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[gettabettabox]

arrived this morning. i've owned a couple of primatonas in the past, but couldn't resist this one.
a swiss made hohner amatona 3voice.  MMM musette tuned. B/C.
it is in immaculate condition apart from discolouration of grill cloth. very little evidence of having been played.
pallets sound fine, action is reasonable
nicely cased.
weighing in bang on 9lbs!
i remembered this model being referred to on here in the past and the mention of soprani style basses....and i am pleased to report it has those. (C/G, C/F, G/D E/A. - how come hohner got it right with this model?)
photos for your salivation. 

[gettabettabox]

a few more pics.

[Adam-T]

So is this basically a re-styled Double-Ray Deluxe then ? . I wonder why they made both models as I can`t see any stops on the Amatona 3 which is where I`d expect the difference would be

[Mike Hirst]

So is this basically a re-styled Double-Ray Deluxe then ? . I wonder why they made both models as I can`t see any stops on the Amatona 3 which is where I`d expect the difference would be

I suspect the differences are in the build. The most significant factor here is the Swiss factory, which also produced the Primatona and high end Club boxes.

[gettabettabox]

compared to double ray de-luxe /corso models....this has 23 buttons. basses/chords tuned to play.(which is refreshing!)
like its brothers, it has no stops, straight 3 voice.
£250...can't be bad?

[Adam-T]

£250 is great, you`d pay that for a DR-Deluxe anyway ....

I always wished they made the 4V Primatona in "useful" keys such as D/G, C/F, A/D, Bb/Eb etc  . I had  a C/C# one which sounded glorious and played wonderfully but it was a big box for what was basically a 1 row in C

[pgroff]

Hey gettabetta,

Way to go!

I love this particular model.

Great accordion - sort of a poor man's grey Paolo. The Hohner sound but with a full keyboard. Light, bright & open.  I bet it would sound even better with a custom-fitted bare aluminum grille.

Congratulations!

PG

[mory]

Nice condition box. Do what Lars does forget replacing the grill cloth go for mesh  All the Best mory

[Andy]

Looks very nice.
Does the Amatona III have a thumb groove? - only ever seen them in pictures none of which are from a suitable angle to tell.
Do you think the Paolo Soprani bass layout is original or are there any signs of retuning?

Andy

[gettabettabox]

Looks very nice.
Does the Amatona III have a thumb groove? - only ever seen them in pictures none of which are from a suitable angle to tell.
Do you think the Paolo Soprani bass layout is original or are there any signs of retuning?

Andy

had a quick peek inside, seeing as how you encouraged me! the bass/chords look original, same wax style and colour as treble end. they don't seem to have been re-tuned.
 i think i remember on here, someone swapping their amatona 111 bass blocks into a primatona... which were made with the old style basses, one for the inside row, three to suit the outer row.
thumb groove present.
the other nice feature is good ''tone balance'' between the rows, no muffle from the inner C row.

[Andy]

Thanks
Looks very tidy on the inside as well.
Interesting to see it has the same monster air valve hole size as the Gaelic IV (Talking here about the 23/8 IV rather than the 37/96 IVS) in fact quite a few similarities with the Gaelic IV.

Andy

[gettabettabox]

well spotted. can't believe that i didn't notice that when i looked inside, but it most certainly breathes impressively on the 'rocker' air button/lever -  confirmed by my brother who picked it up tonight.
and yes, there are similarities with the gaelic model.

[fishfeathersmacteeth]

...what a beautiful looking box...

[KLR]

I have Google searches for 'Amatona' and 'Primatona' bookmarked, wanting to find an old junker with a LMMM D row to cannibalize for my Gaelic IVS, so as to convert it to C/C#/D.  They're such nice boxes though!  I'd want the body to go to a good home that'd put it to use.

My Gaelic really needs a new bellows, but I love to play it, it's got the grandest tremolo ecossaise!

[gettabettabox]

the musette tuning on this amatona111, according to ''dirk's''  A - 440HZ

high A                 -14/+4/+20
       
A above middle C  -20/+5/+28

low A                   -23/0/+32

[Adam-T]

I.  They're such nice boxes though!  I'd want the body to go to a good home that'd put it to use.

That body would be aching to be turned into a D/G especially if stuffed with 1930s Zinc plate reeds hauled from a couple of old Club-IIIs  , what a Morris box ! , What a Box period !! .

I had a late 80s  Baffetti Irish-II in rare native D/G which is a 2 coupler LMMM but it`s typical Italian design meant quite severe row difference (though nothing like as bad as the 9 coupler monstrosities) and the reeds had that "refinely Tamed" sound which TAMs & AMs can have even with wide trem . I liked that baffetti all the same but a Wild Amatona would be something else entirely

[KLR]

My Gaelic has the notes spread throughout 2 rows of pallets, so the imbalance between rows is pretty minimal, overall, much better on that score than any of the International system boxes I have, or my Paolo B/C/C#.  I'd hope that the same setup was used on Hohner's 2 row offerings in this line; for that matter it's tragic that it wasn't adopted for button boxes in general - I think for the Gaelic IVS it was a budget version of the setup on the Shand Morino, where the bass notes are shunt through the cassotto and the trebles through the other two rows. 

If you're curious about the Gaelic's arrangement I actually sketched it all out, scanned the chart, and posted it here somewhere.  It's really clever how it works.

[Theo]

My Gaelic has the notes spread throughout 2 rows of pallets, so the imbalance between rows is pretty minimal, overall, much better on that score than any of the International system boxes I have, or my Paolo B/C/C#.  I'd hope that the same setup was used on Hohner's 2 row offerings in this line;

Unlikely because there will still be two rows of pallets but only two rows of buttons.  The spread of notes as on the Gaelic only happens when there are three rows of buttons to operate only two rows of pallets.

[Adam-T]

- I think for the Gaelic IVS it was a budget version of the setup on the Shand Morino, where the bass notes are shunt through the cassotto and the trebles through the other two rows. 

If you're curious about the Gaelic's arrangement I actually sketched it all out, scanned the chart, and posted it here somewhere.  It's really clever how it works.

The Club Morino works the same way but being 5 Voice, one of the three M reeds ( the middle one) is shunted through the cassotto also . there wasn`t any row diff on that .. the best savers are Steirisches with triangular pallets but then they don`t have couplers which would be realistically impossible with that setup - these things pack 3 voice /  4 rows into a relatively compact area with no row diff at all (5 and 6 row boxes are where the size jump is)