Thomas N
Well-known member
I believe it is Smoke on the Water.
BS marketing makes me mad.
- Thread starter JerryPH
- Start date
Rosie C
Well-known member
Seven Nation Army for the younger guys maybe
RebeccaHemmings
Newbie
Your skepticism is valid. It's crucial to question claims like that, especially when it comes to learning a skill as nuanced as playing the accordion. Authenticity matters, especially for something you love. On a related note, when it comes to building an audience for your accordion content, consider exploring options, like engaging with the community and perhaps even using strategies like super cheap Instagram followers to boost visibility.
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Tell you what: from checking out the last recording and working on some new stuff today I figured out that I don't need a bass accordion for those deficiencies. I manage this perfectly well using the standard bass, essentially dragging the bass notes weakly in after the fact. Feels like I need to start over with this instrument from scratch. My standard bass starts from E1 and I usually play it without starter reed. In contrast, a standard bass Gola with its reputed lightning response starts at C2 I think. I need to learn to use the associated lagginess to my advantage, like a good bass accordion player. It can be aggravating to have those "you could have been so much better all these years" realizations.
I'll be back.
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With melody bass of course it has to. What I remember from a discussion long time ago elsewhere was that a standard bass Gola (don't know whether that is for all of them) started at a rather high C2 and had six bass side reed banks because Master employed three rather than two reeds for its bass notes, and that was appropriate because in contrast to common practice the bass notes did not couple into the chord reeds. It's all hearsay with me but seemed to make sense.
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As the owner of a Gola 459, I can vouch that the reputation for reed response is very real.
There is no accordion in my collection where I can quite literally start chords anywhere on the right or left hand, Stradella or Free Bass hand (low or high both hands together), where I can start at a medium volume, move to full volume (with less effort) and go gradually so light and each and every note starts and ends at the same time with volume levels that drop to less than whispers before ending all together... and Paul is correct. deepest note is E1.
I've now edited my original post to indicate I was talking about standard bass variants explicitly. It's interesting that the forum members appear a lot more acquainted with the much rarer free bass versions. Does Hohner actually offer converter Golas these days? In the old days, that would have been sacrilegious since it would have implied buying the bass mechanics from Gama (the historical source for reliable Western converter mechanics) instead of pretending to do them in-house.
They have for a while now.
Older style Gola converter (2019):
They make the latest ones also in a converter style, as this is what most people use now-a-days. Trust me to say that there are not many of these around (and I would not want one either, just my personal choice).
This is the new style Gola 414:
Different look, likely lower quality and different bass registers to accommodate the converter if so ordered.
I've played several Gola 414 (that;s the base models), they sounded as deep on the Stradella side as mine does... but I am not 100% sure. If no one else can confirm I can call up Keith Anderson, he is an expert on Golas and has owned several and is currently the owner of an early Gola 414.
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It would be interesting whether they have an official storyline on where the bass mechanics for their post-Giovanni-Gola converter models have been developed.
It's probably the same exact system mechanics that they've had available on the Morino converter systems for the last 20 or so years (first time I recall reading about a converter Morino was in the very early 2000's), even the registers and Free Bass "bar switch" looks identical. Sadly the current Hohner is not what it was compared to the earlier models and the Gola is sadly also affected.
But Hohner converters are nothing new...they were around since the early 70's in the Hohner POLYPHONIC line.
Well, I suspect they haven't seen the blessings of Giovanni Gola himself. I agree that in the early 70s there is a good chance that newly available instruments by Hohner would have used mechanics developed in-house. It would fit with the first offer not being for the high end models: converter mechanics were troublesome and Hohner would likely have been careful not to mess with the reputation of their high end models while problems were still being ironed out.
Turns out that my initial frustration was partially a misdiagnosis, be that good or bad. It actually concerns a different discussion more. Here are two example measures to illustrate (play them in a loop). The essential components are the C5 in the treble and the C2 (in my case) in the bass. The other melody line and the chords play a minor role. Realizing this part is where a digital on/offapproach to the bass buttons falls down. Admittedly this only concerns the bass/counterbass rows and if you link them manually and do only the other 4 rows digitally, you might still be fine.
So between measure 1 and measure 2 we have a sustained C5 in the treble. That dictates that we maintain consistent bellows pressure (the pressure will not be constant but underline the musical development of the phrase, but there will be no stark changes). At the same time, the (effective) C2 in the low bass underlies each bar as harmony but sounds new every bar. That means that there is no good place to end it, but at the same time you need the attack on the second bar without disrupting the sustained note in the treble. The solution is not to end the bass note but to starve it by gradually releasing the button until the reed barely sounds. That is aided by the chords on second beat since the chord button gives you a pivot for very fine-grained control of the bass button depth.
The goal is to have that bass C sound like a regularly struck bell, with only the attack being in a defined place and the decay being gradual.
Now this doesn't really as much concern bass accordion technique as I initially assumed: the key point is not priming the "bell stroke" by pressing the bass button early but preparing it by starving the previous note. Early bass priming comes into play when bass and chord attack simultaneously, and then being earlier with the bass button would make some musical sense even assuming that the reaction time of bass and chord buttons was comparable.
I have worked on a Gola with convertor (from close to 25 years ago). It's a nice accordion with some old-style Hohner characteristics, like having the chin switches hidden behind the keyboard. (That's why the picture of the convertor 454 does not show chin switches.) They are really there and are the Pigini-style multi-position chin switches as well. Internally everything looks exactly like you'd expect in a high-end Italian accordion, including a mano Salpa reeds. (Salpa later merged with Antonelli to become Voci Armoniche.) I was dealing with a treble-side problem so I didn't check whether the convertor mechanism was a Pigini mechanism or the "other" mechanism used by virtually everyone else.
I played a Hohner Polyphonic 400 in the 70's. It was an interesting entry-level accordion to give you melody bass, albeit only single-voice only. Quality-wise I rate its construction a touch higher than the later Hohner Solist MB 2 that offered a pseudo-two-voice melody bass by using an octave coupler (and still having just 58 reed plates on the bass side for the 58 melody bass notes). Both were primitive compared to modern entry-level convertor accordions.
I first noticed those on the higher end new Morino and Mattia models, a cool touch:
The reputed "best" reeds were from the original older Golas (50's-60's), I know that at some time later on they moved to Bugari reeds (they were stamped "Bugari" right on the reed plates), and later, I suppose they now are Salpa/Voci Armoniche (which I did not know... thank-you). Do you recall if they had any identification markings on them, Paul?
I played a Polyphonic 400, but it was in a hard used accordion and wasn't very pleasant, being out of tune and it felt like someone bounced it off the floor a couple times. I also tried a Solist MB 2 and it was a mediocre experience for me, maybe because I was used to my Morino VI N. The MB 2 felt like a very entry level accordion that just had a converter system and in this case, it was a professionally restored/maintained unit.
The chin switches you show are 2-position switches. If I recall correctly the Gola had one or two 4-position chin switches (and then a number of single-position switches.I first noticed those on the higher end new Morino and Mattia models, a cool touch:
The reputed "best" reeds were from the original older Golas (50's-60's), I know that at some time later on they moved to Bugari reeds (they were stamped "Bugari" right on the reed plates), and later, I suppose they now are Salpa/Voci Armoniche (which I did not know... thank-you). Do you recall if they had any identification markings on them, Paul?
...
The Salpa reeds (also used in the first generations of Pigini Sirius bayans for instance) are easily recognized because some of them have "Salpa" engraved (stamped) into the reed plates.
The Solist MB 2 has reed blocks with a plastic base and they sit right on the soundboard (with the register sliders laying loos in the grooves of the soundboard, so there is nothing between the soundboard and sliders and the reed block, like a gasket... It's really the cheapest of the cheapest construction...
Plastic coffins for the responsible decision makers I say.
