sorry, A/E, not E/A
That could be useful if you play a lot in the key of A major. With 4 basses you just have to choose which ones are more important.
A lot of the original 4 bass D/C# boxes had D/A and C#/G#, even if there were only a few buttons in the C# row (such as 10 + 3 on the melody side). Seems not a good use of those extra 2 basses to me. I have a special box like that inherited from a friend and struggle with whether to leave it just as it was when he had it, or to reversibly swap out those C#/G# basses and chords.
As was mentioned earlier, D/A D/G is common. I'd think D/A and G/G would be more useful.
D/A and A/E like you have would be good for playing in A. Maybe useful for a bit of accompaniment on E minor / E modal tunes if you take the third (G# note) out of the E triad.
I've also heard of D/A and F#/B
Some of the old time players on these boxes never played the left hand buttons, some played only the D/A bass and chords (sometimes sparsely, sometimes relentlessly), some just used the D/A bass button (not the chords) and others used mostly the D/A chord button and seldom if ever the bass button.
So it's really up to you; if you're sure the original layout has been modified then originality isn't an issue and you have the freedom to suit yourself!
PG
