Do Luca diatonic with Helicon bass.

[KGHM]

Hello.

I am still waiting for it's arrival but cannot find any information about a Do Luca Bros. diatonic button accordion with Helicon bass that I recently purchased. The only information for this accordion is from the same place I bought it from. Any pictures online are of this exact instrument ! I was told it is probably mid 70's vintage. I'm wondering if someone out there owns one or knows anything about it.This is very strange to me as there are plenty of Do Luca piano keyboard accordions for sale with videos to match. Nothing on the diatonic ! Any information would be great.
Thanks.

 

[JIM D.]

There was a dealer in the US 70 years ago from Miluakee, Wis. that imported PA accordions from Italy and sold them under the name of Lo Duca Bros. Their line of accordions NEVER included diatonic's with Helicon basses. You just might have bought yourself a pig in a poke. :roll:

 

[KGHM]

Im afraid to ask...What have I bought ?? Thank you for your help.

 

[JIM D.]

Well the Lo Duca Bros. badge is real and the box looks of Italian origin. I must admit that I have never seen or can find no literature on the now defunct Lo Duca firm importing button boxes. All the accordions sold by the late Lo Duca Bros. (a US importer and not a manufacturer) were made in Italy by more than one manufacturer to the Lo Duca spec's and then shipped here were the Lo Duca Badge applied. This one undoubtedly was ordered for a very special customer. A new one on me and I'm very interested. By all means let us know how it performs, and if you can manage it, more pic's. That mic connector on the bottom of the grill is a 1940's early 50's type and the overall finish is superb!
:tup: A rare find :tup:

 

[KGHM]

I'm feeling much better now that you've seen it. It came from a large and well know dealer who said it had been checked over and was in excellent condition and built primarily for Polka. I'll be more than happy when it arrives and will send more pictures. With your comments and wealth of experience I'm feeling even more excited to get it in my hands. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge

 

[donn]

You can find out more about helicon bass accordions and the music they're used for. When searching it will probably be more productive to spell it "helikon", and "steirische harmonika" is worth a try too. Note the large apertures on the left side of these accordions - behind it is literally a helical horn, hence the name, connected to a heavy bass reed. They can sound pretty awesome, and they can sound kind of ridiculous too. I don't see the external evidence of this gimmick on yours, but I think the real point is that it should have hearty bass reeds, and the horn is maybe less important.

 

[KGHM]

I started with a piano keyboard accordion. It was a Noble that was on consignment at a music store in Dade County Florida. I've bought and sold many in both piano and diatonic button since then. The accordion is an awesome instrument and this is going to be an awesome site to get information. I play diatonic button accordion. A one row Weltmeister Cajun, a three row Hohner classic, a Hohner Erica that was left to me by a friend and also a Hohner IIIn extreme. Now this Do Luca. I wish I had known about The Accordionist years ago. I'll take your advice when searching. Thank you for your help.

 

[KGHM]

A strange instrument to say the least! As pointed out, the mic connector looks very old. Each row has two buttons on each end that do nothing. There are no reeds for these 12 buttons! Why it was done this way I have no idea. There is no Helicon or Helikon horn in or outside. These bass reeds are mounted right under the bass buttons inside and are huge. There is not a reed block for the bass of any kind. It sounds like a foghorn and you can feel the strong vibrations for those reeds in your chest. I'm still not sure of the treble layout. It is mark as being made in Italy and sounds very nice. Although there is a serial number, I still cannot find any information on it. I'll try to get some pictures up next week. Thanks.

 

[TomBR]

A strange instrument to say the least! As pointed out, the mic connector looks very old. Each row has two buttons on each end that do nothing. There are no reeds for these 12 buttons! Why it was done this way I have no idea.

Its not often spoken about, but the diatonic note layout of a push-pull accordion only really works over a couple of octaves and a bit beyond that in either direction. Outside that you have patterns aimed at harmony rather than tunes.
As shown on this layout with 13 buttons in the middle row.
http://buttonbox.org.uk/images/37keychart.pdf
Hence dummy buttons, Id guess.

Multi-octave chromatic harmonicas get round this by having repeated notes in each octave, so that the layout is consistent in each octave.

 

[KGHM]

Thanks for sending that interesting link. There are 52 buttons on this Lo Duca diatonic accordion. The 12 buttons I mentioned do nothing... no sound, no reeds. I took it apart to see if something was damaged in shipping. It's almost like they designed it that way solely to balance the overall appearance. So now there are 40 working buttons which fits in with your comments on harmony over tunes. There is nothing online to research for this instrument. Thanks for your input.