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Author Topic: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments  (Read 5860 times)

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george garside

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Re: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments
« Reply #40 on: January 24, 2017, 09:04:19 AM »

Strangely enough, the BSA Bantam was introduced in 1948 as well as the Moggie!

Not so strange really, when you consider how long it took industry to get going again after WW2 - and many serving in the British Armed Forces didn't even get demobbed until 1947!

And (not surprisingly under the circumstances) the VW "Beetle", the "Bantam" and the Morris Minor (sorry, a "Moggie" is a Morgan car to me - they came first!  ;)) were all basically "pre-war" designs, just as many of the accordions (that started to be made again in 1946 in Italy, and 1947 in Germany) were as well. Indeed there were stong parallels between accordion design and car design at the time too, with streamlining all the rage on both, and I'd compare the "faired-in" style of headlamps, on the Beetle and Minor, with the "faired-in" style of feet that you'd find on many Italian accordions of the era too (like the Paolo Soprani "grey boxes"!) instead of seperate ones that were screwed on...

the BSA ban'tam was  more or less a  copy of the pre war 125cc German DKW the design of which was given to BSA as part of the 'reparations'. 

george
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triskel

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Re: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments
« Reply #41 on: January 24, 2017, 10:52:02 AM »

Strangely enough, the BSA Bantam was introduced in 1948 as well as the Moggie!

... the VW "Beetle", the "Bantam" and the Morris Minor ... were all basically "pre-war" designs ...

the BSA ban'tam was  more or less a  copy of the pre war 125cc German DKW the design of which was given to BSA as part of the 'reparations'. 

george

Exactly!  ;)

triskel

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Re: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments
« Reply #42 on: January 24, 2017, 11:19:47 AM »

... there were stong parallels between accordion design and car design at the time too, with streamlining all the rage on both, and I'd compare the "faired-in" style of headlamps, on the Beetle and Minor, with the "faired-in" style of feet that you'd find on many Italian accordions of the era too (like the Paolo Soprani "grey boxes"!) instead of seperate ones that were screwed on...

The "faired-in" style of feet on this c.1939 Scandalli that I got recently, with their aluminium tips looking like lenses, would especially remind me of "faired-in" car headlamps:


Chris Ryall

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Re: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments
« Reply #43 on: January 24, 2017, 03:43:51 PM »

We can't let that pass on a melodeon website!

         

If we are to talk Poker I 'see' your 1939 Scandalli, and 'raise' you an 1941 4-stroke
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Winston Smith

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Re: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments
« Reply #44 on: January 24, 2017, 06:03:55 PM »

1941, Chris? I would have thought that they were still on side valves then. Not that I'm anywhere near old enough to remember, of course.
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triskel

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Re: Is the Melodeon the Morris Minor of instruments
« Reply #45 on: January 24, 2017, 11:27:48 PM »

We can't let that pass on a melodeon website!

Sadly, Scandalli seem to have stopped making diatonic accordions by the late 1930s, though they made some beauties previously, but the streamlined styling of their pioneering 1938-39 models was very influential on the design of streamlined Italian button boxes at the time, including the Paolo Soprani "grey boxes" (as I've said), and even more so on the likes of my 4-voice Casali C/C# (now C#/D) - but that comparison really deserves a seperate thread of its own.

Quote
If we are to talk Poker I 'see' your 1939 Scandalli, and 'raise' you an 1941 4-stroke

I'll raise you the 1939 "floor pedals"  ;) ...

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