donn said:
maugein96 said:
Three voice LMM to French spec, probably favouring Italian over French construction, with reeds pinned and not waxed. No bellows straps and treble couplers on the rear. 80 bass would do me, as French boxes typically don't have a dim7 row. You can get dim7 substitute by hitting the 7th button on the row below due to the way they arrange the 7th chords.
(I think that may have come out wrong - you're actually favoring ze French here, if I am not mistaken.)
I know you aren't all that "keyed up" over the 3rd bass row you just dismissed with that 80 row spec, but are you sure the 80 bass 7th row is like the dim/7th on a French 120? Logically it's what one would expect, but I remember a discussion here where we had a regular time of it trying to verify whether 80 bass is normally configured that way, or with the common 2+4 7th.
The position I usually take on the 120 bass option is "why not?" - it's what you're going to get anyway, because that's what they made, and why not? - the same reeds with some extra rods and buttons. Those who insist on 96 basses are just making excuses for not getting an accordion, by requiring something they won't find. Maybe it's different over there on the other side of the world.
But on the treble side - it would depend on which extra notes I get. If the difference between 34 and 41 turned out to be 7 notes on the high end, then I'd go for 34. Once I played a tune for my Morris dancer ladies on the high end of my keyboard, that was good for laughs for a minute. Only time I've ever been up there with anyone listening.
The Jarrett piano anecdote reminds me of one that's easy to find on youtube - pianist Eliane Rodrigues finds the piano not working right, with a stuck sustain pedal or something, and manages to make a rather entertaining show out of the process of getting it hauled off and replaced.
Donn,
Over the years I have discovered that in general terms, Italian accordions made for the French market by Mengascini, Piermaria, Ballone Burini, and one or two others, offer better value for money than the French "big two" of Cavagnolo and Maugein. They also appear to be of more robust construction. Fratelli Crosio gave those two a run for their money for many years, and Accordiola put another dent in the same market. Hohner now do a French range that is made in Italy, and a major dealer in Nice has first class instruments made in Italy branded under the name Bonifassi, which is the owner's surname.
You can still find used French spec boxes by Paolo Soprani and Crucianelli in some French accordion stores.
All of those Italian instruments are made to what has become known as "French standard", i.e. no bellows straps, rear mounted treble couplers, reeds pinned on cork, and stepped mushroom bass buttons arranged 3/3.
I'm now sorry I mentioned that Dim7 "trick," as I cannot remember the theory behind it. The only method book I have ever seen for 3/3, covered the basics and was by Paul Chalier, a French pro player who devised his own method of playing C system CBA with 3/3 bass using as few fingers as possible. In my lifetime I have seen only four French accordions in the UK with 3/3 bass, and all the others, including mine, are 2/4. Consequently I wasn't able to utilise Paul Chalier's book.
I took lessons for a while when I lived in Scotland and the teacher explained that French accordions don't use the same three notes as Italian makers do to form the 7th chords on the bass side. He demonstrated the difference between the two on various occasions, and I remembered it, for all of about 30 seconds. He further explained that by such an arrangement, players of 3/3 bass could get a substitute dim7, by playing the 7th chord in the row below, i.e. for Cdim7 play F7. Maybe it was G7, but I can no longer remember. I've never been a bass wizard and am happy just to muddle through and find something that sounds OK. Only formal instruction I had was on trumpet, where if you managed to play a chord you were shown the door!
I know one or two members on here who play 3/3 and have that theory all worked out, and maybe they'll pick up on this. In older times, some French accordion teachers expected their pupils to learn on a 80 bass, then move up to 100 bass, before finally tackling 3/3. Dino Margelli was one such teacher, and I don't think I ever saw an illustration of him on the cover of his many compositions, where he had an accordion with 6 rows of basses. Cavagnolo's latest "gimmick" is 108 bass.
Short answer is I prefer French style accordions, but if I ever bought another one it probably wouldn't be a Cavagnolo or a Maugein.
