New baby at home!

[JerryPH]

Well, perhaps not a real baby, but a bit of a baby accordion. :lol:

I picked this up from the NEAM and it seems as if it was placed there just for me. A student model baby Free Bass accordion in perfect condition inside and out! Ive tried to do some research on it, but only found several references to the Starlet FB which is basically the same accordion but with 1 set of treble reeds and no registers instead of the 2 sets of treble reeds and 3 registers in mine... a little strange that I cannot find anything about my model at all.

Now if nothing else, playing it places a smile on my face and when something is fun it gets used even more, so perhaps it will push me a little more towards finally motivating me to practice Free Bass a little more.

http://syner-g.asuscomm.com/mymusic/files/fb36-front.jpg>

http://syner-g.asuscomm.com/mymusic/files/fb36-standing.jpg>

http://syner-g.asuscomm.com/mymusic/files/fb36-bass.jpg>

Personally, I think it is cuteness personified! I wonder what I will be able to pull out of this tiny one?

Full story and a few more pics on my blog site: http://www.accordionmemories.com/baby/

 

[Stephen Hawkins]

Hello Jerry,

Tres Chic! I'm sure you will have hours of fun with your new "baby." There may be a few "teething" problems, but any good Father takes such things in his stride.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.

 

[debra]

Congratulations! The name "new baby" is to some extent really appropriate for this one. (I call my latest accordion my new "girlfriend" but it is a large instrument, certainly not a baby.)
The common Hohner list we have been circulating only lists an FB 30 and FB 37, both only made briefly in 1980-81. But this one is clearly older (has register switches that Hohner used much earlier).
It looks to be in excellent condition. Enjoy!

 

[nagant27]

Cool! Looks in very nice condition. It will be fun to play around with the free bass.

 

[JerryPH]

Hey guys-n-gals, Ive updated the blog page and made much nicer pics and told the story better. Let me know what you think:

http://www.accordionmemories.com/baby/

Thank-you!

 

[Glenn]

Looks to be in absolutely great condition Jerry. I don't normally comment on people's babies but you've got yourself a looker. Hope it doesn't keep you awake at night.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JerryPH]

Well... I was up last night at 1:00am just getting a feel for it. Made me realize that all those years of Free Bass are totally gone, short of being able to chord things out a little and a few scales. LOTS of work in that area is badly needed, but that's what this accordion is basically for, to haul me back in that direction a little. Eventually I plan to make a couple videos with it, but in the meantime it is making me happy.

I had a chuckle, my uncle who knows nothing about Free Bass tried to play it... the looks of confusion he gave me trying to play Stradella style... haha!!

 

[Morne]

I'm quite interested in hearing/reading your progress on (remembering) the free bass. I have done very little with the free bass since I got my Morino VI M in the beginning of the year - been busy and other excuses . I've downloaded, but haven't even looked at, the Ellegaard book.

Do you plan on (re)starting from scratch using one of those books you mentioned you got earlier this year? Or are you just going to fiddle around by yourself?

 

[JerryPH]

Well, knowing me, because of how I learned in the past, I will likely start a method book or 3 and restart from there. Last weekend I was at the New England Accordion Museum and the owner Paul graciously gave me several method books (including the original of the Mogens Ellegaard's book!), Lots to start from.

Right now, the thing I want to concentrate on is that I finally installed the BK7m with the FR-8x and want to do a video or two with it, just to compare to the one song that I recorded with just the 8X.

My biggest challenge is simply time. I work 5 days a week, often Saturdays too and my day starts at 4:00am and I get home between 6:30pm-7:00pm, depending on public transit. By then I am so brain dead tired, that I take 30 minutes to decompress after walking in the door, eat, read for 1 hour or watch a short TV show and then go to bed and the whole cycle starts over at 4:00am.

It may sound bad to say, but I recently had a thing happen to me at work, and was forced to take 1 week off on medical leave. That leaves me some time to finally play during the week, so I will work on the FR-8X/BK7m this week by practicing for a couple hours a day and that makes me happy. No surprise, but the day fills up for me with things to do even when I don't work, if I don't purposely plan and force the time to play... what an amazing thing!

 

[JerryPH]

I was gently using the accordion today and noticed that the registers were very stiff and feeling like they were getting stiffer with more use, especially when moving from the high to low register. Curiosity set in so I took off the grill. Well that showed me nothing so I split the accordion at the bellows and first thing I have to say is how spotless it is inside and how beautiful.

The second thing I noticed is a grey powdery substance on the register mechanism. A gentle and careful cleaning resulted in a minor improvement, but something was not quite right, so I just pulled out reed bank #1 and noticed that the metal sliders at the base of the reed block were not properly seated/inserted. Since the reed block was out, I used an industrial cloth (no dust, no strands) and cleaned off the rods that moved the sliders. I then replaced the reed block and more fully cleaned the register mechanism with electrical contact cleaner with micro thin layer of lubricant in between the layers and started testing things around.

Amazing. Smooth. Effortless and secure!

Its how I envision the registers moving in silky smooth clicks when it left the factory oh so many years ago!

THIS is my first minor foray in to accordion repair... glad I did not destroy anything... lol