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Hohner Morino

CNN1961

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Does anyone know, if the Hohner Morino is allways a cassotto accordion, or it is/was available both with and without cassotto?
 
Does anyone know, if the Hohner Morino is allways a cassotto accordion, or it is/was available both with and without cassotto?
The Morino piano accordions have cassotto, at least all the ones from the M series onwards (around 1948).
With the button accordions the situation is different. Some of them are labeled Morino and some are not, but all of them are labeled Artiste. It doesn't matter whether they have the Morino label or not. They are all Morinos. The IX, X and XI models all have cassotto. The IV and VI generally do not have cassotto. The D series have the L reeds all together under the keyboard which creates a cassotto-like effect. The later N and S series do not and have quite uneven sound between the reed banks in different positions. I have seen one prototype Artiste VI S with cassotto but that never went into production as a Morino Artiste. Hohner did bring out the "Romandie" which is essentially an Artiste VI with cassotto but with different name. It is a very rare instrument.
 
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With the button accordions the situation is different. Some of them are labeled Morino and some are not, but all of them are labeled Artiste. It doesn't matter whether they have the Morino label or not. They are all Morinos.
Interesting. While I can imagine Morino rising from his grave and clawing off the "Morino" lettering from one of the later model series, I personally only know the other situation, namely a button accordion bearing the "Morino" lettering but not "Artiste". In my case that marks a singleton accordion designed by Morino (or following his designs) but having non-standard features.

There was a time when Hohner marketed a "new Morino" as piano accordion and "Genius" accordions as CBA instruments. I think that was before the acquisition by KHS Musical Instruments was completed. I don't think those new models were very successful.

If I take a look at Thomann's (largest European retailer) CBA listings, Hohner is only there with a kid's version. Many instruments in the line are Weltmeister (stock?), others Roland/Korg/Scandalli/Startone.
 
Interesting. While I can imagine Morino rising from his grave and clawing off the "Morino" lettering from one of the later model series, I personally only know the other situation, namely a button accordion bearing the "Morino" lettering but not "Artiste". In my case that marks a singleton accordion designed by Morino (or following his designs) but having non-standard features.
...
Here is a counter example showing that accordions that say Morino as well as Artiste do exist.
It is a picture of the only Morino Artiste VI S Cassotto that I know of. All other Artiste VI accordions appear to come without cassotto.

P9122977.jpg
 
Here is a counter example showing that accordions that say Morino as well as Artiste do exist.
It is a picture of the only Morino Artiste VI S Cassotto that I know of. All other Artiste VI accordions appear to come without cassotto.
Counterexample for what? I don't deny that there are lots of accordions bearing both the "Morino" and the "Artiste" marking. What you claimed is that there were accordions marked "Artiste" without being also marked "Morino".

To wit:
With the button accordions the situation is different. Some of them are labeled Morino and some are not, but all of them are labeled Artiste.
 
Counterexample for what? I don't deny that there are lots of accordions bearing both the "Morino" and the "Artiste" marking. What you claimed is that there were accordions marked "Artiste" without being also marked "Morino".

...
Right. I misread your post. So there are button accordions with a Morino label and not Artiste, with an Artiste label and not Morino and some with both labels. The name "Artiste" may have come later than "Morino"?
The commonly used list of Hohner accordion models lists no CBA under the name Morino (except some made in 1987). They are all under the name Artiste. That may have helped my confusion and statement that they all have an Artiste label and only some also a Morino label. Clearly they might just have decided what to put on the accordions pretty much randomly...
 
with an Artiste label and not Morino
That's the case I haven't seen yet.
Clearly they might just have decided what to put on the accordions pretty much randomly...
I am not sure: personally I haven't seen "Artiste" without "Morino". When Morino was still alive, instruments designed under his purview were marked "Morino", with the chromatic button accordions (as opposed to Golas, there were also Morino diatonics) marked "Artiste", with individual instruments outside of the standard specs only marked "Morino". After Morino's demise, they kept both the "Morino" and "Artiste" markers in the same manner for instruments built with the visuals of Morino's original instrument designs (I don't think that any special-built instruments were done after Morino's death). The "new Morino" instruments significantly differing in design were available for a few years but have been superceded by "Morino+" instruments with a marked return quite similar to the old visuals though different models. These days I only find "Nova", "Mattia" and "Fun" branded CBAs in the Hohner catalog. I knew they had given up on Morino-branded CBAs (around the time they came up with "new Morino" for PA paired with "Genius" for CBA) but am somewhat surprised not to see a CBA Gola in their catalogues.

I digress. For me, "Artiste" is tied to the Morino branding. Hohner's model list is an incoherent mess anyway, I'd not assign too much importance to the Hohner Artiste models being listed under "Artiste" there. But models with "Artiste" on them without "Morino" would be strange to me, though logically that would make sense for the Artiste N and Artiste S series, in particular those models that did not previously exist (some cassotto models I think) or that changed significant elements of the design (like dropping the déclassement on the 4-reed models). But I've never seen that.
 
Here is the Artiste without Morino... (At some point I lost the "A" in "ARTISTE"...)
This accordion never had "Morino" on it.
(And it also didn't come with the chin switches you may notice.)
P4012561.jpg
 
Here is the Artiste without Morino... (At some point I lost the "A" in "ARTISTE"...)
This accordion never had "Morino" on it.
(And it also didn't come with the chin switches you may notice.)
P4012561.jpg
Never seen one like that. One support for your "never had Morino on it" contention (after all it would be pretty much impossible to tell the difference once the celluloid got repolished) is that the "Artiste XS" script is on the left. Normally you got "Morino" on the left and the "Artiste whatever" on the right. I don't have a good theory about this one. Maybe it was close to the time they stopped marketing "Morino" branded CBAs altogether and tried convincing people of the "Genius" models?
 
Never seen one like that. One support for your "never had Morino on it" contention (after all it would be pretty much impossible to tell the difference once the celluloid got repolished) is that the "Artiste XS" script is on the left. Normally you got "Morino" on the left and the "Artiste whatever" on the right. I don't have a good theory about this one. Maybe it was close to the time they stopped marketing "Morino" branded CBAs altogether and tried convincing people of the "Genius" models?
Maybe mine is a "one off". It is one of the very last series that Excelsior made. Shortly after this one Pigini took over and we never saw any accordion like the Artiste X ever again...
 
Thank you so much for your explanations. There is a lot of knowledge out there. I play in an accordion Orchestra "full of Hohners" except me and my Bugari. Two of them are Hohner Morino button accordions, and the owners claim no cassotto, but everytime I search ebay, the Hohner Morinos are allways presented as cassotto accordions, which caused my confusion.
 
I remember seeing a non-cassotto Morino CBA in poor but restorable condition struggling to sell for about 400-500 EUR on ebay a few years ago.
Knowing what I know now, I really regret not buying it and doing it up. I was too caught up in all the cassotto hype to buy it.

A German-era Morino of any design, in my eyes, is exceptional, whether it has cassotto or not. One of the best squeezeboxes to own. Unless you're desperate to get a cassotto bassoon option, I suggest at least trying a non-cassotto one out to see if you like it.
 
If you want to make the rest of your Hohner-orchestra jealous, there's also this option currently on ebay.
I'm drooling all over my keyboard just looking at it.
And it says "Mit cassotto".

s-l1600.jpg

 
And it says "Mit cassotto".
"Mit Verdeck Cassotto" -- "with filling cassotto". Can be déclassement or a different construct, but if it is particularized like that, it is not likely to be the type with sideways reed blocks. So what? This is from the active Venanzio Morino time, and Morino was a guy who knew what he was doing.
 
I remember seeing a non-cassotto Morino CBA in poor but restorable condition struggling to sell for about 400-500 EUR on ebay a few years ago.
If that was the one for sale in France, I was very tempted to buy it also.
It was only about 30Kms from my house in France so I could easily have popped over to see it, but I dithered and eventually , when I went back to check on Leboncoin, the advert had gone.
I too regret not buying it.
 
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