Looking for an button box accordion to learn Irish tunes

Squeezebox & Harmonica
1

I am new to the forum and looking to buy an accordion. Of what I have looked at on the web, I hope to find a Hohner Double Ray, Irish Dancemaster, or other similar model in B/C tuning. My main problem is that there are no shops in my area (Pittsburgh, PA) that sell accordions and I know little about where to look and what to ask. As with many beginners, I am hoping to keep my initial investment as low a possible for fear that I may not be able to teach myself to play. I am hoping you folks may have suggestions of what to buy and possibly a lead on a good accordion. Thanks.

2

How is your search coming along? Here is a question. What if you do like playing the button accordion? Will you regret not getting a decent instrument?
If you decide that you don’t like it, you can sell it and probably be out less money than if you bought a cheap instrument with which you would not be satisfied.

I have been playing mine now about a month and a half, and I can play several John Whalen tunes that I learned by ear, and some that I learned from the sheet music. I am having a blast learning to play!

TM

3

My problem is similar to yours. I have been researching concertinas. All the experts recommend that I buy the best instrument I can afford so that my learning experience will be the best possible and that if I decide I don’t like it I can sell the instrument with the smallest loss. I think that is wise. Cheaper instruments of this sort are often difficult to play for a beginner and cannot be sold easily for the money invested.

4

My neighbor is an antique dealer and he gave me one of those toy accordions that you see alot of places sell in the key of C.

I think they cost about 20-30$. Anyways, it was a real cheep instrument with leaky bellows and out of tune reeds but I had a blast with it until I got my Dancemaster! It was worth the money, came with better reeds and more intune than a new Chinese Honer for 800$

My advise is buy a kids accordion and play around with it for a couple of weeks!
You probably won’t find button accordions in any music store unless it is Lark in the morning or The button box so you’ll eventually end up buying one and hope that you like it.

Just a few ideas!

Nate

5

Thanks for the advice Nate. I have looked at the Dancemaster site several times and I will probably go that route (although I am not a fan on pearloid look).

6

I know what you mean. The black ones are not pearlized, they are just black. It actually looks pretty good.

TM