accordionmaniac
Member
Hi all,
I own what I believe is a rare ORA alpine style piano accordion with a typical Oberkrainer/Slovenian sound, with 3 reed musette, tone chamber on the 'straight' tuned reed, and no registers. To those outside this genre it sounds odd, but these specs aren't uncommon in the alpine music space. I bought it from a person I knew and trusted from Austria, and had it sent to Australia. I've written an article about it on my website, listing everything I know (not much) about the ORA Castelfidardo company and about the accordion itself here: https://accordionmaniac.com/2022/01/uncovering-information-on-ora-accordions/.
I thought I'd ping the forum here in case anyone might be able to shed some more light on either the ORA company or on this accordion, such as the age or even an old ORA catalogue.
A few things of note:
* I am aware of the old ORA website which lists the models that they sold in the early 2000s (or was it 90s, I can't recall). However my accordion, according to people in the alpine space and from my research so far, seems to pre-date them, and potentially comes from the 80s or 70s due to the very similar looking Müller piano accordions which are also from the 80s and are believed to come from the ORA factory (Slovenian and Austrian companies contracting Italian factories to make certain piano accordion models is not uncommon).
* My accordion is a bit of a "panel beating job" for lack of a better term - the bass side comes from another accordion of the same size, but maybe a later time period like the 90s, just an observation made from comparing the two parts visually.
* There are no numbers or dates inside the accordion that I could find.
* One or two people have mentioned it could be an early prototype for a Zupan competitor by ORA, but no information other than that.
* For all I know the only original part could well be the treble side - or perhaps the bellows too. Who knows.
* The volume on this thing, wow.
Thanks.
Edit: here is a recent video of this accordion, after I had a custom metal work company help with finishing off the missing part to the grill, which would have originally been a wooden strip, but when the accordion was sold to me, the original part was no longer there, and replaced by a temporary bit of plywood held to the grill by some tape. However the metal replacement is great.
I own what I believe is a rare ORA alpine style piano accordion with a typical Oberkrainer/Slovenian sound, with 3 reed musette, tone chamber on the 'straight' tuned reed, and no registers. To those outside this genre it sounds odd, but these specs aren't uncommon in the alpine music space. I bought it from a person I knew and trusted from Austria, and had it sent to Australia. I've written an article about it on my website, listing everything I know (not much) about the ORA Castelfidardo company and about the accordion itself here: https://accordionmaniac.com/2022/01/uncovering-information-on-ora-accordions/.
I thought I'd ping the forum here in case anyone might be able to shed some more light on either the ORA company or on this accordion, such as the age or even an old ORA catalogue.
A few things of note:
* I am aware of the old ORA website which lists the models that they sold in the early 2000s (or was it 90s, I can't recall). However my accordion, according to people in the alpine space and from my research so far, seems to pre-date them, and potentially comes from the 80s or 70s due to the very similar looking Müller piano accordions which are also from the 80s and are believed to come from the ORA factory (Slovenian and Austrian companies contracting Italian factories to make certain piano accordion models is not uncommon).
* My accordion is a bit of a "panel beating job" for lack of a better term - the bass side comes from another accordion of the same size, but maybe a later time period like the 90s, just an observation made from comparing the two parts visually.
* There are no numbers or dates inside the accordion that I could find.
* One or two people have mentioned it could be an early prototype for a Zupan competitor by ORA, but no information other than that.
* For all I know the only original part could well be the treble side - or perhaps the bellows too. Who knows.
* The volume on this thing, wow.
Thanks.
Edit: here is a recent video of this accordion, after I had a custom metal work company help with finishing off the missing part to the grill, which would have originally been a wooden strip, but when the accordion was sold to me, the original part was no longer there, and replaced by a temporary bit of plywood held to the grill by some tape. However the metal replacement is great.
Last edited:
