Welcome to old and new friends who are interested in discussing Cajun and other diatonic accordions, along with some occasional lagniappe....



CAJUN ACCORDION DISCUSSION GROUP

 

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Re: Re: Re: Guerrini vs Castiglioni

Castiglione is located in Warren Mi. and has a pretty extensive used accordion inventory including 3 rows.

Re: Guerrini Accordions compared to Baffetti or Gabbie?

larry miller of BON CAJUN accordions was looking for a buyer for his business a while back. Don't know if he had any luck. Any takers out there? Give him a call. July 7th is supposed to be his swan song (retirement)

Re: Re: Guerrini Accordions compared to Baffetti or Gabbie?

One builder in Quebec is Marcel Messervier, in Montmagny QC. He builds diatonics similar to the Cajun accordions, only the stops work differently, i.e. push them down to open the reeds, pull them up to shut them off. I stopped in his shop in "98 and heard him play, great sounding accordions, more expensive than the Cajun ones, but well built.

Re: Re: Re: Guerrini Accordions compared to Baffetti or Gabbie?

Messervier is the grand Master of accordeon making in Quebec. His boxes are "similar" to Cajun boxes in that they are
single row, with bellows and buttons.. but from there on.. different. Much different.
While I have only played one.. very very different.

Savoy's boxes improved after he saw one many years ago

Messervier also makes boxes with dummy stops, 2 stops on 4 reed boxes. and he has been known to make 2 2 row boxes. He also makes a smaller 2 reed 10 button box.

His boxes are known and bought for players who play for dances.. loud and driving.
He also is one of the organizers of the Carrefour Mondial in Montmagny.. an annual accordion bash of international fame. He organized this with another accordion builder, Reynald Ouellet (sp) He and his partenr Vezina make the Melodie brand..very refined
I believe one poster here has 2 of them
I have only played 3 of these.. the standard of workmanship is quite high..fast amnd light and lots of little mechanical tricks...
long time to get and expensive.

Old school would be Breton... larger than a Cajun box...lots of "soul" entirely handbuilt right down to the bellows which he makes on his kitchen table..
mine was #31 in 25 years of building..

And you are right about the stops.. on some of these boxes.. reversed.. just like Regal,or Gallotta



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