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Author Topic: Unknown melodeon  (Read 5924 times)

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Helena Handcart

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #20 on: August 18, 2018, 02:05:16 PM »

PS scrolling right down to the bottom of the page worked for me.

Thanks Malcolm. That works now I'm on the laptop but not from mobile.


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Andrew Kennedy

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #21 on: September 23, 2018, 12:25:00 PM »

Progress of a kind.  The melodeon arrived and sounds very pleasant, although it's a little leaky.  The nameplate (C.A. Bauer, Dresden) refers to the supplier rather than the manufacturer.  Key is A/D, treble end absolutely as one might expect, but the four basses are organised along lines with which I'm unfamiliar, although the chords themselves are as expected.  Details on attached pdf.

Meanwhile, at Whitby I found its big brother (photos attached).  Specs are in the pdf, but it's in G/C and has 8 stops - right-hand end is a bit like two 4-rows cobbled together back-to-back. (Frank Lee saw it and asked where I'd bought my sideboard).  Bass chords as expected for an 8-bass 2-row, but again on a different system.  It sounds gorgeous, but some of the workmanship is crude.  I'm wondering whether it is of post-WW2 Eastern European manufacture.  I've not looked inside, and will not be opening it without good reason as I prefer to leave well alone.

Once again, any thoughts would be welcome.

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Winston Smith

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #22 on: September 23, 2018, 12:41:16 PM »

Did you buy the big beasty? It looks very beastly.
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Andrew Kennedy

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #23 on: September 23, 2018, 04:59:19 PM »

I did indeed, and I love it.  The only drawback is not only having to learn a new bass system but having to un-learn what comes naturally. Fortunately(?) it feels so different to play - even just to hold - from my others that there are constant reminders.
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Andrew Kennedy

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #24 on: September 26, 2018, 11:04:06 AM »

I think I've got it. The big one seems to resemble a Czech heligonka, with standard treble end (no gleichton), bass chords as on familiar 2-row 8-bass (albeit in a different order), helicon basses, the bass keys being diagonally offfset from each other, and the characteristic clips (rather than pins) which hold the ends on.  See http://www.tresbohemes.com/2018/01/czech-slovak-heligonka-instrument/

The website I'm referring to here suggests that production more or less ended with WW2.  I'm still persuadable that the mixed quality of the workmanship (not nearly as lovely as the instruments illustrated on the website) suggests postwar Communist manufacture.  The smaller instrument which started this thread looks like a cheaper version of the same thing, having helicon basses and the metal caps which mimic the horns familiar from the steirische and which are also found on some heligonkas.

I'm getting the hang of playing them now.  Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.
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Ribs

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #25 on: September 27, 2018, 02:30:56 PM »

I don't know how much help this will be, but just after I read through this post, I was procrastinating at work and I ran across this: https://youtu.be/lw90RlfH9N0

It looks to be the same make as the one you posted, just a different model.
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triskel

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #26 on: September 27, 2018, 02:44:45 PM »

I don't know how much help this will be, but just after I read through this post, I was procrastinating at work and I ran across this: https://youtu.be/lw90RlfH9N0

It looks to be the same make as the one you posted, just a different model.

The instrument that shows now on eBay, if you click on the link in the original post, is a completely different accordion, with helikon basses.

You need to use this link, and scroll down the page, to see instrument being asked about by the o/p: https://www.ebay.de/itm/Handharmonika-diatonisch-2-reihige-Bandonika-4-Loeffelbaesse-Bauer-Akkordeon-/163174019838?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137, which does not have helikon basses...

Ribs

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #27 on: September 27, 2018, 02:57:54 PM »

Quote
The instrument that shows now on eBay, if you click on the link in the original post, is a completely different accordion, with helikon basses.

Oops. I guess I should have paid more attention to the previous comments lol. Sorry about that!
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triskel

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #28 on: September 27, 2018, 03:27:59 PM »

I think I've got it. The big one seems to resemble a Czech heligonka, with standard treble end (no gleichton), bass chords as on familiar 2-row 8-bass (albeit in a different order), helicon basses, the bass keys being diagonally offfset from each other, and the characteristic clips (rather than pins) which hold the ends on.  See http://www.tresbohemes.com/2018/01/czech-slovak-heligonka-instrument/

The website I'm referring to here suggests that production more or less ended with WW2.  I'm still persuadable that the mixed quality of the workmanship (not nearly as lovely as the instruments illustrated on the website) suggests postwar Communist manufacture.  The smaller instrument which started this thread looks like a cheaper version of the same thing, having helicon basses and the metal caps which mimic the horns familiar from the steirische and which are also found on some heligonkas.

They're not Heligonkas (which have very loud and extra-deep basses that imitate a Helikon = tuba), they're typical of more-developed/expensive forms of 2-row Deutsche Harmonikas = German accordions = melodeons made in the first quarter of the 20th century, especially before WW1.

The portholes/trumpets in the sides of the eBay one, which can be genuine but are more usually only ornamental, are features that go back as far as the mid 19th century on German concertinas and melodeons, whilst the use of drilled (rather than fretcut) designs in the end grilles/soundboxes of German concertinas and melodeons was there normal construction.

Andrew Kennedy

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Re: Unknown melodeon
« Reply #29 on: October 10, 2018, 01:59:38 PM »

The larger (8-bass) one has basses which are reminiscent of my Hohner 356, which certainly has helicon basses.  I'm still curious about the unusual layout of the basses.
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