I plan to write a specific article about the history of “boxes” I have owned, but thought it would be informative here to explain what instruments my current recording (Spring 2018) is being done with:
Pigini P36 piano key accordion, with 72 bass buttons, 34 treble keys, 3 sets of hand-made mid-range middle reeds (MMM) tuned to Scottish musette sound.
Pigini P36 model, 72/34, with LMM reeds – ie 2 mid-range reeds (MM) tuned to a mild tremolo, and an octave-down lower (L) reed.
1938 vintage Hohner Morino “2+1” (aka Morino 1) piano accordion, 120 bass buttons, 42 treble keys, and four treble reeds (LMMM), but no cassotto tone chamber (as in later Morinos).
Dino Baffetti Carnival II melodeon, keys of D and G, 19 treble and 8 bass buttons, moderate tremolo MM treble reeds, converted to 4th button start.
As part of my recent “discovery” of the wealth of Scottish Country Dance (SCD) music, I am very taken with the classic musette sound of the Hohner Morinos, so I am keeping a look out for a suitable VM or IVS model.
My keen-ness to further develop my melodeon playing has fallen away to an extent recently with my interest being taken up with SCD music. However, I did some research in 2017 and concluded one of the new Oakwood 2-voice melodeons would be an ideal advancement for me, primarily because of its size, weight, sound and quality.
Accordion and Melodeon 