Johnny,

Welcome to the forum.

Regarding your accordion, I'm not sure where to start.

Can you post a photograph?

I'm not sure if it *is* is a bona fide Cajun Accordion.

Here are a few of my most humble web pages about Cajun Accordions.

I'd bet that oil is not the best idea, but you'll get more comments from
other people on the WEB.

http://www.bignick.net/BoxLessons/boxlesson_Index.htm

Best of luck in your studies! And keep in touch!

--Biggy

Putting machine oil on wood is not a good idea. It would have been better to remove the axle and clean it, and probably the rocker arms also.

How many rows of reeds did it have? I really doubt it worth having working slides put in. That's a fair amount of work for a cheap accordion, and it would possibly create other problems dealing with wood that old.

Ok so heres a pic of the accordion. not sure what constitutes a real Cajun accordion. I was simply going by looks but once i get the hang of it i'll be trying some cajun tunes - as well as some British and Oldtime. Not sure how many reeds inside i'll take it apart again and take a photo. Sounds pretty good though.

Nice looking bellows! Just one bar which I think is a sign of better quality in vintage paper bellows, hopefully no leaks. I recently bought a vintage german box- Swan Empress- 3 stopper, will be good and playable with a few simple jobs. It'll never in a month of mardi gras match a cajun or similar box on account of the reeds being brass and mounted on one large metal plate, rather than individually mounted. Its fun tho and a nice looking antique, the best thing is that its in G- a wonderful key for a bit of the zydeco as people keep banging on about here, so at least i can practice in that key.
My advice to you is have a go at cajun tunes on yer old 2 voice box and if you take to the music save up for something basic in C with 4 stops- like a Weltmeister. Thats what i did, started off playing the C row on a 2 voice CG Castagnari a friend leant me- totally unsuitable for the job. My friend now tells me how he used to whince when he saw me rive arsing the poor thing. I then went and bought a 4stop- a chinese built Hohner HA114 to start with which I sent back, then the german made Weltmeister. 4 years on and I'm still on the welty which is now in much need of some tuning. I'll get it tuned and carry on with it till I'm good enough to justify a proper Louisiana built box.

Good luck

Ade.

A "real" Cajun accordion is any accordion made by a Cajun.

What you have is a single row 10 button diatonic, bisonoric aerophone.

I can't see the "stops", "registers" used to change the configuration of the opening of the various reeds...

How many of the pull levers are there at the top of the box ?

If you read what flatfoot said its got 2 stops and I think its obvious to everyone that this is not a 4 voice box or a cajun accordion and probably predates cajun built accordions by a number of decades.
But if the fella wants to have a dabble at learning cajun tunes and this box is his starting point, well its not going to hurt. Not everyone can go out and spend 2 grand on a whim. I bet in the past some really good cajun and creole musicians had to make do with just a harmonica to begin with!

I disagree. A Hohner 114 is a real cajun accordion and was quite popular. Any single row diatonic in C should be able to play cajun music.

Exactly, if you have 10 buttons in the diatonic scale and the instrument is playable then you can start having a go.
These days you can even play diatonic 1 row tunes on an i pad or phone- not my cup of tea, but at least it'll get the fingers going.

HI Guys, Its pretty old, late 1800s, has two stops (which arent attached to anything - just for show i guess) and as far as i can tell its in E! I cant even play my banjo along with it! oh well it sounds ok and is fun to learn. Ive not attempted any cajun yet - im learning The Irish Rover - but once i get the whole coordination thing sorted i'll be back here murdering your favourite tunes ... in E!

And hey AJ, what do you mean by a four voice box? just interested in case i take this up seriously. all the best, john

I think that AJ is writing about a Cajun Accordion.
A normal one row Cajun accordion has four reeds for each tone/note you can play for the pull and the push , so there are 80 reeds in a Cajun Accordion in 40 plates. ( I hope these are the right words for it )
Your beautiful oldie have two reeds for every note.( I suppose)

Flat johnny,
Welcome here!
Cool old box. It has pearl-oid buttons like the old Hohners. I have several old boxes like this. The reason it only has one "bar" in the bellows is because it has so few reeds to feed. These old boxes went from 1 stop and evolved into 4 stops in the newer CAJUN built ones, with bigger and longer bellows to feed the additional reed banks.