What kind of DBA do I have?

[Gottschee]

Hi,

New here...looking forward to great conversations. I inherited a DBA from my father. He played all his life in Gottschee (now Kočevsko Slovenia). It has a flat treble keyboard, 3-rows (plus a single 4th row key coming out of the grill) and no gleichton. The bass side does not have adjacent bass/cord buttons but has 2 keys in-between the the bass and chord...so it's a 1-4 2-5 3-6 pattern. Do I have a "Slovenian System" that Wikipedia describes:

"Originally, there were two systems for the diatonic Steirische, the Slovenian System, which had no Gleichton and a flat keyboard, and the German or Austrian System with Gleichton and a stepped keyboard. The Slovenian System is no longer much used; even the Slovenian players today play the German or Austrian System."

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[Dingo40]

Pictures please!

 

[Gottschee]

Thanks for the quick reply. Attached are some photos. The accordion is in BbEbAb. I have another one in CFBb and the key layout for that is also attached.

 

[Gottschee]

The key layout in the attached PDF file is one I put together so the keys are correct but the title on the bottom may be wrong.

 

[RYLUNDO]

If it doesn't have any gleichtons it could also be the standard Czech/bohemian layout.

 

[Gottschee]

Thanks Rylundo. Are the Czech/bohemian layouts described or diagrammed anywhere in this forum?

 

[tcabot]

I believe the layout is the same (standard single-row diatonics with side accidentals & each row spaced out by a quint/quart), you just have the option of gleischtone, no gleischtone or Dutch reversal.
It's very easy to swap one for another with a sharp file and a tuner.

Stepped vs flat are a box-specific feature I'd think. German Clubs are mostly flat, contrary to what has been suggested above.
Flat vs stepped makes close to zero difference on a diatonic, imho.

FWIW, These boxes are called "Steirische harmonikas" and afaik "Steirische" means "Slovenian. But they come with gleischtones these days.

That looks like a cracking box and I hope you're learning to squeeze it already.

 

[Gottschee]

Thanks tcabot for the detailed reply. From my understanding, a single row of my keyboard is standard but the adjacent row is shifted down one button compared to standard arrangement. As an example, on a standard CFBb keyboard, moving from 1st row C to 2nd row F is on the same diagonal row, same for 2nd row F to 3rd row Bb. On my keyboard, moving from 1st row C to 2nd row F is down a button and on the next diagonal row, same for 2nd row F to 3rd row Bb. That makes multi-row chord fingering completely different.

On the bass side, has anyone come across the non-adjacent bass/chord arrangement that I have? My Bb bass is 1, Bb chord is 4; F is 2-5, C is 3-6.

 

[tcabot]

That is very interesting - I missed the shifted row. If that bothers you, it should be easy enough to shift the reedplates by 1 and arrive at the "standard modern" layout.

In regard to basses: I think that Belgian Lepelbassers have this sort of arrangement, but the bass mechs are completely different. Similar finger movement though.