Chiff and Fipple Forums

In my continuing (and doubtless quixotic) quest for the perfect Irish piano accordion (yeah, I know....), I came across these guys in Switzerland:
http://www.akkordeonwerkstatt.ch/
They seem to have a philosophy of box building that makes them above the pack for suitability to ITM: light weight, resonant wood, minimalist reeding with options for open (no thirds) chords in the bass. In other words they offer small body piano boxes built closer to diatonic accordions than any I've found. Their website is entirely in German, and they ask not to be contacted by email, at least for initial inquiries. I get the impression they have enough work to suit them and are not interested in building an export trade. I've written them snail mail and am waiting for a reply.

Has anyone out there had any experience or communication with these guys? Any information would be most welcome.
Thanks!
BW

Untersee Accordions

Sounds a bit soggy. And doesn't the salt spoil the reeds? Or is that the point?

Interesting offerings, including DIY kits and multi-voice Anglo concertinas.

Bill, are there particular details of the website you need translations of?

I wonder if the shop next door is "Untersee Banjos".

Bill Wolfe wrote:Has anyone out there had any experience or communication with these guys? Any information would be most welcome.
Thanks!
BW

I had an exchange of correspondence with them a few years ago. I was interested in one of their mini button accordions. But the price, once converted from Swiss francs, was prohibitive, esp. considering I'd never seen one of their instruments or talked to anybody who had played one. And they seemed to have no experience of selling outside Switzerland - for example they couldn't tell me whether or not they could ship a box free of VAT.

I still like the idea of them and if money were no object I'd get one for travelling with.

See the second page of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=39561&start=15

MTGuru wrote:Interesting offerings, including DIY kits and multi-voice Anglo concertinas.

Bill, are there particular details of the website you need translations of?

Hi MTG. Thanks for asking! I've managed pretty well with Yahoo Babelfish--enough to get a good--and favorable--sense of their general approach to accordion building. One thing that didn't translate in a way I could make sense od was their "direct bass" concept. I get a vague sense that it refers to internal arrangement of reeds, valves etc. rather than a layout, but how it differs from their "classic" or "standard" bass setups, I have no idea!
BW

Hi Stevie,
I did see that thread and thought about sending pm earlier. I'm not surpised to hear they're spendy. Considering that a Saltarelle Clifden with 2 treble reed and 60 basses sells for $4-5K a custom job handmade from scratch in Switzerland can't be cheap. Still, their 30 key "simple built" PA with 3 x 14 basses (third, tonic, & open chord) looks to me about as close to perfection for ITM as a PA could get. Like you, I wish I knew someone who actually played one or had the dough to zip out to Lake Constance for a cup of tea and a chat!
Bill

StevieJ wrote:

Bill Wolfe wrote:Has anyone out there had any experience or communication with these guys? Any information would be most welcome.
Thanks!
BW

I had an exchange of correspondence with them a few years ago. I was interested in one of their mini button accordions. But the price, once converted from Swiss francs, was prohibitive, esp. considering I'd never seen one of their instruments or talked to anybody who had played one. And they seemed to have no experience of selling outside Switzerland - for example they couldn't tell me whether or not they could ship a box free of VAT.

I still like the idea of them and if money were no object I'd get one for travelling with.

See the second page of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=39561&start=15

So,
I'm new here, and English isn't my motherlanguage, so forgive me for my grammar errors...
I live in Switzerland and at the moment I'm in Ticino, but up to 3 years ago I was living in north Switzerland. I'm a bagpipemaker but I do also play accordeon so I kame in contact with Markus Untersee and his son. They make really the absolute best accordeons in CH: very innovative and of course by the way expensive too. But we know, handcrafted music instruments are not cheap and in CH VERY expensive. Anyway: my story: I brougt him 2 Castagnari accordeons to be retuned and he could get them perfectly as I wanted to have: Markus changed by my three rows Accordeon the tremolo from Italian to French and by the other one ( two rows ) could he get a more "venenous" sond out of it. Then I asked him to repair an old Dallape' cromatic fisarmonica ( about 1930) wich he perfectly restaurated. I could play a lot on his instruments, why when you go visit him, you will have to stay some couple of hours in his workshop drinking tea and trying instruments. These are VERY good: I would recommend anyone to buy such accordeons. A peculiarity of this Workshopis that MarKus can create ANY speciall fatures for you. Just to tell you an example: he had to make a new accordeon for an organist and the client wanted a piano system with 2 piano rows, just like on the organ. When the instrument was made they discovered, that just one note on one row sounded liKe a hurdy-gurdy (it had a little buzzzzz ), so they started to search where the mistake was and they found it out, but the client found that this sound was pretty interesting and Markus found out how to reproduce it by all the notes and build in the accordeon a sort of "hurdy gury register". So just to say which kind of crazy people they are. But of course, you'd better visit them before you buy an instrument, ....
Greetings
massimo

Hi Massimo,
Thanks for the post! I've exchanged letters with Dani and Marco, and everything I've seen, heard, and read indicates they are great people and top accordion builders. As you say, their instruments are not inexpensive, but they are gorgeous and each is truly unique. Also, they really don't want to pursue an order without a personal visit. That really makes sense, because they seem to have explored the possibilities of accordion tone to a degree that no one else approaches. I wish I could say I'm just back from the Bodensee or about to make the trip, but it will have to wait awhile. Cheers,
Bill

Massimo wrote:So,
I'm new here, and English isn't my motherlanguage, so forgive me for my grammar errors...
I live in Switzerland and at the moment I'm in Ticino, but up to 3 years ago I was living in north Switzerland. I'm a bagpipemaker but I do also play accordeon so I kame in contact with Markus Untersee and his son. They make really the absolute best accordeons in CH: very innovative and of course by the way expensive too. But we know, handcrafted music instruments are not cheap and in CH VERY expensive. Anyway: my story: I brougt him 2 Castagnari accordeons to be retuned and he could get them perfectly as I wanted to have: Markus changed by my three rows Accordeon the tremolo from Italian to French and by the other one ( two rows ) could he get a more "venenous" sond out of it. Then I asked him to repair an old Dallape' cromatic fisarmonica ( about 1930) wich he perfectly restaurated. I could play a lot on his instruments, why when you go visit him, you will have to stay some couple of hours in his workshop drinking tea and trying instruments. These are VERY good: I would recommend anyone to buy such accordeons. A peculiarity of this Workshopis that MarKus can create ANY speciall fatures for you. Just to tell you an example: he had to make a new accordeon for an organist and the client wanted a piano system with 2 piano rows, just like on the organ. When the instrument was made they discovered, that just one note on one row sounded liKe a hurdy-gurdy (it had a little buzzzzz ), so they started to search where the mistake was and they found it out, but the client found that this sound was pretty interesting and Markus found out how to reproduce it by all the notes and build in the accordeon a sort of "hurdy gury register". So just to say which kind of crazy people they are. But of course, you'd better visit them before you buy an instrument, ....
Greetings
massimo