Greetings from North Dakota!

[Perogie]

Hey all, long time non-account holding lurker and admirer of the forum.

I have owned my Cordovox I lovingly call 'the beast' (due to its heft) for about 15 years and semi-recently acquired a budget 48 bass "soprani" that I just use for ease of practice or if something pops into my head I want to play.

Though in the last few decades I've played more guitar than accordion that is mostly due to having at least one baby in the house for over a decade! Now that my youngest is about to turn 5 I can finally practice more freely without either inducing chaos or waking someone up!



I know this is generally tacky, but I've never really known details on the Cordovox. It came with all the electronics and tube amps when I got it, and they worked initially but I believe I need to replace some tubes. The accordion itself is wonderful to play, and feels effortless to play other than the weight to heft myself into the straps. I would be delighted if anyone had anything to add to my knowledge of this instrument.

Nice to finally say hello, it's very nice that this place exists for accordion enthusiasts.

 

[Dingo40]

Welcome, Perogie!
I believe we have several members here with Cordovox experience.

 

[Ben-jammin]

Perogie,

There was a thread with a link a while ago that discussed in detail the history of electronic assisted accordions.

History

There might just be some of us interested in the beginning and development of electronically assisted acoustic accordions. http://caffetrieste.com/Abrief.pdf It starts in the 60s and carries thru the 90s when Midi equipped accordions became popular and has resulted in the V accordion today...

www.accordionists.info

There may be someone on the forum that can give good advice if they understand the specific symptoms of the issue(s) with your tone generator or amplifier. There are a lot of potential points of failure in that system and at 60 years old I would expect it to have many components on the verge of failure. Tubes generally are higher voltage lower current devices compared to solid state so those circuits will see higher voltages than most modern consumer electronics, and the power supply capacitors can hold a lethal charge after being unplugged. Maybe you know that but it needs said.

You may want to consider how much you would be interested in investing to get that working and how reliable it needs to be. My expectation is that it may require a significant outlay to get it “good as new” which may not be as reliable as a modernish midi installation on a different accordion. In my mind it only make sense if you’re dead set to have those particular sounds or you have the skills and time to do the work yourself and you look at the work as a hobby.

 

[Tom]

Welcome Perogie!

 

[Perogie]

Hey Ben! Thank you for that link, I'll dig into that soon.

I'm honestly not really looking to repair the electronics of the Cordovox, I love my banjos and acoustic guitars so I prefer to play my box the same way. I would probably be more intrigued by removing the chaff and making it lighter but that's not really necessary either since I'm a fairly tall and (relatively) in shape the weight doesn't bother me. I have always been curious as to the beasts age and those sort of nuances.

I've been around here long enough to recognize that all of you are a fantastic wealth of knowledge and I'm just happy to soak it all in. I keep seeing LLM and acronyms like that which I don't understand yet too. For my limited playing time I feel like I can carry an accordion tune by ear somewhat effortlessly and being a musician I understand that it's more about patience and muscle memory (and having some rhythm).

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[JeffJetton]

Welcome!

Glad to see someone here from North Dakota -- birthplace of Lawrence Welk.

 

[JerryPH]

Wasn't there a fairly recent thread where someone posted some Cordovox manuals or something similar in PDF?

EDIT: Found it!

Cordovox Manual & Brochure

I am unable to play my accordion for the next few days as I just had cordisone shots in both thumbs. To amuse myself I have been sorting through my old music stuff. I came across the old original manual for my Cordovox - long since gone. Probably not many of us left who still remember them...

www.accordionists.info

 

[Perogie]

Nice! Thanks Jerry

 

[Perogie]

@JerryPH

You nailed it with the manuals. Looks like a 1960-1962 Electra CG-2 is the model of "the Beast"; so thank you again.

I've seen complaints on here and elsewhere about weight of it, but i've played other 120 bass accordions and to me it doesn't seem like there's all that much difference. Obviously its much heavier than my 48 Bass Soprani but that is to be expected. I'm no aficionado however, to me they both sound wonderful. Maybe I just haven't had the good graces to be in the presence of a truly fine box?

 

[96Bass]

Hey all, long time non-account holding lurker and admirer of the forum.

I have owned my Cordovox I lovingly call 'the beast' (due to its heft) for about 15 years and semi-recently acquired a budget 48 bass "soprani" that I just use for ease of practice or if something pops into my head I want to play.

Though in the last few decades I've played more guitar than accordion that is mostly due to having at least one baby in the house for over a decade! Now that my youngest is about to turn 5 I can finally practice more freely without either inducing chaos or waking someone up!



I know this is generally tacky, but I've never really known details on the Cordovox. It came with all the electronics and tube amps when I got it, and they worked initially but I believe I need to replace some tubes. The accordion itself is wonderful to play, and feels effortless to play other than the weight to heft myself into the straps. I would be delighted if anyone had anything to add to my knowledge of this instrument.

Nice to finally say hello, it's very nice that this place exists for accordion enthusiasts.

Hello Perogie, I just posted a video in the "I Like That" section that features an outstanding Cordovox Player from 1960s Los Angeles.
It is titled "Lewis & Marone". This era was the hay day of the Cordovox.

 

[Rosie C]

Hey all, long time non-account holding lurker and admirer of the forum.

I have owned my Cordovox I lovingly call 'the beast' (due to its heft) for about 15 years and semi-recently acquired a budget 48 bass "soprani" that I just use for ease of practice or if something pops into my head I want to play.

That is an impressive instrument. Welcome to the forum!

 

[OuijaBoard]

@JerryPH

You nailed it with the manuals. Looks like a 1960-1962 Electra CG-2 is the model of "the Beast"; so thank you again.

I've seen complaints on here and elsewhere about weight of it, but i've played other 120 bass accordions and to me it doesn't seem like there's all that much difference. Obviously its much heavier than my 48 Bass Soprani but that is to be expected. I'm no aficionado however, to me they both sound wonderful. Maybe I just haven't had the good graces to be in the presence of a truly fine box?

There's no need to apologize for finding the sound of a small two-voice accordion wonderful. There's an emphasis on this site of premium-grade full-size, multi-reed-bank, multi-register accordions, preferably with tone chambers the way people carry on. But a small two-voice (or slightly bigger 3-voice) accordion can indeed sound wonderful, and listeners do not and will not care how many reed banks, registers, or tone chambers the instrument has. The big accordion with more keys and bass buttons can be used for more complex multi-voiced chordal and/or counterpoint music. If the experience you're looking for is an experience akin to that of playing an organ, those instruments give you that experience. But if you're looking to play a melody instrument, or for a player experience similar to playing a violin (or fiddle for folk players), there's nothing like a small 2-voice MM. They can sing like a voice, the way a fiddle or violin or clarinet does. A small 2-voice LM can come close to the physical and expressive experience of playing a tango bandoneon. And small PAs or CBAs can be played chordally, too, to a large degree.