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Joe Cooley's 3-voice red Paolo

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Pearse Rossa:

--- Quote from: Pearse Rossa on March 12, 2017, 01:52:24 AM ---
--- Quote from: triskel on March 11, 2017, 06:31:31 PM ---
--- Quote from: Pearse Rossa on March 10, 2017, 09:20:00 AM ---The oldest "Cooley model" that I have come across is from 1956, in the key of C#/D.

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So which one are you meaning?

Mine is the same as the last of them, and Des Mulkere's reaction was priceless (declaring "That sounds like Joe Cooley's box!") when it was first played with him - he immediately recognised the sound of it, though he hadn't heard another like it since 1973.


--- End quote ---

I was referring to the 3-voice, red badge model just like the one in your photo.

--- End quote ---

Yours is D/D# I take it? They must be very rare. I would think the C#/D version is also rare. 
B/C ones seem to be reasonably common.
What are the pallets in your one made of? Wood or plastic material?

triskel:

--- Quote from: Pearse Rossa on March 12, 2017, 11:06:01 AM ---Yours is D/D# I take it? They must be very rare. I would think the C#/D version is also rare. 
B/C ones seem to be reasonably common.

--- End quote ---

It is D/D#, and sounds absolutely glorious with reeds in original factory tuning - but it was in B/C when I got it, as the vast majority of these seem to be (though Donie Nolan has a C/C# one that he's very fond of). Indeed many of the B/C ones seem to have been bought for marching bands (who played them in C) when they were new, and bear the scars of having had music lyres attached to them, as well as the general abuse that band instruments are prone to...  :(

The untouched D/D# reeds came out of this very clean and hardly-played 1956 model that I got a few years ago:


And the neatly-performed operation seems to have benefitted both boxes, which both sound even better in their new keys - so much so that the (now) B/C got very quickly bought off me by a well-known North Kerry box player...


--- Quote ---What are the pallets in your one made of? Wood or plastic material?

--- End quote ---

Green plastic.

Here it is "with the hood off". See for yourself:


Edited typo

triskel:
Here are the three Paolo Soprani price lists from the mid-1950s, in sequence, showing the models of diatonic accordions they were advertising at that time:

Pearse Rossa:

--- Quote from: triskel on March 13, 2017, 04:42:24 PM ---
--- Quote from: Pearse Rossa on March 12, 2017, 11:06:01 AM ---
--- End quote ---

--- Quote ---What are the pallets in your one made of? Wood or plastic material?
--- End quote ---

Green plastic.

Here it is "with the hood off". See for yourself:


--- End quote ---


Thanks for this photo. It confirms what I expected.
When I have a chance, I will get some photos of one I have here which is a 1956 model in C#/D.
I also have a very similar 1957 model which has wooden pallets.

triskel:
These are the red-painted wooden pallets, and the action, in one from 1956:


And the same-profile wooden pallets, but unpainted, in one from 1947 that I used to have:

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