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Any accordion afficionados here?


EssentialTension
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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1332100185' post='1583328']
Piano, that's if I'm correctly understanding chromatic and diatonic to be references to button accordions?
[/quote]

Correct. Next question is what is your budget and what music are you trying to play?

Also a warning - do not buy one of the cheap, 1930's to 1950's boxes that infest Ebay, unless you are very lucky they are pretty well unplayable.

Steve

Edited by oggiesnr
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[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1332106515' post='1583459']
Correct. Next question is what is your budget and what music are you trying to play?
[/quote]
I don't have a budget as such, I'm interested to know how much I would need to spend to get a playable and worthwhile instrument. £200? £500? How much?

I'm not myself trying to play the accordion but my son has been taking an interest and is in possession of a borrowed heap of sh*te with some missing keys, out of which he manages to get a tune. He plays guitar, banjo and harmonica in a sort of dub-klezmer-bluegrass-funk band (drums/bass/guitars/banjo/harmonica/viola/trombone/vocals) and is looking to expand his skills.

[quote name='oggiesnr' timestamp='1332106515' post='1583459']
Also a warning - do not buy one of the cheap, 1930's to 1950's boxes that infest Ebay, unless you are very lucky they are pretty well unplayable.
[/quote]
No, I wouldn't.

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Between £200 and £500 will get you a smaller chinese made new instrument (Boorinwood, Parrott etc) or a slightly bigger secondhand one, if you strike lucky even an italian one. Question will be size. If he's going to be playing in odd keys then I'd go for a minimum 60 bass intrument.

Likewise the number of voices (sets of reeds and therefore sound options) will affect the cost. Three or four voices would be a good starting point. Bear in mind that the more notes and basses the heavier the box and some of them are hefty beasts.

There are some nice boxes on Ebay at the moment in that price range. As a rule I would by from a player trading up or destocking from AAD (Accordion Aquisition Disorder :) ) rather than the clearance, selling for a friend or "it was my late XXXX's hasn't been played for z years but.." brigade.

Have fun

Steve

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Mrs. WoT has had quite a bit of luck at car boot sales - nice nearly-new Hohners, etc.

Take a chromatic guitar tuner so you can check it's in pitch (and relative pitch). Hold one half of it and let the other half drop to the floor, to check the bellows are air-tight. The slower the other half drops, the better. If there's a leak, it'll fall more quickly.

As mentioned above, don't buy anything exotic that looks like it should be nailed to a pub wall.

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When it comes to budget, consider that an accordion is a bit of a bugger to mic.
Professional systems are expensive - the need to mic up both sides of the thing.
However, I did get some useful results for "experimental effect driven diatonic stuff"
i was doing at the time, with just a clip-on lavoisier microphone, the type you'd use
for interviews, conferences and the like.

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This place is still going,

Theres a price list to give you an idea of costs etc. They'll fit internal mics for you as well, or at least they used to. Mate of mine at the time used to play in those German Bier Kellars that caught on in the 70s, and as has been said they sure aint easy to mic up.

For what its worth, he made a bloody good living playing Knees up Mother Brown and stuff like that.

Made me wonder where I went wrong sometimes.

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[quote name='BRANCINI' timestamp='1332187300' post='1584600']
This place is still going,

Theres a price list to give you an idea of costs etc. They'll fit internal mics for you as well, or at least they used to. Mate of mine at the time used to play in those German Bier Kellars that caught on in the 70s, and as has been said they sure aint easy to mic up.

For what its worth, he made a bloody good living playing Knees up Mother Brown and stuff like that.

Made me wonder where I went wrong sometimes.
[/quote]
Thanks, but which place?

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[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1332143334' post='1583726']
When it comes to budget, consider that an accordion is a bit of a bugger to mic.
Professional systems are expensive - the need to mic up both sides of the thing.
However, I did get some useful results for "experimental effect driven diatonic stuff"
i was doing at the time, with just a clip-on lavoisier microphone, the type you'd use
for interviews, conferences and the like.
[/quote]

Yes, the Jessup's tie clip microphone works well too and only costs about 20 quid.

If you can find an old Tandy PZM on the bay, these make fantastic accordion internal mikes. Take off the plate and fix the rest of it to the reed block.

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[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1332189538' post='1584633']
Thanks, but which place?
[/quote]

Sorry, edited it out for some reason.

[url="http://www.accordioncentre.co.uk/"]http://www.accordioncentre.co.uk/[/url]

Might be worth trying Hobgoblin as well. Theyre in Digbeth, but have branches all over I think.

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