Always Wondered About This

[benc]

Hello Everyone,Caroccio Improv
First Timer Here. Live here in Seabrook,TX now. Roots in Parma Hts, Ohio (Cleveand). Always wondered about this: What was the accordion set-up for Art Van Damme's Excelsior Accordion? 3 Reed? LMM? Was it a single tone chamber or Double? I play a little Jazz these days and have an Imperial Tone Master now. I hope not to get beat up too badly but here is a sample of mine a few yrs back. Desire is to purchase an LLMM Accordion with a power bassoon reed sound...you know that you can real feel in your chest! (The accordion in the video is not the Imperial). Hope I am not out of line here with my video but wanted to share-introduce...good or bad. Thanks.....

 

[Pipemajor]

Hi benc and welcome to the forum.
Sorry I cant answer your questions but someone will be along shortly who can.
Just wanted to say I loved the sound and your playing .
Now if only I could play half as good as you

 

[benc]

Pipemajor, thank you so much. I am relearning the accordion again after stepping away from it to play the B3 -piano I'm looking forward to learning from the many knowledgeable people on the Forum. I'm in my early '70s now and remember playing the accordion with trios and quartets at parties and weddings... so enjoyable that's gone now but my love for the instrument remains. Thank you again.

 

[Tom]

Welcome Ben!

 

[benc]

Welcome Ben!

Hi Tom! Beautiful Accordion picture in your profile. What is the Make - Model and Reed Configuration?

 

[Dingo40]

Hope I am not out of line here with my video but wanted to share-introduce..

Welcome Ben!
I loved it!

 

[benc]

Welcome Ben!
I loved it!

Dingo, Thank you. I haven't played the accordion before the public in 10yrs. So gratifying to hear again! I am interested in purchasing the Beltuna Leader or the Art Van Damme AC Symphony Gold is Excelsior. Thank you for the insights from past threads from You and Phil... a cut and paste from an earlier thread is below: But how much will it set me back? Any additional thoughts here Dingo? Thanks in advance here.

PhiliGol said: Hi Dano
"Not sure what details you already know / you're looking for.
As I once had the pleasure to play on one I know at least a few:
The AC Symphony Gold is Excelsiors top-line instrument - an evolution of the famous "Continental"-series.
By default ct comes with a 42 (incl. low E)/120 - 4/6 configuration.
When you opt for the "Art van Damme" Edition you get a 16/16c/8c/4 (where c means in cassotto aka double-tone-chamber).
Also AvD editions by default don't come the the Sordino (which is a standard feature of the Symphony Gold)."

"This instrument seems a custom built:
1) it comes with 44 treble keys (it goes up to high C, but misses the low E of a 45/42 keyboard)
2) 10 treble switches (standard is 13) suggest that either it's a 3 chorus instrument with sordino open/mute switches or 4 chorus with some combinations missing
3) the AvD label suggests that it's a model w/o sordino and LLMH config.
A photo from the switch-ensemble will disclose details on treble reed-set."

"This is really a job for our members Paul Debra and JimD, but, until they come along, I'll have a go .
A "sordino" is a mechanism for muting and softening the sound coming from the instrument that can be switched on or off at will.
"AvD" simply refers to Art Van Danme, a famous jazz accordionist of the middle 20th century ( lots of videos on YouTube) who gave his name to a particular reed set arrangement as used in the accordion he himself played.
This reed arrangement has 4 sets of reeds ( or voices) comprising of two Low reed sets, a Middle reed set and a High reed set. Hence the acronym "LLMH".
The "Low" reed sets produce a range of sounds approximating to a 16 foot long organ pipe.
The "Middle" reed set approximate to the 8 foot long organ pipe.
The "High" reed set approximates to the 4 foot long organ pipe.)
"Cassotto" is a compartment built into the structure of the accordion for housing one or two sets of reeds with the intention of mellowing the sound they pro"

 

[PhiliGol]

Hi Ben
Welcome to the community and greetings to TX.
I've very good remembering to Austin - been there few times.
Great evenings with awesome Steaks and Rombauer Carneros at Steiner Ranch

Big shoutout to your Caroccio improvisation, I can see you did touch a B3 already then.
Wish I could operate at least one of my instruments (never mind if it's the accordion or the A100) only half as good.

To answer your question about AvD's accordion:
He used to play a custom built Excelsior based on the AC Continental.
3 reed-banks 16´+ 8´ in cassotto, another 16' à cassotto.
As per Excelsior Germany web-page AvD models still can be ordered and will be custom-built as per original (AVD3) or 4-chorus config.

 

[benc]

Thank you for the reply Phil! I would love to visit Bavaria or Dingo in Australia. The U.S. has change do much in the last Decade. Accordion is a forgotten instrument these days. As I said in a prvious post Europe holds on to their culture and still values music of the past, and Fine Arts.

Phil or Dingo, Do you know how I would go about ordering the Excelsior? ....and the cost? Regards....

 

[benc]

correction...US has change since the 1950s - 60s when accordion was King here.

 

[Xiane]

Thank you for the reply Phil! I would love to visit Bavaria or Dingo in Australia. The U.S. has change do much in the last Decade. Accordion is a forgotten instrument these days. As I said in a prvious post Europe holds on to their culture and still values music of the past, and Fine Arts.

Phil or Dingo, Do you know how I would go about ordering the Excelsior? ....and the cost? Regards....

Well, you're at least in place where the accordion, the diatonic accordion at least, hasn't been forgotten at all. It's thriving, actually.

Between the Cajun/Zydeco and the Norteno/TexMex world in and around Houston, there's plenty of accordion to be heard. Take a road trip to Louisiana to Marc Savoy's store or one of the many venues with great music and great food around Lafayette. There are almost infinitely more people hand making accordions, or really melodeons, in Louisiana and Southeast Texas than there were in the 1960s.

And Clifton Chenier was one of the greatest Zydeco accordionists of all time, and he played PA.

 

[Tom]

Hi Tom! Beautiful Accordion picture in your profile. What is the Make - Model and Reed Configuration?

Hey thanks Ben. That is a 2 reed, smaller sized Lira accordion. Two treble switches, high reed, or high and lower reed. It’s the first accordion I ever had and I love it, but I mostly play my newer accordion.

 

[benc]

Well, you're at least in place where the accordion, the diatonic accordion at least, hasn't been forgotten at all. It's thriving, actually.

Between the Cajun/Zydeco and the Norteno/TexMex world in and around Houston, there's plenty of accordion to be heard. Take a road trip to Louisiana to Marc Savoy's store or one of the many venues with great music and great food around Lafayette. There are almost infinitely more people hand making accordions, or really melodeons, in Louisiana and Southeast Texas than there were in the 1960s.

And Clifton Chenier was one of the greatest Zydeco accordionists of all time, and he played PA.

Well, you're at least in place where the accordion, the diatonic accordion at least, hasn't been forgotten at all. It's thriving, actually.

Between the Cajun/Zydeco and the Norteno/TexMex world in and around Houston, there's plenty of accordion to be heard. Take a road trip to Louisiana to Marc Savoy's store or one of the many venues with great music and great food around Lafayette. There are almost infinitely more people hand making accordions, or really melodeons, in Louisiana and Southeast Texas than there were in the 1960s.

And Clifton Chenier was one of the greatest Zydeco accordionists of all time, and he played PA.

Hello, that's true. I have visited I Louisiana and live in Southeast in Texas. I should have been more specific in the genre of music and the piano accordion that I played the various styles of music for those times of the 50s and 60s. I was really not referring to the current manufacturing of accordions nor the Cajun/Zydeco and the Norteno/TexMex styles. It is music of my youth, 50s and 60s and the involvement of local musicians playing it live is what is gone.

 

[PhiliGol]

Do you know how I would go about ordering the Excelsior?

Hi Ben
From Excelsior's homepage I can't discover a US-representative:
https://www.excelsior-accordions.it/distributori/?lang=en

At least it gives you an overview on all models and spec-sheets.

Surprisingly it doesn't mention the Art-van-Damme edition I mentioned earlier.
I obtained this information from their German rep:
http://pigini.bplaced.net/EXCELSIOR_Akkordeons.htm
unfortunately this part of the webpage is not available in English language.

 

[PhiliGol]

I would love to visit Bavaria

Hi Ben
Why not combining the pleasant with the useful?
There's a nearby music-shop who has a Symphony Gold on display.
He's requesting 10.500,- for it (saying list-price is/was €13.200,-).
As far as I know it's a new instrument (basically a demo-box) and comes with a 5 year warranty/service.

 

[benc]

Hi Ben
From Excelsior's homepage I can't discover a US-representative:
https://www.excelsior-accordions.it/distributori/?lang=en

At least it gives you an overview on all models and spec-sheets.

Surprisingly it doesn't mention the Art-van-Damme edition I mentioned earlier.
I obtained this information from their German rep:
http://pigini.bplaced.net/EXCELSIOR_Akkordeons.htm
unfortunately this part of the webpage is not available in English language.

Hi Ben
Why not combining the pleasant with the useful?
There's a nearby music-shop who has a Symphony Gold on display.
He's requesting 10.500,- for it (saying list-price is/was €13.200,-).
As far as I know it's a new instrument (basically a demo-box) and comes with a 5 year warranty/service.

Wow, thanks so much Phil for taking time to post all this information! Very useful. Yes I should realize now that a symphony gold is not going to be cheap as far as cost. I wish that web page wasn't English that would be useful. I'm sure there's an AI app out there that will convert the page.... There is a shop in the United States Liberty bellows that probably most members know about they may be able to contact them directly on a custom build.

 

[Pipemajor]

Wow, thanks so much Phil for taking time to post all this information! Very useful. Yes I should realize now that a symphony gold is not going to be cheap as far as cost. I wish that web page wasn't English that would be useful. I'm sure there's an AI app out there that will convert the page.... There is a shop in the United States Liberty bellows that probably most members know about they may be able to contact them directly on a custom build.

Google translate is your friend

 

[benc]

Perfect...thanks PM!

 

[PhiliGol]

There is a shop in the United States Liberty bellows...

Yeah, always worth to contact Mike in Phili.
Now you may get an idea what instrument I bought from 'em about 10 years ago and brought her (the queen ) back to Germany.
Let me know in case I can be of any help.
I can always ring up Heinz from Excelsior Germany, check out the Symphony GOLD (and ask for an ultimate offer for a US-friend) close by ...

 

[benc]

Perfect...thanks Phil!

Sorry...thanks

Yeah, always worth to contact Mike in Phili.
Now you may get an idea what instrument I bought from 'em about 10 years ago and brought her (the queen ) back to Germany.
Let me know in case I can be of any help.
I can always ring up Heinz from Excelsior Germany, check out the Symphony GOLD (and ask for an ultimate offer for a US-friend) close by ...

Just may do that. I'll keep you posted Phil