Hohner Gola 414

[b***@gmail.com]

I currently own 2 Golas. Both are great performers. Both the keyboard and bass button actions are to my liking and comfort. Ergonomically they are great too. As opposed to some of my other instruments, I can play them for hours and not feel fatigued. The sound is also exceptional. The only real competitor IMHO is the vintage Scandalli Super VI.
In my collection I have many top shelf accordions and each has its strong points, but currently my go-to accordion is the Gola.

[Zevy Zions]

Post by b***@gmail.com
I currently own 2 Golas. Both are great performers. Both the keyboard and bass button actions are to my liking and comfort. Ergonomically they are great too. As opposed to some of my other instruments, I can play them for hours and not feel fatigued. The sound is also exceptional. The only real competitor IMHO is the vintage Scandalli Super VI.
In my collection I have many top shelf accordions and each has its strong points, but currently my go-to accordion is the Gola.

What do you say about the Petosa AM-1100? And Armando Bugari? They are also serious competitors...

[Ike Milligan]

Post by Zevy Zions

Post by b***@gmail.com
I currently own 2 Golas. Both are great performers. Both the keyboard and bass button actions are to my liking and comfort. Ergonomically they are great too. As opposed to some of my other instruments, I can play them for hours and not feel fatigued. The sound is also exceptional. The only real competitor IMHO is the vintage Scandalli Super VI.
In my collection I have many top shelf accordions and each has its strong points, but currently my go-to accordion is the Gola.

What do you say about the Petosa AM-1100? And Armando Bugari? They are also serious competitors...

I don't know these specifically.I have an accordion with supposedly
Bugari reeds in the process of restoration, it has the name "Basili" on
it. but I have not gotten it to the point where I have tested it. the
reeds look very good.

Each high-end accordion is different, and has to be judged by its
compatibility to the individual player. The reed-makers of yore no
longer are making reeds, and the best reeds were probably made decades ago.
Petosa brand has wide variation in quality, and that particular model
you mentioned might not have wide variation. i have never played one of
those.

The accordions I have use and taken seriously, were made no later than
the 1960's and what I play now is a 90 year old Piersante fropm Chicago.
The reeds are fantastic, but are the sort that were made before people
had amplifiers. It has one slide switch.

My main accordion before that was a Scandalli with the 2 palm switches
which I sold because the guy could not find anything around here
suitable to play. I would mention the price, but it is irrelevant. it
was carefully tuned French Musette, which I used a Peterson strobe tuner
and a spreadsheet I devised linking the cents to the tremolo Hz.
I have little time to do that kind of thing now, so I recently set the
bearings on my antiques using a P.C. strobe emulator, sometimes in
archaic Well-tempered, setting the tremolo by ear.

I liked the Settimio Soprani With the 11 treble reed blocks and the 6
bass reed blocks. With that, you need no tone chamber.

I prefer a single cassotto to a double casotto, if I must have a cassotto.

Etc. etc.
Anybody out there who knows what we are talking about please express
your 2 cents worth.

[Alan Sharkis]

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[Ike Milligan]

Post by Alan Sharkis
Ike,
I do know what you're talking about. But my $.02 will take me to
another topic, and I hope somebody will respond.
My accordion teacher, a pro with a background in arranging, music
copying, etc., has insisted that I stay away from combining chords in
the left hand and instead create the chords in the treble. I have
heard or read that advice in several other places.
My argument is not that combining chords involves fingering
gymnastics, or learning a whole lot of complicated stuff but that
chord combinations in the bass on a Stradella-bass instrument yield
inconsistent results.
Try to picture this in your mind. It would be easy to stack a G major
triad in root position on top of a C major triad, also in root
position, to create a Cmaj9 in the treble (the G is the common note,)
and it would sound good. In the Stradella bass, however, many chords
have to be voiced in first or second inversion to fit into the one
octave that Stradella offers. Yes, I know, there is more than one
octave operating in the chord section in some registers, but the
prevalent tone is the lowest of those chord octaves. So, lets say
that the accordion I'd use, for example, has a low A bass. That Cmaj9
starts out with C major in root position, but the G major combined
with it would have to be in first inversion. So, from the bottom up,
B-C-D-E-G,
and the result would be muddy, indeed.
If anyone has other thoughts, I'd like to hear them.
Alan
On Tue, 3 May 2016 22:38:34 -0400, Ike Milligan

you are not going to sit there and listen to the bass chords of a
Stradella instrument.
If you did that you would be stepping all over the treble.
Never mind what they tell you not to do. Do both what they tell you not
to do, and what they tell you to do, as the situation warrants.

[Alan Sharkis]

On Thu, 5 May 2016 21:50:36 -0400, Ike Milligan

Post by Ike Milligan

Post by Alan Sharkis
Ike,
I do know what you're talking about. But my $.02 will take me to
another topic, and I hope somebody will respond.
My accordion teacher, a pro with a background in arranging, music
copying, etc., has insisted that I stay away from combining chords in
the left hand and instead create the chords in the treble. I have
heard or read that advice in several other places.
My argument is not that combining chords involves fingering
gymnastics, or learning a whole lot of complicated stuff but that
chord combinations in the bass on a Stradella-bass instrument yield
inconsistent results.
Try to picture this in your mind. It would be easy to stack a G major
triad in root position on top of a C major triad, also in root
position, to create a Cmaj9 in the treble (the G is the common note,)
and it would sound good. In the Stradella bass, however, many chords
have to be voiced in first or second inversion to fit into the one
octave that Stradella offers. Yes, I know, there is more than one
octave operating in the chord section in some registers, but the
prevalent tone is the lowest of those chord octaves. So, lets say
that the accordion I'd use, for example, has a low A bass. That Cmaj9
starts out with C major in root position, but the G major combined
with it would have to be in first inversion. So, from the bottom up,
B-C-D-E-G,
and the result would be muddy, indeed.
If anyone has other thoughts, I'd like to hear them.
Alan
On Tue, 3 May 2016 22:38:34 -0400, Ike Milligan

you are not going to sit there and listen to the bass chords of a
Stradella instrument.
If you did that you would be stepping all over the treble.
Never mind what they tell you not to do. Do both what they tell you not
to do, and what they tell you to do, as the situation warrants.

Exactly my thoughts!

Alan

[b***@gmail.com]

Like this? Like this. Like that? Like that. As long as it sounds good and you feel comfortable doing it, DO IT.

[Ike Milligan]

Post by b***@gmail.com
Like this? Like this. Like that? Like that. As long as it sounds good and you feel comfortable doing it, DO IT.

Take a course in harmony if you haven't already, then figure out what
you can do to make harmonic progressions work in the bass. For example,
add an A bass to a Cm chord, or play an F M chord at the same time as a
Dm chord. Play a dim chord with the same note minor chord. All kinds
exciting things.