So what the hell is this exactly?

[solarbird]

Last night Anna and I went over for dinner to Mark and John’s house – I knew Mark in high school, omg – and they’ve been clearing stuff out of family storage, including this!

It’s a lot like a Cajun accordion, but the stops are wrong and it’s in G. I think. It does work, tho’ it needs a little adjustment, and it’s stamped GERMANY USSR OCCUPIED.

What the hell is this thing? (Other than, yes, awesome, and USSR OCCUPIED.) Anybody?

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil.
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Comments

[smeehrrr.livejournal.com]

DON'T TOUCH IT IT'S EVIL

lol evil

[solarbird]

Um, hi, late to the show then?

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it originated from the former DDR, eastern germany, the part under russian control after WW2.

[solarbird]

Sure, pre-formation of the DDR, 1945 to mid-1949, eastern Germany. But, you know, who made it, what is it really? Cajun accordions don't come in G, according to Wikipedia^{citation needed} so... what is it?

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Not sure what the button configuration is from the picture, but maybe a Vyatka garmon? Since it seems to have two base buttons on the left?

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

GERMANY USSR OCCUPIED That would be East Germany in 1945/46 possibly?
My Scientific Wild-ass Guess suggests that it's a German Style concertina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concertina#German_type). Perhaps this is too obvious? Maybe it's a Stasi torture instrument? "Confess, or I'll play Oompapa music again!"

[solarbird]

1945-mid-1949, when the DDR formed a government, sure. But it's a lot closer to a Cajun accordion (google that, you'll see pics) but it's in G and there are three stops instead of four, so...?

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Well, wikipedia says that Germany produced them but usually in the key of C, D or B flat. Is there a manufacturer's name and serial number anywhere on it? Sometimes instruments can be traced that way (if the records are still available).

[solarbird]

That's the problem - no serial number, I've found, it is also printed TIVOLI but I can't find anything useful about that with Google, mostly I get footballer stuff and some indications that a lot of people stamped TIVOLI on a lot of different instruments,, including Hohner, but Hohner is in western Germany, so shouldn't have been USSR occupied. (Also they always labelled things HOHNER, being a reputable maker.) I'm kind of speculating that it might've been a Hohner branch factory in the East, reorganising under Soviet control? But it could also be some sort of knockoff? And again you have the whole apparently-in-G thing. But maybe there's some way to make it act like it's in D that I haven't figured out!

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Is that a set of stops just visible at the top left? Perhaps one or more is out of adjustment making the instrument sound wrong? Knock-off is entirely possible; the Soviets didn't often concern themselves too terribly much with the intellectual property of capitalists when economic development of their occupied territories was concerned.

Or it's a Stasi torture device. That shoots arrows.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Accordions only become torture implements when you've got several people failing to play them at the same time, competing on volume because they can't at skill, in a cramped concrete Dresden underpass. Gods, that was horrible.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

A wrist-mounted weapon for shooting arrows?

[solarbird]

If. Only. But you'd need really huge wrists!

[blues-kun.livejournal.com]

Useless without lederhosen

[whiffert.livejournal.com]

Since most squeezeboxes (or button accordions) are diatonic, it would make some sense to be able to find them in a variety of keys. More complex models, and most concertinas have 2 tunings, often C and G, or some other combination a major 5th apart.

Often diatonic instruments come in multiple sizes / tunings such as tin whistles and harmonicas.

[silussa.livejournal.com]

If I might suggest, it's an accordion in the key of G.

I know the recorder, the most basic of woodwinds, comes in at least two keys (C and F), so I see no reason they couldn't do so with the accordion. The question is, is there any location where the accordion is routinely in the key of G?

(All Things Considered just did a segment on the accordion in Texas and that part of the world, IIRC)

[silussa.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatonic_button_accordion