Jim! What a great job. The result is astonishing.
The sound has a little something I can't describe, but it's certainly "different". I wonder how it will sound with the basses.
Peer- thanks. Got quite a bit left to do..., The leathers are so dry rotted, that they have shrunk to be smaller than the reed slot. But, the reeds themselves are extremely clean, hardly filed for however many tuning it's had, and rust free.
There's something interesting about the chord on the bass side. The chord has 8 reeds (push/pull). 6 reeds are on one plate, and another individual reed plate (2 reeds push/pull) sits right next to it, with it's own chamber. The bass note has 6 reeds (push/pull), like the usual modern standard for Cajun accordions.
This thing is truly a gem. It's the best 2 grand I ever spent, especially thinking back to that Monarch on eBay going out at well over $5000. I'm glad I lost the bid on that. Globe is one of the 'big three', in my book. I spent 14 hours straight, working on it, as soon as I took it out of the shipping box. The improvements I made so far were completely new things, to me, that I had to figure out, on my own.
I'm redoing a Globe with that exact chord set up. I thought maybe the 4th chord reed was added after, but if it's on yours, that must've been original. Olav Bergflodt in Norway uses 4 chord reeds on his single rows, and I've always been intrigued by that.
One of the most distinctive sound to come out of these old German boxes is those chord reeds. I don't know if it's that they are on single plates, or that the chord reed chamber is just one big open chamber, or a combo, but I love that sound.
Thanks brother! I was originally working on my F Acadian, but this job takes presidence!
I had no clue this Globe would be this awesome. It has exceeded my expectations, even with it's current internal leaks (leathers dry rotted and too short / holes in wax)
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
