Busking with my new Custom designed Solloni Accordion. What do you think?

[breezybellows]

Kevin Solecki from Carnegie Accordion Company mentioned that he can customize my accordion order any way I want. That sounded like a great idea and I went all out.

These are the specs of my accordion

Bass
6 Sets of Artagiana Voci A Mano reeds on the bass side.
The 6th set is one octave lower than what is usually the lowest set. Bass is very deep. Not sure if this is what is called Helikon Bass.
Stradella/Frebass converter (C system chromatic)
Bass Decoupler switch (for tuba style bass)

Treble
4 sets of LMMH reeds
two extra sets of M- and M+ reeds to make it into a wet tuned accordion. Artagiana Voci A Mano Reeds.

Design
Custom Grill with custom paint job.
Top half has A dolphin jumping out of water with a full moon in its background.
Bottom half has the reflection of the dolphin and the full moon on the water.
Blue Natural keys
Sharp keys have a paint job. Blue fades to white.


I took this out to Henry Cowell State Redwood Park to play some songs. Here's the video. What do you folks think?

 

[debra]

Nice design (although I still prefer the traditional black with white white keys). Not your typical busking accordion as it must weigh a ton...
The deepest bass reed you can have is a C1. Many convertor accordions go down to E1. Standard bass only accordions go down to F1 or A1 or on some smaller ones C2. So you're not going a full octave lower than what is "usually" the lowest note, but you are going down as low as possible on an accordion. And no, that's not called Helikon bass. Helikon is a special bass construction with reed plates that are trapezoidal in thickness and that have LM together on a single reed plate to help the L reeds start faster. But they are not going down lower than normal reeds.
It certainly is a fine accordion. Enjoy it!

 

[Dingo40]

BB,
Sounds great!

 

[breezybellows]

Nice design (although I still prefer the traditional black with white white keys). Not your typical busking accordion as it must weigh a ton...
The deepest bass reed you can have is a C1. Many convertor accordions go down to E1. Standard bass only accordions go down to F1 or A1 or on some smaller ones C2. So you're not going a full octave lower than what is "usually" the lowest note, but you are going down as low as possible on an accordion. And no, that's not called Helikon bass. Helikon is a special bass construction with reed plates that are trapezoidal in thickness and that have LM together on a single reed plate to help the L reeds start faster. But they are not going down lower than normal reeds.
It certainly is a fine accordion. Enjoy it!

Thanks for the info. I assumed it was a whole octave lower because of the size of the reeds.
Its pretty heavy and I found it hard to handle for the first few days. Now I'm pretty comfortable with it. Busked out a few times and played a couple of hours each time. It has a sweet tone but its not as loud as my Petosa with Guidobaldi reeds. It sounds magnificent indoors.

 

[Walker]

It's a lovely accordion. Bright and colourful. That's what the world needs from time to time. It suits your musical style too.

Your AM1100 sounds great too.

It's good that people are having custom instruments made. I shows the accordion is still vibrant. That reminds me of another accordion I saw yesterday. It was just newly built and the photos were on the Victoria Accordions fb page - A Victoria Poeta A420VP Quintconverter in special dark wood finish. Beautiful instrument. It could have done with a few painted dolphins though.

Thanks BB for the great video.​

 

[Neil Thornock]

I had seen a video some months ago demonstrating your accordion. Such a beautiful instrument! Thanks for sharing!

The deepest bass reed you can have is a C1.

Curious why this is, since pipe organs have free reed stops going down at least to C-1. Reed size? Pressure limitations?

 

[debra]

I had seen a video some months ago demonstrating your accordion. Such a beautiful instrument! Thanks for sharing!

Curious why this is, since pipe organs have free reed stops going down at least to C-1. Reed size? Pressure limitations?

With "deepest bass reed you can have" I mean the lowest that is being produced. Reeds start at C1 and go up to C#8. There are no lower reeds, and also no higher notes. Of course it would be theoretically possible to make reeds that go even lower. They would either be very large of have very large added weights, resulting in a weak sound.
Don't forget that C1 is already so low that we are approaching the limits of the human hearing. Go lower and you start "feeling" the sound more than "hearing" it. A piano goes down to A0 but the notes below C1 become more and more rumble and less "note".

 

[Walker]

In my humble opinion any musical instrument that can go from C1 (or even E1) to C8 or C#8 is quite special. I am not sure that the accordion really needs to go any further. Yes piano and organ have a greater compass of notes but there are equally wonderful instruments that have a much smaller range, like the violin, clarinet or cello. The lowest note on my accordion is C2 bass to A7 treble, not gigantic, but I am not sure I would really want a greater range. Better tone quality is what matters to me more.

Anyway, a wise man once told me that the accordion should not try to imitate the organ. I wish more people would follow that advice -. I'm sick of hearing the Toccata and Fugue in D min on the accordion .

 

[breezybellows]

In my humble opinion any musical instrument that can go from C1 (or even E1) to C8 or C#8 is quite special. I am not sure that the accordion really needs to go any further. Yes piano and organ have a greater compass of notes but there are equally wonderful instruments that have a much smaller range, like the violin, clarinet or cello. The lowest note on my accordion is C2 bass to A7 treble, not gigantic, but I am not sure I would really want a greater range. Better tone quality is what matters to me more.

Anyway, a wise man once told me that the accordion should not try to imitate the organ. I wish more people would follow that advice -. I'm sick of hearing the Toccata and Fugue in D min on the accordion .

I would love to learn toccata and fugue in D minor.

 

[Neil Thornock]

With "deepest bass reed you can have" I mean the lowest that is being produced.

Thanks, that answers it!

In my humble opinion any musical instrument that can go from C1 (or even E1) to C8 or C#8 is quite special. I am not sure that the accordion really needs to go any further. Yes piano and organ have a greater compass of notes but there are equally wonderful instruments that have a much smaller range, like the violin, clarinet or cello. The lowest note on my accordion is C2 bass to A7 treble, not gigantic, but I am not sure I would really want a greater range. Better tone quality is what matters to me more.

Anyway, a wise man once told me that the accordion should not try to imitate the organ. I wish more people would follow that advice -. I'm sick of hearing the Toccata and Fugue in D min on the accordion .

Total agreement on all points! To paraphrase Messiaen, the limited possibilities are (or ought to be) part of the charm...