cderv99 said:
Hi everyone!
I am a piano accordion player looking into moving over to the chromatic keyboard layout and I was wondering if anyone could help me out.
I am looking for a 5-row accordion that I can use to play Irish Traditional music in cramped locations such as pubs where such sessions take place! For this reason, I would need something lightweight and compact in size, however I would still like to have access to 120 bass keys...
This is probably a silly request but if there is any model out there which fits this description I'd be very helpful if anyone could offer a recommendation.
Thanks!
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Hi, and welcome to the forum.
I think you're going to have a hard job finding a lightweight/compact CBA with 120 bass buttons.
If you would be using swing tuning you could go down to a two voice MM, but most of those tend to have only 80 basses (96 bass minus the dim7 row).
If you are using the older three voice musette then it gets a bit harder, as anything in MMM or LMMM will be pretty heavy, and probably not very compact at all.
One thing you might find with CBA is if you do manage to get a compact instrument the short body can cause the box to bounce around a bit when you play, unless you loosen the straps right off and rest it on your knee. Some of them are more manageable like that, but not all.
There were a fair number of CBAs in NI for a time, but they were nearly all big LMMM boxes. I haven't been to Ireland for a very long time, and last time I was there I never played accordion, or indeed took any interest in it.
Don't know what the situation is with CBAs in Ireland these days. Fintan Stanley and one or two others used French CBA accordions for a while, might have been Piermarias, but they would have been pretty heavy.
One option I can think of for you is a Hohner Nova LMM, but it only has 96 basses. Weight is about 7.5kg. They are made in China and quality checked in Germany. If you can find one in Ireland they cost about €2000 brand new, but that high M reed is pretty wide out of the factory, maybe up about 18 cents, so it might not do for Irish, unless it is retuned. Personally, I'm not all that keen on them, but they do the job for not a lot of money.
You really can't beat Italian made, but even the Scandalli Air Junior C, in their lightweight range, weighs in at 8.8kg. It is a very compact instrument with 4 voice treble, with tuning to customer's spec, but it will cost about €3500 new, maybe slightly more. It too is only 96 bass.
As you already play accordion I would definitely try before you buy, if possible. Light and compact usually has some trade offs. I'm sure that Scandalli Air only has 37 playing notes with some of the treble buttons being dummies.
I'm sure others will chime in with more suggestions. All my CBA boxes are LMM, and aged between 30 and 70 years old. As such, none of them is particularly light or compact. Lightest one, a 96 bass Maugein Mini Sonora, is 10kg and heaviest is a 120 bass Cavagnolo Vedette 5 at 12.5kg. It has 56 playable notes in the treble which makes it a bit of a monster to lug around, yet it is only a three voice LMM with a tone chamber and just 5 register combinations.
Good luck, I think you're going to need it!
