Thousands of years!! Mais cher, those old waltzes must be in Cajun Latin!

looks like an ariette spray painted matte black. This guy should sell cars.

i wonder if it has mitered corners

That is hilarious. So these monel reeds NEVER corrode. My bamboo reeds don't corrode either.

The Cheng
Chinese history books trace back to the very birth of music itself, an event pinpointed in the Book Of Chronicles (Schu-Ching) as occurring during the reign of the legendary "Yellow Emperor", Huang Ti, around the year 3000 B.C. (yes, THOUSANDS OF YEARS ago)
Huang's other accomplishments included the invention of boats, money, and religious sacrifice. He is said to have sent the noted scholar Ling Lun to the western mountain regions of his domain to find a way to reproduce the song of the phoenix bird. Ling returned with the cheng (or sheng), and captured music for mankind, taking the first step toward the genesis of the accordion.
The cheng is in fact the first known instrument to use the free vibrating reed principle, which is the basis of the accordion's sound production. Shaped to resemble the phoenix, the cheng had between 13 and 24 BAMBOO pipes, a small gourd which acted as a resonator box and wind chamber, and a mouthpiece. Other instruments using a free vibrating reed were developed in ancient Egypt and Greece, and were depicted in many beliefs.
http://www.accordions.com/index/his/his_acc_his.shtml

I just don't know how he expects to sell it with them new fangled bi-metal reeds. Everyone knows that if you want the old timey sound that you gotta have the bamboo reeds.

Trick is the right bamboo. Good Louisiana bamboo is used to a damp climate and won't corrode like dry-climate bamboo.

John in Oregon

My bamboo-reeds-accordion was a dinner for a wild Panda.