Yuku free message boards

SoundHound,

Thanks for the great pics you emailed me. I am interested in your Castiglione. Does it have one Fender condensor mic in it? I would really like to hear what it sounds like. Is there any way I could hear the sound of it? (.mp3 or phone call)... I've been listening to lots of Clifton Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco, Nathan Williams, and that is the sound I am looking for.

I've been looking at several others on the internet.. one a Titano with LMM reeds (two middle reeds tuned 12 cents apart), and some castigliones and titanos on ebay. It is so hard to decide without actually playing the instrument.

I had a gig in a nearby town this weekend... it got over early and I headed back home and stopped in 3 roadhouses. I drug my old Accordiana 120 bass Piano accordion into the bars and played a few songs for the local drinkers. At the third bar, the owner went into the back room and brought out a mint condition Petosa SM200E student size piano accordion, with an electric pickup system in it. I offered her 150 bucks and she took it....even an blind pig finds an acorn once in awhile..
It really squanks on some notes when plugged in, getting a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard...and does not have the Zydeco sound I am looking for. It sounds a little better when I run the signal through a little tube preamp into the PA.

Thanks again for all your help.

Erikray

It's been over two years since I first posted the question about looking for a good accordion for zydeco style music.... Looking back on it, I should have listened to Soundhound and bought one of his accordions he had for sale then. Here's the whole story...

I found a Baldoni Combo III online that I bought for $1250.. a heckuva deal. I called Ivo Baldoni at his shop and found out it was only a few years old. Great sound acoustically, but I just couldn't dial in a good amplified sound. I had Ivo send me one of his MK-1 single mic systems that I mounted inside the bellows. Great bass sound, but lacking on the treble side. Then I got a Cotati 34/72 PA from Peter at the Accordion Lab site.... horrible acoustic sound. I bought a pickup system from The accordion man in Florida, but it didn't work well either. Then I found a little old Paolo Soprani 34/72 kid sized one on ebay and put an AKG snare drum condenser mic in it... sounded ok, but the accordion was old,out of tune and had too small of a keyboard. Then I figured I better get serious.... I called John Castiglione and he had a 34/72 LMMM custom-made Italian accordion, like new. I googled around and found out it was really a Guerrini Ramona IV with the Castiglione name on it. It cost me $3200, but I felt it had to be done to get a good amplified sound. It had a sennheiser 3 treble, 1 bass mic condenser system in it. It is a fantastic professional accordion, but I still had trouble with low end feedback whenever I played it live.
On ebay, I saw an ad for a Shure SM11 Lavalier mic system for micing small accordions.... one had to drill a hole in the treble side and mount the mic inside the accordion. Pretty much the same setup that Soundhound had in his accordions. I found an old Hohner Student IV accordion on ebay and got it for less than 50 bucks. I also got a Shure SM11 lavalier mic and mounted it inside the bellows, near the treble reeds. The whole set up cost less than $100 bucks..... and the sound I got was what I was looking for all along. I bought a few more little Hohners, the ones made in Trossingen Germany from the late 50's through the 1970's..... man those little suckers can really rock.... the single lavalier mic inside the bellows sounds really strong through an amp or PA system and I have had very, very little trouble with feedback. I even recorded a few songs using the Hohners...check them out at my website..

www.myspace.com/erikfingersray


two of the four songs have my Hohner Student 40 with a lavalier mic in it..

also, there is a good site to put your accordion recordings...mine is #30 (zydeco cha cha)

www.pitt.edu/~dpm1/


Anyway, thats my adventure in Accordion Madness. It was a thrilling ride, with lots of heartaches and tears, and some big holes in my wallet, but also lots of good memories and I eventually found the sound I was looking for. The one thing I learned was to listen to advice from pros (like soundhound).

Thanks,

Erik

SoundHound,

Thanks for the M1 offer.... I bought one on ebay a few months ago. I had an old Fender M2, similar to the M1, that I used to use as a vocal mic back in the 1980's. I put it in my Hohner Concerto I and it is my main accordion at gigs now. I got tired of packing the box around, so I drilled a hole in the bottom of the treble side and mounted an XLR mic input there. Then I can just run an XLR mic cord directly from my accordion into the PA head. I use the phantom power on my Mackie PA head and it does the job just fine. I have to set the volume on the mixing board, but since I sit right next to it at my gigs, it isn't that big of a problem. Those old Fender M1 and M2 mics really do have a great sound, more active than my Shure SM11 lavalier mics, but you have to have the power pack or a phantom power supply to run them. When I take my accordion to jams or gigs where phantom power is not available, I take the Hohner Student 40 with the Shure SM11. I have to adjust the individual channel equalizer by turning down the highs and mids and boosting the lows, otherwise the accordion through the PA tends to sound too harsh and grating.

Thanks for heading me in the right direction.

Erik