Cutting (bellows) corners

[96Bass]

Counting bellows corners, including the two on the ends, I have found that most brand's 120 bass piano accordions have 19 corners. Even a Scandalli with 47 keys has 19 corners. The Hohner Gola also has 19. Bugari and Petosa have 20 corners and the Petosa Cathedral Galla-Rini has the most I have seen with 22 corners. Curiously the Beltuna 37/96 bass accordion that I bought in 2009 has 21 corners. It would seem that more bellows folds are better, within reason. It would also make sense that bellows with more folds come at a higher cost.

 

[Beemer]

Counting bellows corners, including the two on the ends, I have found that most brand's 120 bass piano accordions have 19 corners. Even a Scandalli with 47 keys has 19 corners. The Hohner Gola also has 19. Bugari and Petosa have 20 corners and the Petosa Cathedral Galla-Rini has the most I have seen with 22 corners. Curiously the Beltuna 37/96 bass accordion that I bought in 2009 has 21 corners. It would seem that more bellows folds are better, within reason. It would also make sense that bellows with more folds come at a higher cost.

I recall someone here miscalculating the number when making new bellows and eventually realised that the folds were reversed!

 

[dak]

Well, assuming that the number you are counting is the number of metal clips plus 2, my big Morino CBA has 16 corners. A Morino Artiste VID has 17 corners. A Morino Club N has 19, as has an Amati III M. The folds on the larger instruments are likely deeper.

 

[96Bass]

Well, assuming that the number you are counting is the number of metal clips plus 2, my big Morino CBA has 16 corners. A Morino Artiste VID has 17 corners. A Morino Club N has 19, as has an Amati III M. The folds on the larger instruments are likely deeper.

I am including the corners that are attached to the bellows frame.
Alexandr's incredible bayan has 22 corners.

 

[debra]

The number of folds is what is usually mentioned, not the number of corners (which is off by one and should be multiplied by 4 of course).
To see how "large" bellows are (in terms of air volume) you should not just consider the number of folds but also their depth. Some accordions are "filled to the rim", meaning reed blocks that come closer to the inside circumference of the bellows and therefore require less deep folds than others.
It is not really surprising that a 37/96 accordion may have one or two folds more than an 41/120 of some other brand. To make the 37/96 accordion more compact the manufacturer may opt to leave less room around the bass reed blocks (which take up just as much room on a 96 and a 120 bass accordion) and therefore use more but folds that are less deep. My bayan has fewer folds (18 I believe) has than my other accordions, but the folds are deeper so you still can open the bellows very far despite having fewer folds.

 

[dak]

I am including the corners that are attached to the bellows frame.

All of the instruments I listed have none. Maybe a Hohner thing? Well, neither does an old GDR instrument that I have a photograph of. But a Maugein has. So it's a German thing to be cutting corners?

 

[Walker]

Petosa Cathedral Galla-Rini has the most I have seen with 22 corners

Well, that's a very big accordion with a five-voice treble. I guess the more reeds that can potentially be played simultaneously means a bigger reservoir of air should be available to the player.

One of our members has a Cathedral Galla-Rini...

Zero Sette - Giuletti - Petosa

I found this interesting post from Zero Sette in a google forum, dated 2001 Dear Accordion Friends , just a note to clear up that we don't sell our ZERO SETTE accordiond to the U.S. and we have never had a ZERO SETTE representative there . We have supplied american accordionsts with our...

www.accordionists.info

Certainly, I've played a few little 34 key accordions and they're so small you're forever working the puffy litttle bellows, in, out, in, out... it's worse than doing the hokey cokey...

 

[dak]

Well, that's a very big accordion with a five-voice treble. I guess the more reeds that can potentially be played simultaneously means a bigger reservoir of air should be available to the player.

One of our members has a Cathedral Galla-Rini...

Zero Sette - Giuletti - Petosa

I found this interesting post from Zero Sette in a google forum, dated 2001 Dear Accordion Friends , just a note to clear up that we don't sell our ZERO SETTE accordiond to the U.S. and we have never had a ZERO SETTE representative there . We have supplied american accordionsts with our...

www.accordionists.info

Certainly, I've played a few little 34 key accordions and they're so small you're forever working the puffy litttle bellows, in, out, in, out... it's worse than doing the hokey cokey...

My main accordion has a rather large bellows cross section (it's height not all that unusual, being a large CBA, but it has considerable depth with 6 stacked reed blocks). When I practice two-voice stuff with the free bass (and using just one reed on each side), I often find myself getting through a part (like 24 measures or so) without changing bellows direction. That does not exactly train you to change early and often. I've had a professional player act irritated/surprised that the instrument was playing without actively pushing/pulling, just by the weight of the bass side alone.

It can be registered to last not half a second on one chord button.