... people might be surprised to learn that even my latest Bell's catalogue, from May 1968, only lists the Erica in C/C# - and no Pokerworks, or D/Gs, at all!
...But tonight I came across an even later, January 1971, Bell's catalogue that I bought recently.It seems obvious that the supplier was catering mainly to Scottish and Irish box players?
It still shows the Erica as being in C/C# as standard, but adds (almost as an afterthought, below the main body of the description) "Also available in D and G tuning."
There are still no Pokerworks in that catalogue though, and there are altogether 4 different models in C/C#, four in B/C and 4 in B/C/C# listed, as well as 2 models in C#/D and 2 in D/D#, but only the Erica in D/G! :o
Early days for D/G, even then!
When I got my first soprani in D/G from accordions of London I got it cheap as the salesman said he would not be able to sell it to any of his regulars, this was years before the internet, so I suspect advertising the thing country wide was not an option and Kilburn then being termed as the Irish Quarter, his regulars would not be seen dead with those tunings...
Which begs the question...how many English folk musicians were actually playing the button box at the time? Very few maybe?
I've been told that D/G (in English music) originated with a couple of dance players on Dartmoor in the 1940s, who got their Club Model C/F accordions (which were themselves a new introduction in the 1930s) converted to play in D/G,...I'm wondering how these conversions were made. Were there many fettlers around in those days?
It was Peter who got the first D/G instruments manufactured for the English folk market - a batch of Club Models built by Hagstrom...Do you mean Club Models with a gleichton?
..Oscar Woods, Dolly Curtis, Percy Brown, George Craske, and others. They mainly played two row melodeons in C/C# or B/C using the C rows only, although latterly, Percy Brown played a D/G Erica. The one-row four-stop melodeon in C was also popular and came to be Oscar Woods' iconic box (http://www.eatmt.org.uk/oscar_woods.htm).
...But tonight I came across an even later, January 1971, Bell's catalogue that I bought recently.It seems obvious that the supplier was catering mainly to Scottish and Irish box players?
... there are altogether 4 different models in C/C#, four in B/C and 4 in B/C/C# listed, as well as 2 models in C#/D and 2 in D/D#, but only the Erica in D/G! :o
Which begs the question...how many English folk musicians were actually playing the button box at the time? Very few maybe?
Which models were available in C#/D and D/D#?
If an Irish player wanted to play like Paddy O' Brien or Joe Burke or Finbarr Dwyer (and they all did!),
then it had to be B/C or some other semi-tone.
You just can't get the ornamentation that those players get, on a D/G.
I've been told that D/G (in English music) originated with a couple of dance players on Dartmoor in the 1940s, who got their Club Model C/F accordions (which were themselves a new introduction in the 1930s) converted to play in D/G,...I'm wondering how these conversions were made. Were there many fettlers around in those days?
Did the boxes go back to the supplier or the factory? Were reeds retuned or replaced I wonder?
It was Peter who got the first D/G instruments manufactured for the English folk market - a batch of Club Models built by Hagstrom...Do you mean Club Models with a gleichton?
Why not a straight up D/G?...unless the players were only interested in playing the D row.
No "semitonally-inflected downward mordants" I trust, nor "pointless and random ornaments"... ::) (Seán Ó Riada)
No "semitonally-inflected downward mordants" I trust, nor "pointless and random ornaments"... ::) (Seán Ó Riada)
I wonder what Sonny Brogan and Éamon de Buitléar made of that...
I wonder if Ivor Hyde would have any input into this?
... although latterly, Percy Brown played a D/G Erica. ...
Sadly I haven't seen Ivor for a few years now. I do recall his mentioning that he once converted a Club for Bob Cann. Later of course the Pixie Band approached him to repeat the feat, but he was not inclined to go through the process again so it was agreed he should re-reed the box with Italian reeds. Presumably the scale length didn't suit the reed blocks as he said it was a bit of a disaster!
I'd love to see him again and tell him how much I've enjoyed the boxes he's fixed for me.
Rob.
Certainly the renowned Dartmoor player Bob Cann, born in 1919 and playing for dances by the 1940s, was later known for playing a post-war Hohner Club III M that must have been converted, to be in D/G.
I am not sure about to boxes he played in the 1940,s but to the best of my memory the one I danced to late 60,s early 70,s was converted to DG by Ivor Hyde. I believe It also did have the dreaded glechion! because when Bob borrowed my 3 voice ADG Corona to try on one occasion he could not get on with because he missed having the glechion.
But Ivor would be the person to confirm this
Sadly I haven't seen Ivor for a few years now. I do recall his mentioning that he once converted a Club for Bob Cann. Later of course the Pixie Band approached him to repeat the feat, but he was not inclined to go through the process again so it was agreed he should re-reed the box with Italian reeds. Presumably the scale length didn't suit the reed blocks as he said it was a bit of a disaster!
..Maybe those Hagstroms did have "the dreaded gleichton" after all then.
I suppose this begs the question of did Peter Kennedy's boxes have a gleichton - does anybody know?
..And if the answer is yes, then why? These players went from one row melodeon and playing predominantly on the C row of C/C# or C/F boxes to playing the Club system?
There must be something else going on!
Sadly I haven't seen Ivor for a few years now. I do recall his mentioning that he once converted a Club for Bob Cann. Later of course the Pixie Band approached him to repeat the feat, but he was not inclined to go through the process again so it was agreed he should re-reed the box with Italian reeds. Presumably the scale length didn't suit the reed blocks as he said it was a bit of a disaster!
I guess the first one would have been Bob's red Club IIIM, which got passed on to Mark Bazeley in 1983 when Bob bought a new melodeon, a Hohner Ouverture V - which must be the one that ended up with those Italian reeds... :(
..And if the answer is yes, then why? These players went from one row melodeon and playing predominantly on the C row of C/C# or C/F boxes to playing the Club system?
There must be something else going on!
It was probably simply that
a) that's how Hohner made them, and people played instruments as they were in those days - whilst both the Club system and the gleichton have lots of fans and adherents, though chiefly in Central Europe (In fact there were whole Accordion Club bands of Club Models in Ireland in the 1930s... )
and
b) there wasn't a whole caste of fettlers to customise boxes for you if you did want something different anyway.
.. Peter Kennedy then took up D/G and seems to have been behind the more general introduction of the system.
It was Peter who got the first D/G instruments manufactured for the English folk market - a batch of Club Models built by Hagstrom....
Yes, but I was referring to this piece of information:.. Peter Kennedy then took up D/G and seems to have been behind the more general introduction of the system.
It was Peter who got the first D/G instruments manufactured for the English folk market - a batch of Club Models built by Hagstrom....
Why didn't Peter Kennedy go for standard D/G instruments? He was having the boxes custom made almost.
I guess the first one would have been Bob's red Club IIIM, which got passed on to Mark Bazeley in 1983 when Bob bought a new melodeon, a Hohner Ouverture V - which must be the one that ended up with those Italian reeds... :(
Why didn't Peter Kennedy go for standard D/G instruments? He was having the boxes custom made almost.We don't know that he didn't, like I said, nobody has seen one.
Is it at all possible that some of the earliest German-built D/G Ericas or Pokerworks still around today originated from Peter Kennedy's initial ordering? We wouldn't necessarily today know their provenance.
2) Since it is usually fiddlers who gripe that sessions are confined to D and G for the sake of the melodeons, I find it ironic that we have adopted the D/G (which is not the optimum tuning, being a bit too high-pitched) in order to play along with them in the first place.
1) There is no need to "dread" the gleichton
If only it had been AD that was adopted to play along with fiddles. Nice low pitch, usable across the entire range.
1) There is no need to "dread" the gleichton
I'm glad somebody said that.
As I recall from conversations with Ivor, there are two black Ouvertures. The first one had Morino reeds tuned up from C/F to D/G (arduous indeed but successful!) and the second one had Italian D/G reeds fitted and was "a bit of a disaster".
I wonder how 1956 All-Ireland Champion George Ross (right) and his friend got on with the Club Models they're playing in the photo below?(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Accordions/george%20ross.jpg)
1) There is no need to "dread" the gleichton
I'm glad somebody said that.
I don't know how he got on with a Club, but the man was a demon on B/C/C#!George Ross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kdnZj5XJtM).
If only it had been AD that was adopted to play along with fiddles. Nice low pitch, usable across the entire range.
The fiddlers would have only complained that they couldn't play in G.
Not to mention other keys: last night in a session, I put my D/G melodeon down and listened while fiddlers went through a set of tunes in G minor and B flat.
(At least it meant William Taylor's Tabletop Hornpipe was played in the right key for a change. And The Savage Hornpipe.)
I don't know how he got on with a Club, but the man was a demon on B/C/C#!George Ross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kdnZj5XJtM).
The tune George Ross is playing sounds very much like one that I know as "Slow Hornpipe" from Tony Hall's "Mr Universe" CD. Its interesting to compare what each player does with the tune.
If only it had been AD that was adopted to play along with fiddles. Nice low pitch, usable across the entire range.
The fiddlers would have only complained that they couldn't play in G.
Not to mention other keys: last night in a session, I put my D/G melodeon down and listened while fiddlers went through a set of tunes in G minor and B flat.
(At least it meant William Taylor's Tabletop Hornpipe was played in the right key for a change. And The Savage Hornpipe.)
All hypothetical now of course, but wouldn't G/C have been better? Still the nice low pitch, and throw in a couple of C# accidentals and you have D scale as well.
There's never been an "accordion industry" in Britain, unlike (especially) Germany & Italy - indeed the only accordion factory has been the one exported there (after the Second World War) by the Swedish maker Hagstrom. Here's one of theirs that I have:(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b66/StephenChambers/Hagstrom2-row.jpg)
Hagstrom built the first production G/D boxes, for Peter Kennedy at the EFDSS, in 1949.
According to a post on here from 'Inventor' ( Brian Hayden ), where he describes his purchase of the last of the Peter Kennedy Erica's: Peter Kennedy chose DG keys because he'd been on a tune collecting trip in the north, and the tunes were mostly in those keys. Hence his original order of Hohners in those keys.
Some years ago I asked Peter Kennedy to relate the story of the introduction of D/G melodeons into England as his name always seems to come up.
He said something like:
In the 1950s most melodeons were based in C with either F or G as a second row and the half row, often in the club format, to give more chromaticity. He was collecting songs and tunes in Northumberland and found strangely that much of the repertoire played by fiddlers in particular was of Irish origin and in G or D and sometimes A. He investigated and found that an anomolous reception of Radio Eirrean (sp) occurred in the NE and local players were picking up Irish tunes for their repertoire from the radio.
Now Irish melodeon players had adopted chromatic instruments based on C with either B or C# as a second row to enable them to play in other keys but this was not generally popular in England and the local melodeon players couldn't join in with this repertoire. So to help local melodeon players Peter arranged for Hohner to produce a batch melodeons in G/D, I believe that they were stocked and distributed by Bells of Surbiton and the EFDSS shop.
And it all followed on from there...
Fiddler's Tunebooks were published for the first time in early the early 1950's and the tunes were, I think, almost exclusively in D and GGood point, and likely to be quite influential.
By the same token D/G is the dominant key (plus minors of course) in the O'Neill's collection so it's interesting that they went towards semitone boxes. Presumably because that was the best way to get the fiddle ornaments?These things can simply come down to personalities - The Irish played one row melodeons in "press and draw" style before B/C came along, and I seem to remember that one or two players who used B/C boxes and used the two rows to get other keys (instead of just playing on the C row like the English did) influenced a whole generation to play in that style.
Similarly, if Peter Kennedy hadn't encouraged the manufacture and import of D/G boxes, it's possible that the English melodeon players now might be playing... who knows? B/C or C/# in fully chromatic style, or B/C/C# like Jimmy Shand (another example of one man influencing a whole generation), or maybe English fiddlers would be playing in C now.
Similarly, if Peter Kennedy hadn't encouraged the manufacture and import of D/G boxes, it's possible that the English melodeon players now might be playing... who knows? .....
What is quite amazing is that the choice of keys and 'standard' DG keyboard format has continued unchallenged for such a long time until this forum started questioning both layout and now key choice.
English melodeon players now might be playing... who knows? .....
C/F I would have hoped! ;)
Similarly, if Peter Kennedy hadn't encouraged the manufacture and import of D/G boxes, it's possible that the English melodeon players now might be playing... who knows? .....
C/F I would have hoped! ;)
What is quite amazing is that the choice of keys and 'standard' DG keyboard format has continued unchallenged for such a long time until this forum started questioning both layout and now key choice.
I think there's been a big tune session culture since that time, which has tended to perpetuate the habit. Nobody wants to turn up at a session with a box that won't fit in with everybody else, and that in turn influences our buying decisions. And one step back from that - if you are starting a music shop and selling melodeons, what keys will you stock first, if you want them to sell quickly?... and advise potential buyers to choose, if they aren't sure?English melodeon players now might be playing... who knows? .....
C/F I would have hoped! ;)
Yes, quite possibly, as they were always readily available. With the possible consequence that we'd be playing less with fiddles and more with wind and brass instruments whose keys are more closely related. I'm always amazed at how Sax players with E♭ instruments manage in D, which is five sharps for them.
... or B/C/C# like Jimmy Shand ...
It's interesting to note that the biggest melodeon teaching weekend in the England (Melodeons at Witney) is specifically for D/G. Don't expect to see an end to the dominance any time soon.
Parts of that Erica of mine from the 1950s still exist; I never throw anything away. However I first converted it to an A/D/G melodeon with a slightly different octave. Then it got canibalised for other later experiments.
In those days Fiddlers not melodeonists led the way, and were likely to burst into the key of A at the drop of a hat.
Inventor.
I agree with you there Rees, but when I venture south of the Tees it's rare to find a DG player who doesn't put their box down when the key of A crops up in a session. I was recently at an event in York where this happened. A English concertina player played a set that went into a well known A tune, Athol Highlanders I think, and the DG section went very quiet.
I agree with you there Rees, but when I venture south of the Tees it's rare to find a DG player who doesn't put their box down when the key of A crops up in a session. I was recently at an event in York where this happened. A English concertina player played a set that went into a well known A tune, Athol Highlanders I think, and the DG section went very quiet.As someone who has done just that I agree with you. However I would suggest that for some people it is so far out of their comfort zone that attempting to play in A in a group situation feels too risky. Unless you have had a good go at doing so in the privacy of your own home it is entirely understandable. When choosing which tunes to learn I can understand not choosing anything in A when someone plays a DG... Now, where's that music for Atholl Highlanders...
Interesting to see George Garside daring to mention the limitations of the DG box on this forum. I'm amazed that more players, hearing semitone boxes played well, don't see that as the way to go.
those slinky sexy French mazurkas in A minor. >:E
.. the DG is great but has severe limitaions -
Interesting to see George Garside daring to mention the limitations of the DG box on this forum.
posted when pisatively post !
I've mentioned this to Dave Townsend (the organiser) a couple of times in the past, wondering if it might be possible to run one or two workshops specifically for melodeons in other keys, especially for G/C doing French tunes/tuition with someone like Emmanuel Pariselle as a tutor. Dave thought it was an interesting suggestion but feared the take-up for the workshops would be too small. However, I can foresee a possible growing demand and I might mention it again at MAW in a few weeks time.I'll be bringing my G/C - and whatever D/G box I end up with. I'm worried that I'll be the only one there struggling to rethink the chords and RH as a transposition of the G/C world - I'll be at least 3 steps behind.
Meanwhile it's D/G business as usual, because (as Dave says) that's what everyone has.
Hasse, there is a famous GD box being talked about on another thread.
I think Rees will give you the details in a while. It was played by Dave Roberts who was the original Blowzabella melodeon player.
Take a look here....
http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,19341.0.html
Cheers
Q
I was just wondering if older home fixed G/D boxes might have been a more normal sight before the luxury of factory made D/G boxes were available. The G/D as a sort of pre-D/G? And might just been played up and down the rows?
I've been told that D/G (in English music) originated with a couple of dance players on Dartmoor in the 1940s, who got their Club Model C/F accordions (which were themselves a new introduction in the 1930s) converted to play in D/G, to suit the keys of the fiddle players...
I think Malcolm Clapp wrote me that he also had a "low LMM D/G" box in similar keys, voicings, and octaves.
PG
I agree with you there Rees, but when I venture south of the Tees it's rare to find a DG player who doesn't put their box down when the key of A crops up in a session. I was recently at an event in York where this happened. A English concertina player played a set that went into a well known A tune, Athol Highlanders I think, and the DG section went very quiet.
Is it at all possible that some of the earliest German-built D/G Ericas or Pokerworks still around today originated from Peter Kennedy's initial ordering? We wouldn't necessarily today know their provenance.
I had an Erica in D/G which I bought in the Early 70, if I remember correctly, Second hand from a middle aged lady in Catford S.E London, who formerly used it for Country dance playing, it came with a Bell accordians Plastic badge on the rear, It was fitted with a new set of reeds about 15 years ago, and I recently refurbished it including stripping the plastic covering off complete with a coat of black paint !! (added when the Black Ericas became trendy) as it was getting really tatty and sold it on to another member on this forum, who as far as I know is very happy with it.
I have often wondered if this might have been one of the EFDSS issue ones, The lady from whom I bought it certainly gave the impression of being an EFDSS, and PLayford type !!.
I would like to find a box in DGC, that sounds fun!
I play it in A for ceilidhs. The guitar player takes care of the chords.
I would like to find a box in DGC, that sounds fun!
Mine is nearly there G/D/Bb. The Bb is a 9 button helper row with 14 basses on the other end. Fun? yes, confusing at first and still finding the possibilities. Speciality tuned for somebody in a former life, but not having a helper row I had to learn how to use one anyway so the layout although strange to somebody else is starting to fit me now.
Mine is nearly there G/D/Bb. The Bb is a 9 button helper row with 14 basses on the other end.
I play it in A for ceilidhs. The guitar player takes care of the chords.Why don't you play the chords on the box, they're all there?
I know that English concertina player and I think I know the session. Yes, he does play "Athol Highlanders" in A as God intended. The only D/G player who follows him on this is usually me (thank you George!). Most D/G players round our way tend to play it in G, because they need the basses for ceilidh playing.
Chris B.
I agree with you there Rees, but when I venture south of the Tees it's rare to find a DG player who doesn't put their box down when the key of A crops up in a session. I was recently at an event in York where this happened. A English concertina player played a set that went into a well known A tune, Athol Highlanders I think, and the DG section went very quiet.
I agree with you there Rees, but when I venture south of the Tees it's rare to find a DG player who doesn't put their box down when the key of A crops up in a session. I was recently at an event in York where this happened. A English concertina player played a set that went into a well known A tune, Athol Highlanders I think, and the DG section went very quiet.
That would have been Mike Jary, and I'm never quiet ;)
If only it had been AD that was adopted to play along with fiddles. Nice low pitch, usable across the entire range.
The fiddlers would have only complained that they couldn't play in G.
Not to mention other keys: last night in a session, I put my D/G melodeon down and listened while fiddlers went through a set of tunes in G minor and B flat.
(At least it meant William Taylor's Tabletop Hornpipe was played in the right key for a change. And The Savage Hornpipe.)
Not to dispute anything written above (which explicitly focuses on English music), but I have seen the occasional low-octave D/G Italian box turn up in the US, seemingly made ca. 1940s- 1950s. The one I have at present is a ca 1950 (? plus or minus a decade?) Ficosecco in high-pitch D/G (around A 450, not really high enough to be considered a low-pitch Eb/Ab), voiced LMM but with each of those sets of reeds an octave below a typical English D/G in LMM. Maybe this should be indicated "L, LL"
Thus the inside G row of this D/G Ficosecco is very low-pitched; it has reeds in the octave you would usually find in an Italian LMM box in the keys of G/C. But its outside D row has reeds that are a fourth interval lower still.
I think Malcolm Clapp wrote me that he also had a "low LMM D/G" box in similar keys, voicings, and octaves.
The Hohners from the 1930s in DGC (also with a very low octave D row) that turn up in the US have been discussed in other threads on this forum over the years.
PG
Not to dispute anything written above (which explicitly focuses on English music), but I have seen the occasional low-octave D/G Italian box turn up in the US, seemingly made ca. 1940s- 1950s.
The Hohners from the 1930s in DGC (also with a very low octave D row) that turn up in the US have been discussed in other threads on this forum over the years.
Here's that Ficosecco (low) D/G that I mentioned. Checking more closely, the pitch is closer to A 446.
MarioP,
That's a really cool accordion, congratulations!
PG
If only it had been AD that was adopted to play along with fiddles. Nice low pitch, usable across the entire range.
The fiddlers would have only complained that they couldn't play in G.
Not to mention other keys: last night in a session, I put my D/G melodeon down and listened while fiddlers went through a set of tunes in G minor and B flat.
(At least it meant William Taylor's Tabletop Hornpipe was played in the right key for a change. And The Savage Hornpipe.)
This is why I keep a little Hohner Student II PA handy, with thirdless chords.
i tried the B/C/C# system a while back, but it didn't last long.
Everything was just too easy, the tunes simply flowed from the accordion in any key I could imagine.
I gave it up because I no longer felt it to be a challenge.
;)
G
D/G is the most common melodeon and lots of tunes for whatever reason fall into those keys. Why then is the most common two row anglo G/C?
D/G is the most common melodeon and lots of tunes for whatever reason fall into those keys. Why then is the most common two row anglo G/C?
That's the problem for a small box player (the box, that is - although I'm not of great stature either). If you want to enjoy playing in a wider variety of keys during one evening, you end up lugging several boxes into the pub. That's OK, but I find it much more difficult to lug them out again after a few bevvies!
I once turned up with D/G, C/F and Bb/Eb, but as you say here in the south nobody was interested in letting me play anything but the D/G - so I played a tune in C on it just to confuse them...
Rob.
on one of the rare occasions I took a big 3 row to a session in DG-land I accidentally played 'home on the range' in Ab instead of G to disgruntled comments such as 'what bloody key is that'
Ooh! You ARE awful. 8)
Otherwise, if you play a 3- or 4-row C/G Anglo "across the rows" (like they were designed for, instead of simply "on the straight row") the third key of the instrument (needing only one note from the outside/accidentals row = C#) is that of D.
...
Thirdly, for that matter G/D Anglos were virtually non-existant until the 1970s, when a number of tuners (myself included) started to convert old Salvation Army Ab/Eb ones (to go with the brass instruments) into G/D to go with these "new fangled" D/G melodeons.
Whilst I take your point about a three row anglo I did specify two row ...
... two row ... when I started playing those were what were commonly around at affordable prices. (I still have the Lachenal I learnt on, cost me a tenner).
I also remember my first G/D (also a tenner) which was one of those East German painted jobbies that arrived in the early seventies.
Sadly I haven't seen Ivor for a few years now. I do recall his mentioning that he once converted a Club for Bob Cann. Later of course the Pixie Band approached him to repeat the feat, but he was not inclined to go through the process again so it was agreed he should re-reed the box with Italian reeds. Presumably the scale length didn't suit the reed blocks as he said it was a bit of a disaster!
I'd love to see him again and tell him how much I've enjoyed the boxes he's fixed for me.
Rob.
Are tunes in D and G difficult to play on a C/C# box?
Are tunes in D and G difficult to play on a C/C# box?
I won't name those I was less than impressed with, but even at major festivals one was sometimes presented with a band that tried so hard to be different that they exceeded the bounds of what would be acceptable in concert yet whilst they were being engaged as a dance band their music was frankly undanceable! .
For myself I prefer a two row D/G, preferably three voice, for dance. It suits the mix with other band instruments and the lower voice adds a little lower timbre missing from most melody instruments.
Rob.
Hi all,Quote
Has anyone seen a horseshoe grille Paolo Soprani like this that was an original DG? Or even an original DG example of one of the earlier types of 23 key, flat board Paolos made in the mid-1950s or earlier (pepperpots, pearl greys).
PG
No "semitonally-inflected downward mordants" I trust, nor "pointless and random ornaments"... ::) (Seán Ó Riada)
Hi all,Quote
Has anyone seen a horseshoe grille Paolo Soprani like this that was an original DG? Or even an original DG example of one of the earlier types of 23 key, flat board Paolos made in the mid-1950s or earlier (pepperpots, pearl greys).
PG
You'll be lucky to find evidence of such boxes, though as we all know absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I suspect they started making DG boxes as a response to the English folk revival in the 1960s which featured this creation.
Vienna/Italian boxes with both side hook closures and Stradella corners appear to have been in production by 1900.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Vienna/Italian boxes with both side hook closures and Stradella corners appear to have been in production by 1900.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Has the link been hijacked? It goes somewhere different when I try it.
I've been told that D/G (in English music) originated with a couple of dance players on Dartmoor in the 1940s, who got their Club Model C/F accordions (which were themselves a new introduction in the 1930s) converted to play in D/G,...I'm wondering how these conversions were made. Were there many fettlers around in those days?
Did the boxes go back to the supplier or the factory? Were reeds retuned or replaced I wonder