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[Larry Anthony]

[Bill Young]

"just little less than useless" really only applied to the old Hohner bass set up, which matched the key of B. The next standard seemed to be the Paolo Soprani layout which gives basic oom-pah accompaniment for keys C and G, less so for D and A. The next improvement, credited to Billy Comiskey, and the cheapest improvement at the time, replaced the duplicated inner C bass and chord with D bass and chord (this is the layout referred to as "21 button B/C modern bass layout" in the layouts on www.melodeon.net). A further improvement, describes as the "Joe Burke" layout, has a pair of buttons giving G bass and G chord on both press and draw, and another pair giving D bass and chord on both press and draw. (I had a standard Paolo Soprani converted thus, and it was a distinct improvement). Still using 8 buttons, several Scottish B/C players have all 8 buttons giving a chord on both press and draw (no bass notes at all), typically C, G, D, A, E and a couple of minors - there are several different arrangements.

Bearing in mind that the 8-bass arrangement was originally designed to provide a very basic oom-pah on a simple folk instrument, all these attempts to produce bass arrangements with greater musical capabilities are really trying to make silk purses out of sow's ears. The accordion bass situation was solved very satisfactorily decades ago with the invention of the Stradella bass. A much better arrangement for 21 or 23 key B/C boxes than any of the 8-button basses mentioned above, is a 48, 50 or 60 Stradella bass. I have a 23-key 50-bass Notturni; it is a more capable instrument than any 8- or 12-bass B/C that I've had before.

Has anyone ever put a 48-bass on a D/G melodeon? That might be a good idea as well.

[Lars]

I would think, that for at standard, the McComiskey is the best setup - reusing most of the standard layout, and giving a lot more useful capabilities for modern vamping. If you want to play more "modern" with more self-acompaignment, I've heard that just about all using the Joe Burke system are loving it.

Another solution is to change the C/F to Bmin/D, so you've got both the D of the McComiskey, and a Bmin - key I'm playing in much more than I have use for the F...

[george garside]

"just little less than useless" really only applied to the old Hohner bass set up, which matched the key of B. The next standard seemed to be the Paolo Soprani layout which gives basic oom-pah accompaniment for keys C and G, less so for D and A. The next improvement, credited to Billy Comiskey, and the cheapest improvement at the time, replaced the duplicated inner C bass and chord with D bass and chord (this is the layout referred to as "21 button B/C modern bass layout" in the layouts on www.melodeon.net). A further improvement, describes as the "Joe Burke" layout, has a pair of buttons giving G bass and G chord on both press and draw, and another pair giving D bass and chord on both press and draw. (I had a standard Paolo Soprani converted thus, and it was a distinct improvement). Still using 8 buttons, several Scottish B/C players have all 8 buttons giving a chord on both press and draw (no bass notes at all), typically C, G, D, A, E and a couple of minors - there are several different arrangements.

Bearing in mind that the 8-bass arrangement was originally designed to provide a very basic oom-pah on a simple folk instrument, all these attempts to produce bass arrangements with greater musical capabilities are really trying to make silk purses out of sow's ears. The accordion bass situation was solved very satisfactorily decades ago with the invention of the Stradella bass. A much better arrangement for 21 or 23 key B/C boxes than any of the 8-button basses mentioned above, is a 48, 50 or 60 Stradella bass. I have a 23-key 50-bass Notturni; it is a more capable instrument than any 8- or 12-bass B/C that I've had before.

Has anyone ever put a 48-bass on a D/G melodeon? That might be a good idea as well.

[sCANdanADIAN]

Has anyone ever put a 48-bass on a D/G melodeon? That might be a good idea as well.

A 40-bass D/G is popular in southern Brasil,Uruguay and Argentina.The older styles were just two rows but nowadays an accidental row is often included.I love the style of music that they play on these accordions and the P/A is played beautifully as well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M19S_2dT4tk&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vqfiI8Pgrs

Chris

[george garside]

48 bass on a DG seems a bit like overkill  & from a moe prctical angle might be a very tight fit in many boxes.  HOw about 15 stradella in 5x3 format  fiving bass, major & minor in both bellows directions for CGDAE or for those not fussed about minors (or with thirdless majors) a 10 bass 5x2 setup on same lines.

I like the idea of chords only (same both ways)for 8 bass BC as this would give scope for both rhythm & harmony. My choice would be BflatFCGDAEB  with which one could um pa without the um, or pa pa, or put longer harmonising chunks of bass here & there or a combination of these all none.  May get round to altering  a bc to this format someday!

george

[TomB-R]

14 bass 7 x 2 thirdless seems to be Joe Derrane's layout on his D/C#

Layout at

http://www.red-bean.com/~noel/keyboard-layouts/basses/LAYOUTS.html