Pancordion @ Atlanta Accordion Club

[Granitz]

Greetings!  

Just wanted to share this with the fine folks on the forum.  Im getting close to finishing the rebuild on this Pan.  It was made in Italy in the early 1960s and I made new reed blocks, installed new/old-stock Bombate reeds, and made a Winkelbaß block for the lowest reed bank.  Still some tuning and voicing left to do, but always fun to play. 
 


The tunes are:
- Craintive
- Swing Valse
- American Patrol

Id like to greatly thank Jack Brantley of Accordionology in Decatur, GA for recording and editing the video.
Hope you like and many thanks!

 

[Eddy Yates]

Really nice, Gabe! Great playing, and the Pan sounds wonderful. Very well-balanced and sweet.

 

[Dingo40]

Just great!??

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Just great!

 

[Dingo40]

Just great!

 

[jozz]

lovely!

 

[losthobos]

Always love to hear a player play so crisply... Reminds me how slack I am ?... Thanks for sharing

 

[JerryPH]

That was great, I really enjoyed it!

 

[Granitz]

I greatly appreciate the kind words! The Atlanta Accordion Club meets monthly and hopefully a few more videos can be made. I've got another Pan from the 50's that I'm currently rebuilding and cannot wait to get it up and running...just need to be patient for the new bellows to arrive. Perhaps a duet with both instruments will be a possibility.

Many thanks again!

 

[John M]

Nice job on the rebuild of the Pan.  Nice playing too!

That Pancordion Looks like the model Myron Floren used.  How many treble and bass reeds does it have?  Also, are any reed blocks in a tone chamber?

Thanks,
John M.

 

[Granitz]

Hi John.  

This Pan does not have an official tone chamber, but the patented grill design gives the tonal illusion that it does and all reed banks benefit tonally.  The reed set up is LMMM with 5 banks in the bass.  One major benefit of this design is that no power or volume is lost from having blocks in a chamber...the sound from the reeds go directly into the grill and out through the strategically place tone ports.  Also, in the video, Im playing at roughly 40-50% power...I have yet to reach a limit at which these Bombate reeds plateau for volume.

Myron Floren mostly used a tone-chambered Pan with normal-type treble switches being oriented in two half-moons, rather than the 8 Magic-Ease, paddle-type switches on this Pan.  I have found a couple YouTube videos of Myron playing an 8-switch, but most are boxes with the half-moon setup. Joey Miskulin plays one like mine, only with more bass switches. 

Below is the link to modified bass reed block I made for this Pan.
https://www.accordionists.info/showthread.php?tid=5752&highlight=Winkelbaß

Many thanks again!

 

[John M]

Thanks for the explanation.  That special design "vent type" grill must really make a difference.  There probably is  a real "presence to the sound with the reeds right behind the grill.  Sure is a lot to learn on this forum.

John M.

 

[Granitz]

Indeed it does have a significant presence to the player, more than any other accordion in my arsenal. And for weighing in at exactly 22lbs, it's a very enjoyable instrument to play physically...escpecially for 3-hour strolling gigs. Hopefully in the next day or two I'll post some photos of different grill designs from Pancordion. Each model varies slightly and their design simply fascinates me.

 

[EMan]

Wow, made new reed blocks....now that is impressive. Heck of an undertaking. You play very well: crisp, clean and articulate; I like your style and the sound you get from the PAN accordion. I started playing around 1953 and remember well when these were introduced in the 60's.

Glad to see accordion interest in the Atlanta area.

Ed

 

[debra]

Wonderful performance, and great sound from that Pancordion. It indeed has a cassotto-like character despite not having cassotto. My brother used to play an accordion like this (decades ago), the Crucianelli Artist. Different label but probably more or less the same instrument. That grille design does limit the sound volume the accordion can produce, but improves the timbre. Of course my brother did not have the bombate reeds, nor the winkelbass.