Melodeon.net Forums

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Welcome to the new melodeon.net forum

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Superior button accordions - the story so far  (Read 4040 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Ted

  • Good talker
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 62
Superior button accordions - the story so far
« on: April 13, 2009, 08:22:59 PM »

Superior button accordions  - the existing information is finally on www.tedmcgraw.com under Accordion Pages. Included are pix of the 5 known boxes and a question on the "rectangular buttons".
There are still many open questions so I hope this subject generates some good discussions.
Logged

BruceHenderson

  • Respected Sage
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 262
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2009, 09:00:01 PM »

  Superior button accordions  - the existing information is finally on www.tedmcgraw.com under Accordion Pages. Included are pix of the 5 known boxes and a question on the "rectangular buttons".
There are still many open questions so I hope this subject generates some good discussions. 

    Great research you're doing here, Ted.  Please keep these interesting items.   
BH NC USA
Logged
I love one-rows!  Four reeds kick butt!!!!

hibbs3

  • Guest
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2009, 12:00:32 AM »

There were Baldonis with square keys Ted :
Logged

Ted

  • Good talker
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 62
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2009, 12:18:03 AM »

Thanks very much for that, Ryan. Makes one wonder just how close knit these makers were to swap parts and styles around to satisfy any customer that came along either to Superior or Walters or Baldoni(?).
Ted
Logged

hibbs3

  • Guest
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2009, 12:19:05 AM »

It fascinates me just as much as you. It also fascinates me how you get to see all these amazing boxes!
« Last Edit: April 14, 2009, 12:22:30 AM by hibbs3 »
Logged

hibbs3

  • Guest
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2009, 12:24:34 AM »

Ted, I'm willing to bet you've seen Joe Derrane's square keyed Walters, am I right? I think it bears a lot of similarities (except the shamrocks etc, and shape of keyboard) to the baldoni picture I posted above... might help your debate on how these were all swapped between dealers
Logged

Ted

  • Good talker
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 62
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2009, 01:05:37 AM »

I have seen Joe's 15 key Walters and I agree with you. They both have the 1950's Walters grille and the keyboard is extended unlike the Superior's. The extended keyboard although blank on Joe's, allows space for the Baldoni engraving. By the way, there is a great picture of Joe's Walters in issue 32, winter 1995 of Concertina & Squeezebox mag.
Logged

hibbs3

  • Guest
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2009, 01:23:28 AM »

I've never seen the magazine, but would love to see it! Here's a link to Lars' flickr page, he has a lot of Walters / Baldoni pics there that might interest you : http://www.flickr.com/photos/21478603@N06/
Logged

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2009, 02:03:38 AM »

There were Baldonis with square keys Ted :

Is that the one that Anders has now? (I think it was being sold on eBay by somebody in Texas a while back.) If so, I was looking at it only a few weeks ago, and was a little surprised to find there are no dividers between those rectangular buttons, so you can finger straight from one button to the next one, unlike Joe Derrane's Walters which has a more normal keyboard with dividers:


I think it likely that both of these instruments were built by the same people (probably Iorio?), whilst the external workmanship of the Superior ones looks different (cruder in fact, rather than "superior"), so they may well have been made by Ottavio Curione instead. For that matter, the rectangles of the buttons on both the Baldoni and the Walters are oriented top to bottom (when the instrument is held in a playing position), whilst on the Superior they are right to left.

Square (or rectangular) buttons seem to have been a fad with American (and other) builders at the time, - I've seen them on chromatics and helikon boxes too.

hibbs3

  • Guest
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2009, 02:48:39 AM »

There were Baldonis with square keys Ted :

Is that the one that Anders has now? (I think it was being sold on eBay by somebody in Texas a while back.)

yes, thats the one that Anders has now... Has he got it tuned yet?
Logged

Lars

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 745
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2009, 08:27:19 PM »

It's not tuned yet, but I've heard a couple of notes from it that HAS been tuned, and it is in fact a very powerful box, although it is larger than what I'm used to playing. The keyboard is actually a little stepped, even though the step is reduced from the origianal. The buttons are not celluoid-covered wood like they appear to be on both Derrane's Walters and the Superiors, but made from a flat sheet of plastic.
Logged

triskel

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3290
Re: Superior button accordions - the story so far
« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2009, 04:06:15 PM »

They both have the 1950's Walters grille and the keyboard is extended unlike the Superior's. The extended keyboard although blank on Joe's, allows space for the Baldoni engraving.

Walters reused that design of grille in the '50s, but the style of these rectangular-buttoned instruments would seem to date them all to the late 1930s.

It's interesting that the Joe Derrane one never got sent to Augusto for engraving, but apparently it was old, unsold stock when the Walters business closed down.

Quote
By the way, there is a great picture of Joe's Walters in issue 32, winter 1995 of Concertina & Squeezebox mag.

Pages: [1]   Go Up
 


Melodeon.net - (c) Theo Gibb; Clive Williams 2010. The access and use of this website and forum featuring these terms and conditions constitutes your acceptance of these terms and conditions.
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal