My Dream Accordion!, what is yours?

[Richard]

Hello Friends! I’m writing to tell you of my dream accordion after searching for years….and to ask all of you what your dream accordion might be and what features you considered to make your decision. I’m 83 and all my playing life I’ve searched and yearned to find that one special instrument that would give me the sound that when playing it would make me to Not want to put it down, just beautiful! And I Did find it and am writing to share my discovery and happiness with you!
To me the perfect accordion has to have the “sound”? A deep robust rich organ like
Tone, powerful that would need minimal amplification in a general venue. BUT, along with the treble voices is the Bass! It must be a partner and anchor the chords with low dominant notes that can be heard and fill out the overall sound. The accordions that I owned/tried over the years were lacking in the bass sound/projecting qualities. Exceptions have been: 1958 Excelsior Art Van Damme model,tho needing amplification, it’s a jazz model; vintage Columbo played by Lou Jacklich; Arpeggio, with special Magneterra reeds (deep rich bass, the best I ever heard). Also I tried a Gola from the 40’s, big booming treble, but to me a disappointing bass that did not support the treble, but gorgeous to look at. So my dream accordion is one I stumbled across on EBay. It was close to my home and so I traveled to try it. The bass sound was delicate and beautiful, pure sounds that I couldn’t believe, and the same for the treble, a volume and richness of sound that rivaled the Golal! I kept bidding and bidding until I won it, $8300. And that was back in 2010! Now I wouldn’t take $25000. for it, it’s that good! And the name, Ta da!! A Scandalli Super Six (N Model, with a bass switch that uncouples the low note allowing notes played with the stradella chords). By far the best sounding accordion I’ve ever heard/tried/owned! As far as I can tell, it was built in a special factory in the early 1960’s. I was lucky to get it! And now, please share your success and describing your Dream Accordion! Thank you!

 

[losthobos]

Call me a dirty whore but I'll try them all... xxx

 

[debra]

Congratulations Richard, on finding your dream accordion. If I were playing PA (which I did in the past) I would also say the Scandalli Super Six (with bass uncoupler switch), from the early 60's is the very best 41/120 accordion ever made. (A friend of mine has one, and the sound is indeed fabulous.) Nowadays I play CBA and for me an accordion with 52 notes is about the absolute minimum. A Scandalli Superior Cromo (58 notes) from around 1960 would be ideal, but they are hard to come by. (I saw one for sale in Italy, 2.000km away... and non-trivial to get during Covid...)

 

[Chickers]

RICHARD:
What a great story of your adventure---and with a happy outcome. Congratulations, on your successful
treasure-hunt .
I can surely relate to what you say regarding the sound must be pleasing to the player.
I do not have the experience as you, nor the depth of knowledge and musicianship, but I go through
similar feelings about the sound , and the personality of the accordion.
For example: my most "comfortable" and enjoyable accordion I play is an Excelsiola 612-M---but
it's dry-tuned, and I get soo bored with it's nice, bla, bla sound. BUt fun to play.
So, every now and then, when I feel ambitious, I pull out my Guerrini to play.
Great character, great bold sound (a bit bass heavy) but a pleasing sound . Unfortunately, it's a very heavy instrument that
doesn't fit "me" very well. So, it becomes a chore.
Very perplexing for me. Do I practice with my accordion that "feels" good, or with the accordion that sounds good.
I would appreciate your thoughts, and thoughts of the others on the forum.
Take care, enjoy
CHICKERS

 

[debra]

RICHARD:
...
So, every now and then, when I feel ambitious, I pull out my Guerrini to play.
Great character, great bold sound (a bit bass heavy) but a pleasing sound . Unfortunately, it's a very heavy instrument that
doesn't fit "me" very well. So, it becomes a chore.
...
CHICKERS

The old Guerrini accordions, with double cassotto and Taborro reeds, do indeed have fabulous sound as well. What makes all these older accordions special is not just their construction but also (and perhaps mostly) the reeds that were used. Catraro, Taborro and others... their sound and quality still eludes today's reed makers it seems.

 

[Tom]

As I get older, my dream accordion gets lighter and smaller. Say 34/72 (or even 60), 3 bass, 2 treble reeds but big and high quality reeds that sound good single. No bass coupler, 3 treble couplers, moderate musette. Smaller keyboard format - like the size of my Cruccianelli. I'm sure my friends in Castelfi would make me one, maybe trade in my full sized jobbers. I'm talking reality dream here, if it's a total dream accordion, then, hey, I just lost 35 years and got that $20,000 Balltuna with restored, giant, ancient, famous maker reeds and cassotto the yingyang..

 

[NickC]

I don't know if I've been playing long enough to have an exact model in mind. Or maybe:

Call me a dirty whore but I'll try them all... xxx

I love trying new instruments, and I don't know if that will stop.

 

[Tom]

I don't know if I've been playing long enough to have an exact model in mind. Or maybe:



I love trying new instruments, and I don't know if that will stop.

Always fun! The zen, which not everyone achieves, is to enjoy and appreciate what you have while testing the waters and yearning (moderately) for perfection. Took me a long time to figure out, but I'm slow (see 20 songs in 20 weeks....).

 

[NickC]

I use a simple equation to figure out how many accordions I need:

n+1

Where n = the number of accordions I currently have.

 

[Tom]

I use a simple equation to figure out how many accordions I need:

n+1

Where n = the number of accordions I currently have.

n - (n - 2)

I'd like to get to 1 full sized and one "stroller" (see above) but I have this bad habit of keep buying more. Oh, yes, and of course, the organetto and Corona.....

 

[Scuromondo]

I would like a new 5-reed accordion with cassotto and the ability to switch out the 5th reed individually for each of the shifter settings. (The only one I know that does this is the Paolo Soprani Mogherini.) But…the accordion I have right now far exceeds my ability to fully exploit its capabilities. So what I really need to do is to bring my amateurish skill level up to “intermediate” level, before I can start dreaming !

 

[oldbayan]

I have lots of dreams, so there are lots of "dream accordions" in my mind
Along the years I have bought probably 20 instruments which were all acquired because I really wanted to "try" playing them; I have 13 at the moment (diatonic and chromatic) which all get their play time in various venues.

At the end, I wanted instruments that offer maximum possibilities with a minimum of weight, so the ones that get the most (gigging) playtime are the Roland, because they have nearly infinite sound capabilities, although I understand these are not "real" accordions. Nevertheless, for my traditional music gigs and sessions, taking only one diatonic that can play in 12 keys with 14 accordion models is quite fun. Otherwise, the small FR-1xb is the ideal partner for world music with 37 treble notes in a package the size of a diatonic, and bass sounds that can challenge the biggest squeezeboxes.

 

[colinm]

Hello Friends! I’m writing to tell you of my dream accordion after searching for years….and to ask all of you what your dream accordion might be and what features you considered to make your decision. I’m 83 and all my playing life I’ve searched and yearned to find that one special instrument that would give me the sound that when playing it would make me to Not want to put it down, just beautiful! And I Did find it and am writing to share my discovery and happiness with you!
To me the perfect accordion has to have the “sound”? A deep robust rich organ like
Tone, powerful that would need minimal amplification in a general venue. BUT, along with the treble voices is the Bass! It must be a partner and anchor the chords with low dominant notes that can be heard and fill out the overall sound. The accordions that I owned/tried over the years were lacking in the bass sound/projecting qualities. Exceptions have been: 1958 Excelsior Art Van Damme model,tho needing amplification, it’s a jazz model; vintage Columbo played by Lou Jacklich; Arpeggio, with special Magneterra reeds (deep rich bass, the best I ever heard). Also I tried a Gola from the 40’s, big booming treble, but to me a disappointing bass that did not support the treble, but gorgeous to look at. So my dream accordion is one I stumbled across on EBay. It was close to my home and so I traveled to try it. The bass sound was delicate and beautiful, pure sounds that I couldn’t believe, and the same for the treble, a volume and richness of sound that rivaled the Golal! I kept bidding and bidding until I won it, $8300. And that was back in 2010! Now I wouldn’t take $25000. for it, it’s that good! And the name, Ta da!! A Scandalli Super Six (N Model, with a bass switch that uncouples the low note allowing notes played with the stradella chords). By far the best sounding accordion I’ve ever heard/tried/owned! As far as I can tell, it was built in a special factory in the early 1960’s. I was lucky to get it! And now, please share your success and describing your Dream Accordion! Thank you!

I new you were going to say super vi, I have had two, one of them twice, sold them because they were too heavy, and i am nearly as old as you.
I know someone who has two, probably from 1960,s,I think one has special bass, he calls it conservatory model.
Best accordion ever made, better than Gola, lighter than ss20, probably only matched by Jack Emblows Excelsior Symphony if that is what he had.

 

[Longshore]

My dream accordion has evolved over the years. Size and weight deminishing as health and increasing arthritis curtail any (long gone) ambitions of proficiency beyond simple (self penned) folk type tunes.
Having a very good accordion builder as a friend means my whims and fancies are indulged onto a small 2 voice CBA, that bares very little resemblance to the original purchase.
All this whilst my larger 3 voice CBA patiently waits for occasional outings.
Probably my last purchases - probably!...

 

[Siegmund]

I know just what oldbayan means about "lots of dreams": all I'm asking for is a portable pipe organ, with a cathedral's worth of stops, that can play in my choice of just intonation, 12-tone, or 34-tone equal temperament.

In the real world, my one biggest wish is for the right hand to go low enough that I can play cello parts without having to transpose them upward or distribute the bottom few notes to the left hand. This is, apparently, achievable, on the 5-octave CBAs (though you can find written descriptions of the same instrument that differ by a full octave what the range is.) I wouldn't mind giving up some high end to get it - C7 is nice but G6 would work for me. If I had that range, LMMH would suit me just fine. I daydreamed about LLMMH (a choice of in or out of cassotto for both L and M) but came to realize that a few more notes of downward range would offer me that same option without needing a fifth reed bank.

I *am* a little bit surprised that there is apparently no analog reed-pinching device to turn musette tuning on and off on the same reed bank; I'm envisioning something like the clamps that change the tuning of a pedal harp. (Yes, 20 cents on a 1-inch reed a lot harder than 100 cents on foot-plus string. I assume someone, somewhere, has tried it and deemed it impractical.) Lacking that device, I'll take dry-tuned M in and out of cassotto over a wet M reed or the extra weight of LMMMH.

 

[JerryPH]

I am literally 1 accordion away from being "all done". For me it is the Gola... and not just any Gola, but a 60's Gola 454 (45-key right hand, 185 bass with MIII Free Bass, 5/5 reeds, dry tuned, piano keyboard). If all I wanted was a Gola 414, I would have had one 10 years ago.

Definition of torture: I know where the Gola of my dreams is, it's literally a day's drive away from my home... it has not been touched in 35 years, and is sitting in a closet slowly wasting away. I'm determined to get it... one day. In the meantime I am keeping my eyes open for the same accordion elsewhere.

I recently played a 60's 414 Gola... no joke, the sound gave me goosebumps.