A new toy

I've been noticing a recurring theme on this board...especially when it comes to humor and certain instruments.

Being a big fan of all New Orleans style music...coupled with my German heritage...and that my late father payed his way through a University of Chicago Masters in Philosophy in the late 30's/early 40's playing accordion in a wedding band....I recently scored a very nice vintage Hohner mini 10 button/ two bass accordion w/ 2 pull knobs for 3rd/5th tones... that is over 100 years old from an online estate auction for just $85 before shipping.

Everything on it seems to be working just fine....and plan to use it to add some simple drone tones to some backing tracks on a few of my basement recordings. Even if this thing never sees much use, it's still a very ornate and really gorgeous little instrument that makes a great addition to any "music room".

Came yesterday, and so far I'm thrilled. Only things missing on it are the original straps w/ hook clasps that lock it closed when not in use. (no big deal)

We have to give accordions some respect around here, Guild founder Alfred Dronge imported an Italian brand early on in his career.

Now that is serious vintage! Great find!



I've seen pictures with the orginal box they came in:



Love the picture on the box:



Looks to me they used originally some metal "construction" to keep it closed:




Ah, here it's even better visible how the little hook works:



You probably can use a leather strap instead:





Ralf

Fascinating instrument - always makes me stop and listen.

Very cool. Always loved the sound of accordian. My late Aunt Harriet played one her whole life and she was pretty good. They make a nice addition to the style of music I love to listen to (and wish I could play better)

Vielen Dank Ralf!

My Dad took my sister and I to a recording studio and cut an album in 1958, she was 11 and I was 4. I sang and she played accordion.

What a treasure! I'm so glad my Dad had the insight (and spent the money) to do this.

I will have to try to get a song uploaded in "Member's Music."

Dang, shameless child exploitation ;]

I remember once in my youth, some idiot friends foolishly accepted a gig for their band. The gig was an all-ages dinner/dance thing. Their repertoire was very limited. They were a psychedelic blues band, and even at that they did not have a particularly large set list. And as everyone knows, a 30 to 45 minute version of (er ... jam on) Dazed and Confused really packs the dance floor at an all-ages dinner/dance ... umm ... like NOT! They were forcibly evicted from the stage before they had finished their first set and sent packing.

What to do for the dance? What to do?

An elderly Icelander got up, went home and came back with his massive orchestral-sized accordion. He set up a chair on the stage and proceeded to tear the house down. The guy had seemingly thousands of traditional Scandinavian dance tunes in his head as templates to improvise on. He could play pretty much anything by ear - if he had heard it, it was stored somewhere in his brain. And if you wanted something he had never heard, you could sing it for him, and he could harmonise it (sometimes re-harmonise) it on the fly and make it danceable. He was still going strong at about 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning when he had worn out the last of the dancers. He was so drunk by this time that he couldn't see or stand up, but he could still play. Some of the organisers of the dance, helped him pack up, carried him to a car, and drove him home to his wife who had left the dance a couple of hours earlier.

The old Icelander died long before musicologists started hunting down people like him and extracting what was in their heads and getting it down on paper. I would imagine much was lost with his death. These sorts of people were walking musical libraries, sometimes holding the only known copy of an otherwise lost tune in their heads.