Uniform Keyboard ?!

[maugein96]

Came across this on You Tube, whilst looking for stuff with the uniform keyboard. Smallest treble buttons Ive ever seen. Put your thumb on that one and youd probably end up playing two or three notes at once. Looks like it was described as uniform on account of the fact that they made the treble buttons the same size as the bass. Or am I wrong (again)?

 

[JerryPH]

Though the buttons do look quite a bit smaller, it's very close to the same spacing between the buttons that I have on the free bass part of my accordion (with standard sized buttons). It's not as bad as it looks, the small buttons have lots of room in between them. In comparison, the spacing between the bass buttons on my Roland feel like canyons and are wide enough to cause finger cramping due to trying to stretch so wide the couple of times I tested out the free bass on the 8x... lol

 

[maugein96]

Hi Jerry,

I've seen French made accordions with fairly large free bass buttons, although they are exclusively free bass and only have three rows. The bass buttons on those are larger than "normal" buttons, but I'd never seen a French accordion with treble buttons as small as on that one. Apparently somebody was selling it on eBay.fr, but it never really interested me other than the fact that it had those unusual buttons.

I've never been much of a bass player at all, and struggle with the normal Stradella basses never mind free bass.

Glad you're enjoying your 8x, and I'm sure you'll work out how to bridge those canyons in time. Wonder if anybody has ever pointed out the free bass issue to them?

 

[JIM D.]

Not sure what youve seen or read, but there was and still is a keyboard known as Uniform ----

http://squeezehead.com/uniform-keyboard/robotti/

 

[JerryPH]

:lol: Holy crap, Jim... lol I will never again complain about a keyboard ever again... haha!

"Wonder if anybody has ever pointed out the free bass issue to them?'
Nah, people like Michael Bridge and Uwe Steger make mince meat out of the bass buttons at light speed, this is not a keyboard problem, it is very clearly a "me" issue. I was spoiled with the layout of the Hohner Morino VI N and now am being a sissy-boy about practicing Free Bass on a converter instrument with slightly different distances between the buttons. :lol:

I'll get over it in time, I'm sure.

 

[maugein96]

Thanks Jim,

I knew that the Swedish player, Håkan Widar, played the "Uniform" keyboard shown in the links you provided, as he also plays his own take of "French" musette tunes on a Maugein CBA. I was trying to find out more about the uniform keyboard when I came across that link to the French instrument, which has no connection at all with the keyboard type we both know.

I think there was a piano made with the same or similar "Uniform" keyboard layout, although it is now lost to me in the mists of time.

I'm starting to wonder if I have enough years left to discover all of the different accordion variants.

 

[maugein96]

Ill get over it in time, Im sure.

Jerry,

Im pretty sure youll get it. If a slowhand like me can knock a reasonable tune out of a cheap Chinese Hohner, then Im sure youll be a wizard with the Roland free bass in no time at all.

Cheers,

John W