For the benefit of people new to this scene: What is a "finto" accordion?

[Ffingers]

Dating back to the popular acts in the early 20th century, a 'finto' piano keyboard was introduced by players who deemed it necessary to appear to be playing piano keyboad instruments instead of their actual button systems.
It seems that the button keyboard was considered 'low class' by American audiences of the time.
Here is a reference to a ver much earlier post on this forum:

Thread 'Finto-Piano'

Feb 10, 2014

In the book The Golden Age of the Accordion there are excerpts here and there from old accordion company catalogs; an interesting feature of items available in the 1920s are accordions which have a piano keyboard plus a row of buttons below the keys, usually two but sometimes three. Somewhere else Id read that the piano keys were strictly for appearances sake, i.e., dummies, but that doesnt appear to be correct as Ill illustrate. The idea seemed to be to give the visual impression of a the then in vogue piano layout, while allowing the player to persist with using the CBA setup they were...

• KLR
• Replies: 21
• Forum: Accordion Makes & Models

...and here a player of considerable talent playing on a well restored instrument of the type:



The whole of his u-toob playlists are well worth devoting time to as well.

 

[Tom]

I had a Italo Polytone, beautifully restored by someone on here. I think it went to that guy in Green Bay along with the yellow Tiger. A couple oddballs. I don’t mean the craftsman or the Packer fan.

 

[JerryPH]

Thats the kind of accordion that best works in a museum, its a part of accordion history that will never be repeated again. It was at a time that everyone wanted piano accordions mostly in north america but button players had a hard time getting jobs... Finto to the rescue!

 

[losthobos]

I'd love a finto....all the advantages of buttons plus you can run some glissandos and slurs too . Not to mention looking cool as cucumber

 

[Tom]

I'd love a finto....all the advantages of buttons plus you can run some glissandos and slurs too . Not to mention looking cool as cucumber

The third, piano, row on this one is the third chromatic row, not piano notes. Whether it matters for your glissando I don’t know. I wish I had known, although shipping to you might have been prohibitive. I will keep an eye out, they turn up now and again. I’ve had a couple.

 

[ColoRodney]

I remember some discussion on here of how there were higher tariffs on CBAs than on piano accordions for quite a while. Whether they were high enough to create an entirely deceptive line of instruments, I don't know.

 

[SteveBox]

The third, piano, row on this one is the third chromatic row, not piano notes.

Does that mean the black keys are non-functional and are there only to fool the audience?

 

[losthobos]

@Tom thanks brother, really kind of you....
However, even better you've enlightened me to the fact that the piano keys are not laid out as standard. Finto looks cool but isn't gonna handle the gliss or blues slurs....so better I know now rather than have bought one to discover myself .....damn fraudsters...

 

[Tom]

Does that mean the black keys are non-functional and are there only to fool the audience?

I believe so but I don’t fully remember because I didn’t learn enough CBA to play the accordion. Maybe someone else can say….

 

[Ventura]

each immigrant wave seemed to have a period or an area
here in the USA, as the current lowest class on the totem pole..
we were shielded FROM our ethnic heritage as children, even at
the same time as the ethnic churches and areas and festivals
lived around us, we were all raised as WASP's basically..
King Arthur was the hero.. not Garibaldi..

i recall Latin class as a sophomore, the teacher wondering why
i was so bad at Latin when it should come natural to me..
and at the time i didn't have a clue why he said that..

so i can totally understand the Pro's of that time on Gigs
in their elegant tuxedo's and perfect hair trying their best to
look and sound NOTHING like a coarse immigrant
...hiding behind the Finto keyboard

it is kind of sad to remember, even sadder that the "totem-pole"
of being an immigrant is perhaps even worse today than ever
before in our history

so for me, it is sort of like the Civil War.. when you think of the
reasons behind it, makes it kind of hard to smile about or celebrate it
though some of those Finto accordions are incredible looking

 

[Zevy]

Does that mean the black keys are non-functional and are there only to fool the audience?

Yup. Charles Nunzio told me that Frosini, as great as he was, had a hard time getting gigs because the audience and the producers wanted to see the piano accordion. That’s why he always had one of those .

 

[TimeSwan]

I just recently worked on this for a customer. A real beaut! I never knew they were called Fintos, I've been telling people it's a CBA . Thanks for the info!

 

[Tom]

I just recently worked on this for a customer. A real beaut! I never knew they were called Fintos, I've been telling people it's a CBA . Thanks for the info!

Wow that's a beaut!!!

 

[JerryPH]

Not the kindest choice of words, but accurate... lol

 

[SteveBox]

So in Italian, it was the "Fake Accordion". They certainly weren't trying to hide anything. It's amazing that there was a time when the keyboard design of your instrument was as important to your audience as the music you played on it. I suppose today's digital instruments are the modern "Finto Accordions", but fake in a different way.