Jamey et al.: Purely as a visual reference as this is not the accordion in question but a fairly identical one owned by David Doucet.




John

Thanks for posting the photo, John! I couldn't figure out how to do it and then got sidetracked. Joel said it looked something like that, but more red.

Sarah,

True story:

I remember .. this one time .. that my band was playing a new year's eve
party back when they still had bands and parties on New Year's Eve.

Sure enough, our lead guitarist's Gibson L6-S was stolen at the end of the gig.

Quite some time later, I was in a local "recording studio". The proprietor
had numerous guitars displayed in stands, I suppose for ambiance.

But one of them was the wayward L6-S. One reason that I knew it was my
friend's guitar is the he had mounted a non-standard knob onto the
volume control shaft. (It was an "odd" gray chicken head knob, the likes of
which I have yet to see to this day.)

Anyway, I said nothing and displayed my best poker face as to not let on.

Soon after leaving the studio, I contacted my friend, who assembled one
ugly entourage of his shady buddies to go back to the studio for his guitar.

They simply walked in, picked up the guitar, and said "I'll take this."

The studio owner (who had a reputation for being a bit slimy anyway) really
couldn't do anything about it.

Point of all this is .. every once in a blue moon, justice prevails.

I can only hope that your accordion episode turns out as well ..

Best of luck,

--Big Nick

Jamey: burnt orange in the center, fading to dark red as it moves outward, fading to black as it gets to the outside edges. You've seen this on Gibson and Fender guitars.

Thanks to you all for your comments on this, as well as for your shared stories and ideas on how I might be able to find it. My only point in posting here was to share with all of you fellow Cajun accordion lovers what has happened just in case anyone sees it anywhere or has heard about it. I'm assuming, anyway, that y'all are like I am, and get all excited every time you see a Cajun accordion and have to check it out, right?

Ain't that the truth? You can't see, hold, have, or try too many of them. That's one of the many reasons Balfa Camp is so much fun: you can try out a whole slew of them there.

Best of luck on your search, Sarah! Please let us know what you turn up.

The story sounds incomplete.

If you cared about the accordeon, why did you give it to someone to "hold" ?
Why did you not contact them earlier if the instrument was important?
Wouldn't the people who had it be the best source of information on its current loccation ?

Well, to tell you the truth, my dear Watson, it is all just a cleverly thought of research for market value, story ideas and plot. This for a new Conan Doyle "Who Dun' It" detective book called "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Acadian Accordion". It will be published late 2013, and revenues are meant to help out Marc and family covering the restoration costs caused by the flooding of the Savoy Music Center ... see: http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20130112/NEWS01/301120308/The-show-will-go-Savoy-Music-Center - Nout