As I mentioned in the previous entry, I wasn’t always an accordion player; I’ve been playing for only just over five years.
Prior to that, I was a synth player. I’ve always loved synthesizers, and back in my high school days in the eighties, Depeche Mode was one of my favourite bands. The first synth I got to play on a regular basis was my friend Anthony Famularo’s Roland Juno 106, a fat-sounding beast of an analog synth. My first live gigs were with a band called A.K.A., which specialized in covering Billy Idol and Platinum Blonde as well as playing our guitarist Nick Catre’s abominable original prog-rock wankfests.
After a performance so disastrous that I no longer have stage fright, I went to Crazy Go Nuts University where I joined a couple of bands, the most notable being Volume, in which my good friend George Scriban played bass. I also met Karl Mohr in an electronic music composition class; we bonded because we were synth guys in a guitar rock town. It was cool to sound like Pavement or Dinosaur Jr, not Nine Inch Nails or the not-yet-existent Ladytron.
After the Great Accordion Saturday of May 1st, 1999, I became an accordion player. I still have my main axe, a Korg Wavestation A/D rack and a Yamaha SHS-200 “keytar” style keyboard to control it, but I’m not much of a synth player anymore.
But I may become one again. Steph has offered me an old Korg Poly-800, and there’s also the release of this baby:
This, my friends, is a Roland FR-7 V-Accordion.
And yes, that’s Roland as in the synth company. This is a digital
accordion — a synth, really — with a built-in battery pack, amplifier
and speakers.
It also comes in red:
Here’s what the Roland site says:
| – PBM (Physical Behavior Modeling) enables true sound reproduction and dynamic expression. |
| – Realistic tone and expressive simulations of a wide range of traditional accordions. |
| – 22 onboard Orchestral sounds and 7 Orchestral Bass sounds that can be mixed together with traditional accordion sounds. |
| – Portable, lightweight and expandable via MIDI. |
| – Expand creative possibilities and explore new performance options not achievable using traditional instruments. |
| – The FR-7 is a complete, all-in-one model with powered speakers. |
Holy crap. I want one of these for my birthday!
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...researches really fast...
If I win the lottery, I'll buy you that instead of an iPod. ;)
Just curious: for how much do these puppies go for?
If I win the lottery, I'll not only buy you a matching set(different colors for different moods), but I'll also hire you as my roving minstrel.
C'mon. It wouldn't be that bad.
I found a pricing at $5900 US. Ack!!
Okay, it's as expensive as if it were made out of heroin, but it's pretty much the Joey De Villa instrument of the century. I mean, could it have been built for anyone else?
I'd buy it, dude. Seriously.
One word: PayPal.
Seriously, if everyone who reads this blog gave two bucks...
I have to say I'm impressed with this thing, they've even managed to incorporate the bellows action into the controls. It makes guitar synths look kinda lame (though it is cool when you pluck a string and a trumpet sound comes out).
one word: Sponsorship
Accordion Guy, brought to you by the fine folks at Roland. You could be a factory sponsored pro playah' for them. Do promo tours, appearances, play at the x-games, computer conventions, video game conventions, furry conventions, spread the word.
We can even do that special team factory modified version. The fast and the furious meets monster garage meets monsters of polka.
The Accordion Guy Team Hottub Truck sponsored by Roland, Blogware, Jagermeister, and RedBull, coming to an event near you this summer! Get ready to Squeeze It In!
we could even put "dial 1-800-CALL-YOUR-MOMMA" down the keyboard or some other telephone company.
$5900 will won't even buy you a full page ad in a music mag, but strap one on the Accordion Guy - now that's exposure.
got an agent yet?
Eldon
I'd be a fantastic tour manager.
Oh, the Roland G707 Guitar Synth, how I remember it well:
I remember being blown away seeing Steve Stevens play one during one of his solos at the Billy Idol concert in 1987. He was wailing through Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor with the guitar synth set to a big-ass pipe organ sound.