LilacLeaf
Member
Greetings!
I am a new player who has been courting the accordion for a long time. I think I began my little love affair with these amazing little free reed boxes about a decade ago. I coaxed the music store where I used to work (Groth Music) to begin carrying them, and we started taking in used ones as well, as in my thirst for knowledge I began to take them apart, fix simple things, learn about tuning and reed qualities, etc. I had a little Hohner 12 bass for a time, and made little progress. Then some time later I found an amazing Philharmonic large instrument that had the most amazing tone! It was like an organ, and very rich. It was too much for me to tackle, with a young daughter and also playing sax, flute, guitar, mandolin, and singing as well. I gave up for a time. Now I'm back and am making some headway and feel like it will stick this time, finally getting the difficult "brain split" piece where my left can do things independent of my right. I began once again with a little Italian 12 bass, and have now moved to a Chinese 48 bass (a good condition used one fit my budget and plays pretty well). I love the sound of the bigger boxes, but I think for my style and needs a musette 48 bass or so will be best in the long run. I know about musette boxes being harder to come by in the US, but overall I am surprised at how few 48 bass, or smaller accordions in general there are that aren't 2-3k, except for German made like Hohner and Weltmeister. I tend to prefer the richer tone of Italian reeds, at least so far this is what I have been exposed to, and often find the German reeds to be brighter which I don't like as much. I would appreciate any comments here.
Thank you,
Peter. (oh yes, my use name, LilacLeaf, can anyone guess why?)
I am a new player who has been courting the accordion for a long time. I think I began my little love affair with these amazing little free reed boxes about a decade ago. I coaxed the music store where I used to work (Groth Music) to begin carrying them, and we started taking in used ones as well, as in my thirst for knowledge I began to take them apart, fix simple things, learn about tuning and reed qualities, etc. I had a little Hohner 12 bass for a time, and made little progress. Then some time later I found an amazing Philharmonic large instrument that had the most amazing tone! It was like an organ, and very rich. It was too much for me to tackle, with a young daughter and also playing sax, flute, guitar, mandolin, and singing as well. I gave up for a time. Now I'm back and am making some headway and feel like it will stick this time, finally getting the difficult "brain split" piece where my left can do things independent of my right. I began once again with a little Italian 12 bass, and have now moved to a Chinese 48 bass (a good condition used one fit my budget and plays pretty well). I love the sound of the bigger boxes, but I think for my style and needs a musette 48 bass or so will be best in the long run. I know about musette boxes being harder to come by in the US, but overall I am surprised at how few 48 bass, or smaller accordions in general there are that aren't 2-3k, except for German made like Hohner and Weltmeister. I tend to prefer the richer tone of Italian reeds, at least so far this is what I have been exposed to, and often find the German reeds to be brighter which I don't like as much. I would appreciate any comments here.
Thank you,
Peter. (oh yes, my use name, LilacLeaf, can anyone guess why?)
