This is a diuscussion I,and many other people, have had with Hohner.

I woudl suggest you direct your e-mail to Gilbert Reyes.
He is the Accordeon Developement Mgr for Hohner US and wears many hats. He was responsible for the new Hohner 3 row XTREME series.

Hohner has slowly been uopgrading and last I spoke with Gilbert I strongly suggested a reintroduction of the HA114 not necessarily a B which was NOT Cajun tuned but simply drier with a supposed all black upgraded bellows

One thing Hohner will not do is upgrade the reeds as they believe this gives the Hohner its signature sound. This is direct from Gilbert. But they certainly could tune them better. Drier and moire accurately and offer a "Cajun" tuning option

I like the spoons.. they work and look good and are easily repaired. I think that the materials could be improved such as are used on the van der Leeuw boxes from the Netherlands.

As to the Gabbanelli Cajun King... not the same design as the Hohner.. it has removeable blocks and some other features that differentiate it form the Hohner

I owned one and played others. I prefer the Hohner Ha114 over the Cajun King... which is no King and certainly isnt Cajun..
Suggesting Hohner emulate that mediocre unit is paramount to insult.

Good luck in your quest

Matter of fact call Gilbert Reyes, he is very approachable.

Tim is a decent tech but is not in a position to
mandate change.

Right, Tim isn't in charge of design changes (neither is Gilbert, but you're right, he is higher up), however, Tim has been passing his ideas to higher management and can therefore speak to the reasons he has been given why this upgraded beginners box hasn't happened yet! I spoke to him at length about the ideas he has for Hohner, and pretty much everything mentioned here has already been considered by him and discussed at Hohner. Nothing new under the sun, and no reason to reinvent the wheel.

No, reinventing the wheel is not necessary, but trying out a different set of tires every once in a while would be nice.

Has anyone here ever once questioned the tones of the musical scale (soffregio scale: doe, re, mi, fa, se, la, ti, doe)? Do we really know that they are as perfect as they can be? What is to say that they could have been farther evolved, thus making music all over this world BETTER!?

Is the tuning that we tend to accept and (not accept) on the accordions we buy correct, or can it be better?
For some reason, Hohner 114's call out to my instincts and say "PAY ATTENTION TO ME! I AM DIFFERENT! My tone, sound, and feel are a product of advanced musical evolution, but I need help to become even better.

Do not sell short the amount of influence Hohner has had on Louisiana accordion builders. It has played a part! Maybe....too small of a part.

One more thought or question. Who influenced who? Or who came first? The Germans or the Italians. (reeds and tunings)

Me thinks it all started with the Chinese Sheng .....





Next of kin to a cajun accordion?:



- Nout

Yes but not bellows driven which is a basic definition of an accordeon or melodeon...

So that is where DL Menard got the tune for the Back Door!!

Who came first...
Armenian immigrants to Austria followed by Saxons, Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Bohemians then, much later...Italians...

sol F ege not solf R ege....FYI

In my expereince the main dissent I have heard about the Hohner and specifically the HA 114 comes from Cajuns...
look in the older posts on this site...
endless criticism....

I very much like the Hohner HA 114 and prefer it to many Cajun made boxes I have played.
Simple and unpretentious and a good value.

Many early Cajun made accordeons used Hohner reeds and components. I see a reluctance of modern builders to pay due respect to Hohner.
I would venture to say there are more Hohner HA 114's in the hands of Cajun style players than there are so called "hand made" Cajun accordeons.

Hohners are simple and well made, easy to fix and mod...light fast fun and good resale...

Tim has made a very positive change at Hohner and that is due in part to Gilbert Reyes having the foresight to hire him. Tim knows his stuff.

I think that the "suits" at Hohner Germany still pull the strings and are as clueless as "suits" in any industry. And of course being German.. well...

I understand that Hohner USA will be introducing an upgraded Erica specifically for the Merengue Tipico
Dominican style of play..
There is no reason they cannot improve the HA 114..
I think there is a significant marketing potential for a good HA 114 as not everyone is so enamoured of a "hand made LA box" or can afford something better such as a MELODIE or a Castagnari

Gabbanelli's Cajun King is pathetic given its price.. grossly overpriced...and the importer undercuts his own dealers.. see e-bay..
It has some positive features but is no value.
And couple that with the importer/distributor and legendary customer service or lack thereof..
no thanks...

Thanks for the info Jeff. I'll keep it stored for use when the time presents itself. I agree with much of it.

The thing about the Kings....No, they don't come tuned right. They have to be retuned, and a more conservative strap job helps their appearance. If not, you get what looks like a Mexican accordion. The one I have is a Black "D" that has been restrapped and retuned with the same reeds it came with. Greg Mouton north of Crowley did a fine job with the tuning. The only thing about it is the lack of power. You have to play it hard to get loud volume. Otherwise, these Kings handle very well and come with a fantastic button and spring setting for my taste. They have the perfect sized base box grip. They also have that "light weight" feel to them. I just wish they sounded more like the 114 to start with. A little adjustment from there would make a very acceptable box. Thanks again.

Hi Hebert,

I hope your letter is read by Hohner and that they do something as you suggest.

My first accordion was one of the HA-114B's, that I bought in 1990 for $325 from Elderly Instruments. I have heavily customized it to be more like a LA accordion (removed grill, added real bass box with buttons instead of spoons, etc.) I still play it now and then.

Unfortunately, I suspect your entreaties will fall on deaf ears at Hohner. I met the guy that runs the accordion side of things at the NAMM show a while back (mid to late 90's). He was friendly, but it was clear that he and Hohner didn't really give a **** about accordions any more. Too bad. It wasn't that long ago that Hohner accordions set the standard by which other brands were judged. Now, they are an embarrassment!

-David

I believe you may be right friend about my email falling on deaf ears because those guys haven't responded back to me yet. Well, they will make their own bed... Let them lie in it too if that's how they want to be.

Elderly Instruments? Thats a pretty cool place for someone wanting to buy a fiddle. Do they have accordions too? I had been to their website by instruction of David Greely a while back. Many good looking fiddles there and they're willing to ship them out on consignment to you so you can decide if you want the instrument or not.

Thanks for the post.

I worked with Hohner in 2006 for over a year on the xtreme IIIN and IIIV ,supreme,re del vallenato and comrade models.. the design features .. even helped name them. they came to italy .. I went to Germany.. was an amazing experience.. and was purely on a volunteer basis.

Glenn

Fact

Upon request,
I contributed quite a bit to this project and much of what I contributed was later proposed by others who took credit.

Gilbert Reyes ( and others ) are/is now fully aware of this.

The one thing Mr Reyes said they would not do, change the reeds to a better quality as it would remove the signature Hohner sound

Fact.

"said they would not do, change the reeds to a better quality as it would remove the signature Hohner sound"

Probably so, but doesn't Hohner have better quality reeds of their own? If so, wouldn't that give better performance and keep the tone?

You know what's funny? A year ago I tried a box that was modified (for fun) by Tim, one of Hohner's techs. It was a Corona. He had added buttons to the keyboard, modified the bass, and most crucially, tuned it. I don't know what kind of magic he had worked, but I thought he had put special reeds in the box -- nope, just standard Hohner reeds. Amazingly responsive.
A good tech/tuner can really work wonders!

It's no secret to anyone who's piddled with these contraptions that there is an aweful lot of room for tricks of the trade, lots of little variables that make a difference. Boy I'd love to apprentice with someone like that for a bit.