Accordion beauty contest thread

[Dingo40]

I was unable to recover the old accordion beauty contest thread but it would like to nominate this prewar Hohner as a contestant (but £4K!?):
Danish basses?
The blurb claims:
"However, the bass group, that is, the left part, has 120 basses."
However,
I made it only 105 basses (34 treble keys)

ACCORDION HOHNER Pre-war from 1938 | eBay

However, the bass group, that is, the left part, has 120 basses. Compression like new. Everything is original. The moss and all the voices are still original. Belts are like new. There is not a single crack or chip.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[dak]

I was unable to recover the old accordion beauty contest thread but it would like to nominate this prewar Hohner as a contestant (but £4K!?):
Danish basses?
The blurb claims:
"However, the bass group, that is, the left part, has 120 basses."
However,
I made it only 105 basses (34 treble keys)

ACCORDION HOHNER Pre-war from 1938 | eBay

However, the bass group, that is, the left part, has 120 basses. Compression like new. Everything is original. The moss and all the voices are still original. Belts are like new. There is not a single crack or chip.

www.ebay.co.uk

Hard to have entries where the images will disappear eventually. The selling blurb is pretty nonsensical in other respects, like "Pre-war accordion from 1938. This year, the Hohner company turned 25 years old, and on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the factory, 25 such jubilee accordions were released for the whole world."

Hohner was actually founded in 1857. The "25 years" on the accordion refers to the music shop selling the accordion. The "25 jubilee accordions" bit is a complete fabrication that cannot even be attributed to a misunderstanding. An attempt to garnish the rip-off pricing.

Basses will be standard Stradella, just with a rectangular area for aesthetical reasons. With that class of instrument, they tend to work all as you'd expect, meaning that you run out of bass notes, major/minor chords, seventh diminished chords on different notes. Think of it more like a 96-bass instrument with a few extra buttons.

 

[tcabot]

I nominate this Charron Freres.

By the way, do I get extra points for a rare brand name?

 

[murathan]

Georgian Garmon

 

[Ignacchitti]

I like "modern" designs for accordions.

Featured is the Chico Chagas model by Beltrami.

Loved the combination of traditional black, with beige straps and green bellows.

 

[debra]

I was unable to recover the old accordion beauty contest thread but it would like to nominate this prewar Hohner as a contestant (but £4K!?):
Danish basses?
The blurb claims:
"However, the bass group, that is, the left part, has 120 basses."
However,
I made it only 105 basses (34 treble keys)

ACCORDION HOHNER Pre-war from 1938 | eBay

However, the bass group, that is, the left part, has 120 basses. Compression like new. Everything is original. The moss and all the voices are still original. Belts are like new. There is not a single crack or chip.

www.ebay.co.uk

Interesting how a reasonably pretty (old) accordion suddenly looks a lot more ugly with the ridiculous price tag added...

 

[debra]

I like "modern" designs for accordions.

Featured is the Chico Chagas model by Beltrami.

Loved the combination of traditional black, with beige straps and green bellows.

After not being able to bring the original shine back on the chrome ornaments on my late sister's accordion (at least not at any reasonable cost) I have become more of a fan of accordions without chrome ornaments. Plain black can also look pretty.
I wonder how nice all that "chrome" on the grille will look in 50 years... And imho the accordion would look nicer with black bellows tape and black straps. I prefer an accordion to look all black, except for white keys and bass buttons. Inside the bellows folds white or red can also be pretty. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

 

[tcabot]

Here's a nominee for Miss USSR.

I find the first generation of Chaika harmonika to be very pleasing to the eye.

"Chaika" translates as "seagull". Some of you might be wondering why anyone in their right mind would give such a name to a musical instrument.
The model was an early 1960s design. In 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space, and "Chaika" was her radio handle for that mission. The model was named to commemorate the event, and the first gen boxes typically had a little rocket on their logo.

 

[dak]

After not being able to bring the original shine back on the chrome ornaments on my late sister's accordion (at least not at any reasonable cost) I have become more of a fan of accordions without chrome ornaments. Plain black can also look pretty.
I wonder how nice all that "chrome" on the grille will look in 50 years... And imho the accordion would look nicer with black bellows tape and black straps. I prefer an accordion to look all black, except for white keys and bass buttons. Inside the bellows folds white or red can also be pretty. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

The original Morino models had aluminum bars on the grille. You could just polish nicks out. Chrome-plating came later. Somewhat more robust but unfixable.

 

[Zevy]

My mother always liked this one…

 

[Tom]

My mother always liked this one…

Interesting to see the “Nostalgic” monitor. I like it.

 

[Ignacchitti]

After not being able to bring the original shine back on the chrome ornaments on my late sister's accordion (at least not at any reasonable cost) I have become more of a fan of accordions without chrome ornaments. Plain black can also look pretty.
I wonder how nice all that "chrome" on the grille will look in 50 years... And imho the accordion would look nicer with black bellows tape and black straps. I prefer an accordion to look all black, except for white keys and bass buttons. Inside the bellows folds white or red can also be pretty. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Plain black instead of chrome ornaments can indeed look pretty
The Chico Chagas model that I posted comes also with an interchangeable black grille instead of the chromed one.
It happens also to be a more closed design, almost like a sordino.

 

[Ventura]

The model was an early 1960s design. In 1963 Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space, and "Chaika" was her radio handle for that mission. The model was named to commemorate the event, and the first gen boxes typically had a little rocket on their logo.

like "Mechta" on everything from Tula Bayan's to Toasters for decades..

forgive me if i wish the Russians would remember the reasons for these,
and how having pride in the things they do as a nation should be based
on noble acts

 

[debra]

Plain black instead of chrome ornaments can indeed look pretty
The Chico Chagas model that I posted comes also with an interchangeable black grille instead of the chromed one.
It happens also to be a more closed design, almost like a sordino.

This looks nice, but will probably not be very loud, considering the grille is mostly closed. And I wonder how they make the sound "even", not biased towards the reeds that are close to the open end...

 

[noelekal]

I'll offer the 1931 vintage Hohner L'Organola that I picked up within the past year. I'm still grooving on the styling.

 

[Ignacchitti]

Don't know much about this, but it's a beauty and so unique - notice the double-style keyboard!

 

[dak]

Don't know much about this, but it's a beauty and so unique - notice the double-style keyboard!

That appears to be some kind of practical joke: the piano keyboard has 41 notes, the CBA keyboard has 61. Unless this isn't a B/C-system CBA but rather a 6+6 (Jankó-style) CBA (also known as Beyreuther) with 2 rows of notes and 1 row of repeat notes.

 

[Ventura]

not a joke.. in the USA particularly New York/New England..

apparently button keyboard accordions were associated with paesano music
and coarse clothes and short stocky guys and tarantella
and piano keyboard accordions were associated with high class music and
tuxedo wearing musicians

the prejudice was palpable, and so some chromatic keyboard accordions
were disguised with a row of piano keys that allowed the musician to play
more or less normally and get the gigs

looks and perception and necessity being the mother of this invention

while i do not know that this "phenomenon" ever reared it's ugly head in
Europe, you DO have a parallel in the Armani wearing Northern Italian
Milanese attitude towards the South of Italy sort of like they are the
disrespectable black sheep of the Famiglia.. many threats by the Political
North to secede from the "union" much like Texas rattles it's sabre here
in the USA every now and then..

i cannot emphasize how deeply our immigrant forefathers hated to
be seen as coarse or uncivilized, as each wave of people from various
parts of the world received the "treatment" from the entrenched
"real Americans" to keep them in their place, keep them down.
Many changed their last names (Martino to Martin for example)
and would not allow Italian to be spoken in their homes..

and i can only imagine how intensely this was amplified for
,people like Magnante and others between WW1 and WW2
trying to BE something and DO something in the public eye

hell, i didn't know until i was in High School that i was not a WASP
by heritage and that King Arthur wasn't the #1 hero of my people

 

[Dingo40]

notice the double-style keyboard!

I suspect that this is a 3 row CBA with some dummy PA keys attached to make it pass for a PA to the casual observer at a distance, otherwise known as a "finto piano accordion "
There's a number of references to these online. Here's one:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

And see here:

finto meaning in english - Google Search

 

[Dingo40]

Here's Alf Hågedal playing one: