Hi.
I just got a “Tombo’s Miniature-Accordeon” off eBay, but it looks like it will need some new bellows. It’s a very small accordeon, and probably has a non-standard sized bellows.
http://www.bloomington.in.us/~brett/tombo.html
Anyone have suggestions of where I should send it off to?
I’d also like to buy new reeds and have it retuned to D (it’s in G now).
Thanks for any info.
-Brett
Call Bob Tedrow. Google “Tedrow Concertinas.”
By the way, cool-looking little instrument.
Bob handles accordion repairs as well? Wish I’d known that last summer.
Our antique store find was repaired by The Button Box (in Mass.). They were a bit pricey for my taste, but did very good work.
I emailed Bob Tedrow to see if he was interested…
By the way, is anyone aware of any “miniature” accordions like this still being made?
I do have a Schylling (one-row 7 buttons) “toy” accordion, but that’s the closest I’ve found. The Hero is okay, but not quite a real instrument…still really more of a toy, although I do get a pretty good sound out of it with one bank of reeds taped off (so it’s only got one reed per note). It doesn’t have quite enough air for me… The Tombo is a bit bigger, so I’m hoping it might do the trick if I can get it fixed up and retuned to D.
I’ve approached a few accordion makers about creating something like this, but most of them didn’t take it too seriously. One french maker, who will remain nameless, suggested I contact a clown supply company. I’m not sure if that was a joke, or not. 
I did eventually get Peter Hyde in Australia to make me a fairly small 9 button one row box in D. However, I wasn’t totally happy with that one and sold it when I was a little financially challenged. I really should have held on to that one… here’s a link to a photo if you’re interested (I think it’s living in the UK now):
Melotina
I may eventually have Peter build me another with some slight changes…
However, it was expensive to wire money to Australia and he doesn’t do paypal or credit cards.
-Brett
It probably was, but the other day I read in an old Concertina and Squeezebox magazine that no less a craftsman than Colin Dipper once made some mini anglo-concertinas for a Swiss circus performer. Don’t think he’d appreciate being called a clown supply company, though!
Have you looked at some of the Abruzzi-style “organetti” produced by Italian makers? They make some 9-button boxes with a mini-inside row of two or three buttons. These are used for “reversals” (duplicate notes in the opposite bellows direction), but a box like these in D, with accidentals on the extra buttons instead of reversals, might make a useful little box for Irish music. There is a profusion of makers, here are just a few.
Giuseppe](http://www.diatonicaccordion.com/%22%3EGiuseppe) Janni & Figli
Alessandrini</a](http://www.accordions.com/alessandrini/">Alessandrini</a)>
Giustozzi</a](http://www.giustozzi.it/">Giustozzi</a)>
Marrara</a](http://www.organetti.com/">Marrara</a)>
By the way, can you tell us more about why you weren’t entirely happy with your Hyde? He seems to be a very interesting maker, but friends in Australia have told me that his boxes lack punch.
Add Casty to the list
http://castagnari.trad.org/fr/tato.html
BTW, i saw Benny McCarthy play a Mignon on the Danu tour and it sure sounded good; he played a set from the Murphys (mouth organ players) of Wexford. There’s a little clip of it on the DVD, it’s one of the bits with the puppets.
Hello,
Just a note here to say that I am not an accordion repair person. I will leave that to the specialists.
I do make miniature concertinas:
regards, Bob Tedrow
http://hmi.homewood.net/minicustom/
Brett,
Have you checked with Michael at Irish Dancemaster Accordions? I’m not sure if he does bellows work but he specializes in reed replacement & tuning.
http://www.irishdancemaster.com/reedtuning.html
Rand
Nope, I hadn’t. That’s a good idea! I know he’s done customizations on the small Hero/Schylling boxes in the past so i’m sure he’d probably do it.
-Brett
Nice little box, Brett. Do you know what key it’s in?
I recently got a toy Scarlatti melodeon for my niece, tuned in C. It’s not bad for the price, actually plays in tune, and at a pinch I could use it to accompany Morris dancing.
It’s in G, but I may have the reeds replaced with D reeds if it’s not too expensive. If I can get the bellows fixed/replaced and the reeds changed to D for less than $200 US then I probably will.
-Brett
Interesting, the dominant tuning system in the UK is D/G, but most Morris tunes are in G, not D, so a G tuned mini would be more useful over here.
I emailed a couple of the places you mentioned to see if they could make a box with a keyboard like this:
That would make a really cool box! We’ll see if any of them will do it…
-Brett
Hi Bretton
You may have written to them already but I wrote to Giustozzi enquiring about the price of a couple of their models and they replied very promptly. A fellow who posts at the melodeon.net forums bought one of their boxes and is apparently very happy with it. Be aware, he didn’t specify a degree of tremolo and it arrived pretty damn wet (3 voice).
Have you seen these wild maggiore-minore boxes they do? Six reed banks, 3 major and 3 minor! Pull a stop and you have a box tuned to a minor scale. A one-row box that weighs about as much as an old Joe Burke-style Paolo Soprani…
Out of interest, why are you thinking of a second C-nat on the push of your middle button?
Steve
F-natural, G#, and C-natural are about the only ‘extra’ notes I ever need, so I didn’t have a 4th accidental I really wanted on that button. I figure it will be easy to remember to hit the small middle button whenever I want a C-nat and not have to worry about bellows direction.
Giustozzi is one of the places I contacted too. Let me know what they told you… I was interested in their 11/A model. I like the look of this one (it’s has 2 reeds/note), although, the 2nd row of three buttons are really small.
-Brett
Brett,
Sorry to be a little slow in responding. Below is the very courteous email I received from Giustozzi. I think I was asking about rather more substantial models than the one you mention. They wrote in Italian, but that was because I attempted to do so myself. I’m sure they can handle English correspondence.
The bottom line:
Yes, you can buy direct from the factory
89/A: Euro 730 including decorations. Black only.
765/A major/minor: Euro 880 including decorations. White or red.
Another major minor model is the 785/A at Euro 990,00 incl. decorations.
Without decorations: subtract Euro 100.
Shipping to Canada: a little over Euro 100.
We can supply these models with hand-made type reeds or hand-made reeds. In Canada the Binci hand-made type are much appreciated. If you like I can send you the extra cost for these reeds.
On the subject of your two C nats, I agree you have the main accidentals covered but an extra C nat on the push doesn’t strike me as very useful, based on my experience with C#/D. An extra D on the pull would be very handy, mainly for tunes in G, but you haven’t space for that. I think I’d be inclined to go with an extra C# on the push, as on a C#/D box, to give you a little more flexibility in phrasing tunes in D.
Steve