Irish button accordion sites?

Whistle
1

Does anyone know of any websites or discussion groups for irish button accordion (2-row B/C or C#/D box?) Recommendations for a decent but inexpensive starter box would also be welcome.

Thanks in advance

Tim

2

Hi Tim

Here are a couple of sites for you

Squeezbox Newsgroup
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/phoebe/mosaic/accordion.html

Accordion Links.com
http://www.accordionlinks.com/

3

Han’s Irish Squeezebox page
rec.music.makers.squeezebox (Not specifically Irish accordion, but really good all the same)
The Irishbox list, via Yahoo groups

Re a good starter box, you could do far worse than a Learner. They’re nice two-reed boxes, made in China to Billy McComiskey’s specs, and cost about $400. For more info, email Deborah Brower at eirdrum(a)hotmail.com, replacing the (a) with a @ of course.

4

http://www.buttonaccordion.com

is a commercial site, but has lot’s of good info too.

The Yahoo! group is also good:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irishbox/

Han’s site mentioned above is a good one to check out.

I don’t own a Learner box but I did get a chance to play one for a few minutes and they do seem to be a good deal for the money.

If you’re REALLY just a beginner (i.e. not even sure you’ll decide to take up the box) you should get a one-row 7 button Schylling box and give that a try first.

http://www.schylling.com/music1.htm

Only $20. I’ve got three tunes on Snips-N-Clips I recorded using one:

http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/non.html

-Brett

5

Thanks for the site pointers - some I knew of, and some I didn’t. I suppose one thing I was looking for, and haven’t found so far, is something like the C&F reviews section, or the analogous “buyer’s guide” section on concertina.net - opinions from players about the various boxes available on the market today.

Thanks

Tim

6

Here is a brief discussion on the topic at thesession.org. I went through the search for a starter accordion a few months ago. I ended up buying a Learner accordion (as mentioned above) and am happy with it although I am concentrating more on the whistle and bodhran right now.

http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/671