When was this made you think?

[MikeyLikesIt]

I got my hands on this Paolo Soprani diatonic today and am trying to learn more about it as I restore it to playing condition. I know the top row plays in D and the bottom row seems to be in A. I'm a piper and am quite ignorant when it comes to anything accordion. So any info would be super helpful. Any ideas to when it might have been made? Capability of playing irish music? Thanks in advance!

-Mike

[StevieJ]

Late 19th or early 20th century. Someone who would have a more accurate idea is Steve Chambers, who hangs around at forum.melodeon.net as "triskel".

A/D isn't a very useful system for Irish music although the D row is a good start... D/G is better but I wouldn't think conversion is an option. And of course these days the systems of choice are B/C and C#/D.

Have fun fixing it up - restoring it will be quite some project.

Have a look at this page: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sean_quinn ... oprani.htm

[MikeyLikesIt]

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely give that forum a shot.

[Ciarameddaru]

I'm am not an expert on this by any means, but I would guess it was set up for playing traditional italian folk music. The modern trend for 8 bass box organettos is SOL/DO (G/C). But I believe that there are boxes in FA/SIb (F/Bflat) and LA/RE (A/D) as well and essentially any other set up that the player would request. Irish boxes are tuned a semitone apart like SI/DO, FA/FA#, DO/DO#. The Italian makers will set them up this way to export to players of Irish music. The boxes are the same as what the Italians consider and Organetto, just the internal reed set up is different.

How many reeds are there per note on the treble side?? Generally Italian music is played with two reeds per note with one reed slightly sharp for the tremolo effect and then there is a third reed on a separate bank that is an octave lower that can be turned on or off by pulling out or pushing in a register knob. But sometimes they are missing the 3rd reed bank. Generally the 2 and 4 bass organettos always have the octave reed bank but not always on the 8 bass because of space constraints.

Anyway, the wood, hardware, and mother of pearl inlay on that box is beautiful. With serious overhaul that will be a really nice instrument. If you could salvage the original reeds that would be amazing as they are probably very "hand made" which is a rarity today even though they still call them hand made.

btw: this might be useful if you want to replace the reeds. Here is a chart for a 8 or 12 bass organetto in SOL/DO. Chiudere means close and Aprire means open in reference to the bellows.
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=PqsVI5J

David

[StevieJ]

It might be worth getting in touch with the people who now own the Paolo Soprani name - they might be interested or able to provide more info.

http://www.paolosoprani.com/lang/home_uk.htm

Or the international accordion museum in Italy: http://www.accordions.com/museum/