Photo by Sean Galbraith.
A couple of days ago, Sean Galbraith was cleaning out his parents’ house and came across his mom’s old Hohner Verdi IV accordion. She told him that it had one oiwner prior to her and she believes it’s from the early 1960s. She hasn’t played it in about 15 years and suggested that Sean find a good home for it. Sean sent me an email asking if I’d like to adopt it, and without hesitation, I said “YES!”
I dropped by Sean’s place last night to pick up the Hohner. I brought a pair of accordion straps, which was a good thing, as the original straps have long since worn away to almost nothing. I gave the accordion a test play and Sean took some photos, two which are shown here.
Photo by Sean Galbraith.
The accordion has a single set of reeds (no switches) and a full 120 bass buttons (which provide two rows of bass notes, major, minor 7th and diminished chords). All the keys and buttons seem to work, and I’ve been able to get decent volume out of it. Although it needs tuning — it has been lying dormant for 15 years, after all — it has that Hohner sound. I need to book some time to take it up to Caringi Accordion House in Woodbridge and have Mr. Caringi give it a tune-up.
The Hohner’s going to be an excellent addition to my collection. Sean, once again I’d like to thank you for thinking of me when you found the accordion. Rest assured, it’s found a home where it’ll be loved…and played!
Just So You Know….
Just as Big Gay Al has a gay animal sanctuary (see the Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride episode of South Park for the whole story), I have a sanctuary for accordions…gay or straight.
3 replies on “New Accordion!”
It looks happy to be with you, Joey.
Just out of curiosity, do you name your accordions?
@Danny V: There’s only one I refer to by a special name: “The Chick Magnet”, for obvious reasons.
On my first night out busking with my first accordion, a guy outside what was then Amato’s pizza suggested that I name it “Stephanie”, but it never stuck.
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