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Author Topic: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box  (Read 12443 times)

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pgroff

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #20 on: September 28, 2017, 03:32:43 AM »

I think you're right and now I understand your earlier point more clearly!
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triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #21 on: September 28, 2017, 04:40:50 AM »

To expound on my point, streamlining was all about modernity and technology - so that, in the 1930s, railway locomotives, aircraft, cars, buses and caravans all started to be streamlined, in the name of improved performance and efficiency. And (at the end of the decade) accordions started to follow that trend, and their decoration also started to echo such modern and technical styles, rather than more roccoco ones.

Lyres, on the other hand, stand for tradition and ancient music, harking back...

Streamlining was futuristic!

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #22 on: September 28, 2017, 11:45:01 AM »


I hope the instrument itself might arrive tomorrow - fingers crossed!  (:)

And I've been notified it's at the post office today for me to collect, as is the Bagnini catalogue I mentioned too - can't wait!  (:)

Martin Quinn

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #23 on: September 28, 2017, 01:42:25 PM »

 Here's a  Ficosecco that turned up in the workshop lately.

Martin
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triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #24 on: September 28, 2017, 02:33:01 PM »

Here's a  Ficosecco that turned up in the workshop lately.

Martin

Nice! Looks like an early '30's model. What's the key of it Martin?

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #25 on: September 28, 2017, 02:50:13 PM »

So I finally have "Fippie" in my posession, and she's in B/C with the remains of a Northern Ireland music shop's transfer on her - so made for that market and sold there originally.

And though she's the same length as the Delfini, or a 3-voice Paolo, she's more petite in depth (6 1/4" as opposed to 7") and height (11 3/4" as opposed to 13 1/8" or 13 1/4" respectively). She's also substantially lighter, at only 6.2 lbs (though that's without an aluminium grille or keyboard plate), as opposed to 8.2 lbs for the Delfini or 9.2 lbs for the Paolo Soprani. :D

She's even dated 14 - 7 - 49 (so Bastille Day 1949 - Vive la Révolution!) on the middle reed block, which is pretty much what I was originally guessing, though that contradicts the 1951 year of founding given in the CHRONOLOGY OF PRODUCTION OF ITALIAN ACCORDIONS for Fipaccordion...  ???

pgroff

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #26 on: September 28, 2017, 04:20:19 PM »

... I think the Fipaccordion [button box] must be even rarer ....

It has a very definite 'Irish-American' look about it.
Any idea what the key of this one is?
I expect that it might have a 'D' row.

Hi Pearse Rossa

I'd say the Fipaccordion is more "fancy mid-20th century Italian," and would predict it to be quint tuned (G/C, F/Bb etc). It might have a D row if it's in A/D or D/G, but not necessarily. Of course, that's only a prediction!



PG

Well, wrong again!  But then it's also fun to learn something new.

PG
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triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #27 on: September 28, 2017, 05:15:58 PM »

Well at least you were both wrong Paul, whilst I'd have been very happy if it did have a D row because I've already got the C# one...

And I hadn't expected it to have been a Northern Ireland box all its life, whilst being in B/C brings its own dilemma about what to do for the best with it.  :-\

Martin Quinn

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #28 on: September 28, 2017, 08:30:16 PM »

Here's a  Ficosecco that turned up in the workshop lately.

Martin

Nice! Looks like an early '30's model. What's the key of it Martin?
Its BC , came from an auction in Belfast a few years ago

I saw another BC 4 voice in Donegal last year
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tirpous

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #29 on: September 28, 2017, 09:16:48 PM »

Quote
And I hadn't expected it to have been a Northern Ireland box all its life, whilst being in B/C brings it's own dilemma about what to do for the best with it.  :-\

Well, you could always give it to me !   ;D
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triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #30 on: September 28, 2017, 11:24:03 PM »

Quote
... being in B/C brings its own dilemma about what to do for the best with it.  :-\

Well, you could always give it to me !   ;D

'Sfunny, but that wasn't one of the options I was considering...  :o  ;)  :P

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #31 on: September 29, 2017, 12:22:41 AM »

The light wasn't great this evening, but I took a few photos anyway.

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #33 on: September 29, 2017, 12:36:35 AM »


 Here's a  Ficosecco that turned up in the workshop lately.

Nice! Looks like an early '30's model. What's the key of it Martin?

Its BC , came from an auction in Belfast a few years ago

I saw another BC 4 voice in Donegal last year

I think the dealer's transfer on mine may well have been from Matchetts in Belfast, so maybe they were importing them(?) - hence them all turning up in Ulster.

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #34 on: September 29, 2017, 01:10:01 AM »

It's sounding like Ficosecco had a particular thing about lyres, as well as Orfeo, but it's very unusual (for me at least) to see them on streamlined accordions.

But here's another instance of a lyre for a badge (on the back of the keyboard - not in/on the grille) on a streamlined, seemingly late-1940's, Orfeo PA:

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #35 on: September 30, 2017, 05:49:26 PM »


Craigavon? That would certainly explain the absence of shamrocks, a tricolour, etc!
Were it to have shamrocks and a tricolour, that would explain it being hidden away in an attic!

I took advantage of the sunshine yesterday morning (we'd "Biblical" rainfall by last night! :() to get a better picture of the Fipaccordion, and its decoration.

There does seem to be a bit of a "red, white and blue thing" going on with it - but, to be fair, it also has green and gold rhinestones too, so maybe both traditions are meant to be represented in its colour scheme...  ???


Was this one a 'parade accordion' I wonder?

A whole band of them would have been quite a sight!  8)


It would be unusual. They were mostly Hohners and Paolos.

Maybe in later years, but I think things were less standardised in earlier ones and there was more of a choice back then. I've even seen a second hand Casali (offered for sale by a Northern Ireland dealer) that had been made (specially for band use) with dummy bass buttons...  :o

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #36 on: October 01, 2017, 08:13:20 PM »

I'm sure most "melodeon"/button box players won't have a clue what Pearse Rossa and myself have been going on about in the last post, so here's a video clip, by way of explanation:

It's of the Mullabrack Accordion Band from Markethill, Co. Armagh (not a million miles from Craigavon, where the Fipaccordion came from) playing whilst marching, and with music lyres mounted on their instruments to hold their music (like the D/D# Paolo did in its previous life, when it was a B/C and in a band in Co. Wicklow).


The Mullabrack Band still play nothing but button boxes, though many have mixed PAs in with them (or play only PAs) these days.

triskel

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #37 on: October 06, 2017, 06:36:27 AM »

I think I may have found "the right" grille for the Fipaccordion, or at least a very suitable-looking one.

The only trouble is, I'd have to buy the PA from the US to get it, and adding the cost of postage, plus import taxes, that would cost a small fortune...  :(

I don't suppose anybody might have a similar grille they could sell me?

pgroff

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #38 on: October 06, 2017, 08:45:53 AM »

Hi Triskel,

I did notice that instrument. I haven't seen that grille very often. Liberty Bellows in Philadelphia PA often breaks up accordions and sells the parts separately, so they might turn one up for you:
http://libertybellows.com/

If you PM me what you'd offer for the accordion that you linked, I could try to pick it up for you and mail you just the grille. But as you know sellers can be unrealistic about market value sometimes, despite the glut of unrestored 12 bass piano accordions that are "totalled" and not selling.

Interesting that it's a "Rivoli," a name usually found on Sonola models that look somewhat different.

As a coincidence, I'm looking for a piece of trim found on some very high-end Sonola model accordion grilles, so "where can I find a grille like this:"

https://hammondcast.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/picture-9.png

PG




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pgroff

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Re: Fipaccordion 1940's fancy 3-voice button box
« Reply #39 on: October 07, 2017, 04:33:00 PM »

Hi again triskel,

And if you are thinking of making your own aluminum grille with lyre to fit the Fipaccordion, here's further inspiration - a better pic of the grille on the Armindo Luciani (21 melody keys, 3v, MMM, Eb/Ab, A=449).  Looks to me like the grille on the Rivoli PA that you found may possibly not be deep enough for a 3 voice, 2 row box. Note the extra pattern stamped above and below the lyre, on the Armindo Luciani (compared to the Rivoli).  The Rivoli is probably MM with 2 rows of pallets on the soundboard.

PG
« Last Edit: October 07, 2017, 04:37:56 PM by pgroff »
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