Here's an interesting accordion, on the lines of some that we discussed in the recent thread on Irish B/C/C# players. On the second page of that thread, there was mention of Martin McMahon and his accordions, including some with only 8 or 12 buttons on the bass side:
http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,13507.20.htmlIt seems that most of the 3 row boxes in B/C/C# have a stradella bass with staggered columns of bass buttons, or at least bass and chord buttons that give the same notes in both bellows directions. Some of the early Hohner Trichords had their bass buttons arranged in a 6 X 2 rectangular array like a Corona II. I posted a photo of a Galletto Wilkinson Diaton V in B/C/C# that also had this arrangement of 12 basses. There are examples of B/C/C# boxes that may be converted club accordions, with only 8 basses, and triskel mentioned a special order of Mengascini B/C/C# boxes with 12 basses that he commissioned.
Here's a box, labeled Serenelli, that's interesting to compare with those. This Serenelli has an extended B/C/C# melody keyboard with 13/13/12 functional buttons (plus two dummy buttons), but the 8 basses are set up similar to those of a typical 8-bass Paolo Soprani B/C (but shifted in position):
C press / G draw, G press / D draw, E press / A draw and C press / F draw.
The woodwork and action are very well made and the reeds are excellent. Although there are three rows of pallets, there's remarkably good, bright, and balanced sound from all three rows (though the outside B row has a little more presence than the other two). This balance between rows surprised me on this box, even with the grille in place. Maybe all the aluminum channels the sound well, and/or the switch mechanism is a type that seems to let a lot of sound out of the buried pallets. When this Serenelli is played with the grille off, its casework design protects the levers better than on many more recent accordions.
The voicing is LMM and the switching and tuning is interesting. The "Bassoon" coupler actually gives what I would call a bandoneon voicing, LM dry. The "Clarinet" coupler gives a moderate MM tremelo. "Master" of course gives you all three voices, LMM. All these sounds are very useful choices; I think the LM is a great sound and more useful than either L or M single-voiced would be.
I'm a little curious about the age of this accordion. It has a very early type of bellows pins, that I usually see on the early grey Paolos and some of the earliest Busilacchio 1-row boxes. The buttons, levers, switching, and metal bellows straps look like 1950s to me. But the celluloid is not the deep red that I associate with 1950s boxes. At any rate, it's clearly all original, hardly ever played, perfect rustless clean reeds, and with original functioning wax, valves, and tuning.
The bellows dimensions are similar to a typical 4-voice, 9 coupler Paolo Soprani B/C, but the weight is much less and the bass side is especially light. With a very well designed air key with big pallet, this unusual box is much easier for me to handle than most B/C/C# accordions. Obviously the trade-off is a very limited bass accompaniment.
Anyone else seen or played one of these? Your thoughts about its date?
PG
