be able to do that on an accordion? I've never
>played piano so a big accordion with a piano keyboard seems daunting.
>I'll be learing on my own, so what instruction books/tapes should I get?
>
>Also, I go to auctions and sales a lot and see old german button accordions
>often.  They have almost always baked in an attic for decades.  How can
>I tell what instrument might be worth restoring?
>
>
>Thanks in advance,

Be not fooled by appearances: The button accordions you see being used
for Irish music are (almost always) not the same as the German two-row
instruments that bake in attics. The latter are almost always
melodeons, or diatonic button accordions (no flame-wars over
terminology please; some people regard the melodeon as a type of
button accordion, some don't, I do and I don't care if you don't) with
diatonic rows tuned a fifth apart, e.g. D on the outside, G on the
inside. It's pretty much like an Anglo concertina, if that helps.
What it sounds like you want is the kind of instrument usually used in
Irish music (but almost always made in Italy!), which has two diatonic
rows tuned a half step apart, e.g. B and C. Each row is the same sort
of thing as on a melodeon, or Anglo concertina: different note on the
push and pull and no notes outside the diatonic scale; but between the
two rows you have all notes available and you can in principle play
tunes in any key. (You still only have a few keys for which you can
play appropriate basses, though... unless you want to dig up an
instrument like one John Kirkpatrick plays, with 3 rows (B/C/C#?) on
the right hand and about 80 bass buttons (similar to a piano
accordion's) on the left.

If you do become tempted by a pre-baked instrument, though, I'd check
for a couple of things:

(1) Is it a well-enough known brand that you can get replacement parts
for it?

(2) How are the bellows? Dangle it by one end with the air button (and
note buttons) closed and see how long it takes to open up. If it's an
inch a second, you're a winner. If it's ten inches a second, forget
it -- assuming it's the bellows that's leaking and not, say, leaky
pads on the note pallets. If the bellows has no more than a few minor
leaks and it's, say, a Hohner, you're likely to be able to get someone
(like Rich Morse at The Button Box, address in C&S) to fix it up for
you at reasonable cost; if the bellows are shot, restoration is likely
to cost more that it's worth.

By the way, I just got a Lark In the Morning catalog and I notice the
price on new 2-row Hohner melodeons has gone up from something like
$585 last year to $735 this year! Outrageous! But the good news is,
Castagnaris are up only about 10% or so. The Studio, which I bought
for about $550 three years ago, is still under $1000... :-o


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