Squeeze Box

Subject: Squeeze Box
From: Captain Farrell
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 03:36 PM

Found an old single row box with two stops only clue to make is a winged insect inside a circle stamped on the body, anybody help me with the make.

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Peace
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 05:02 PM

I think I have a stupid question to ask: Is there another name for the instrument called a squeeze box?

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: topical tom
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 05:53 PM

I think that's another name for "concertina", isn't it?Or maybe not.

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Leadfingers
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 05:59 PM

Single row with two stops is a melodeon , particularly as traditionally used for Cajun music

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Dame Pattie Smith EPNS
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 06:01 PM

Yes it is, I play a Lachenal 3 row Anglo but I'm afraid I don't know what yours is Cpt. Farrell

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Greg B
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 07:27 PM

I'd send a note down to Mark Savoy (Sav-wa) in Eunice, LA. He's probably
seen just about every thing. http://www.savoymusiccenter.com

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 04:48 AM

Leadfingers

Just because Cajun players play one rows don't mean all one row boxes are suitable for Cajun. Since it is normal to play on the draw for Cajun (ie in G on a C box, blues mouthorgan like) they are usually tuned a bit odd for playing in the home key.

Nearer home for us there is a big tradition of one row playing in both East Anglia and previously in Ireland.

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Lester
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 04:50 AM

Sorry that was me above with no login.

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 06:26 AM

Thats OK Lester ! I know a few UK Folkies who play one rows , but the one place you are MORE likely to see a one row , however it is tuned , is in a cajun band .

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: GUEST,baz parkes
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 07:18 AM

Or Quebec...

Though I think East Anglia would probably give Louisiana a run for its money

Also used in various parts of Africa (I have a particularly fine EP of IK Dairo the cover of which shows him in full tribal robes holding a Hohner 4 stop...and Idi Amin was rumoured to play one!) ...and Scandinavia....and...and

Add your own bits really

Baz

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Beer
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 08:59 AM

Go to You Tube and type in "Robert Boutet"
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 04:51 PM

the whole point is that cajun boxes are tuned in mean temperament.,
and one rows played in England and Ireland which are used for traditional [not cajun],are in Equal Temperament.
winged insect in a circle sounds like a cheap saxony model.

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: greg stephens
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 05:23 PM

My experience of Louisiana tuners is that they dont tune in mean temperament. They tune the thirds and sevenths flat, on the push notes, to make it sound a biut bluesy. (ie the Bs and Es on a C one row).

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 06:19 PM

They are tuned differently anyway.
Cajun Music

Cajun players use single row instruments with four voices (2 medium, 1 low, 1 high). They also play them backwards, 'on the pull' - so a C box, the most popular choice, is played in G - and have them specially tuned for this purpose. Played in C 'normally', a C Cajun box will sound slightly out of tune. Don't buy one unless you want to play only Cajun music![END OF QUOTE]
    If they PLAY the f note,they will not be in G major,
but G Mixolydian .
This means[if Greg Stephens is right] that if there[Bs and Es]are tuned flat on a C box,But they are playing in G[Whether its major or mixolydian]its the sixth and third that are flattened.
Well the mode that has flattened third, flattened sixth and flattened seventh,is the aeolian.
so if that is the case they there playing g, a, bflat, c, d, eflat, f natural, g .
of course if they are only tuned partly flat,they wont be in the aeolian at all,but just somewhere in between.
as lester says they will sound odd.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Rowan
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 08:09 PM

Nariel is yet another home of single row melodeons (with the voice stops) and single row accordions (without the stops) in C; they're played in C.

And many Oz concertina players wince when their instrument is described as a squeezebox; they regard that as the proper term for accordions and melodeons (known to some as potato mashers) and are happy for their instrument to be described as a concer, constant screamer or even a leather ferret.

But Dick is probably on the money with the instrument in the original post being from Saxony.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 10:20 AM

Dick, I don't think Gregg means they are tuned a semi-tone flat just flatter than "normal".

Subject: RE: Squeeze Box
From: Jack Campin
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 11:01 AM

Cajun boxes are tuned with just-intonation thirds and sixths. Which means they sound horrible played along with most fixed-pitch non-Cajun instruments.

There's no way to tell what "Captain Farrell" has got without a picture. Single-row boxes have been made for 150 years in zillions of configurations - flutinas, garmons, heligonkas...

A *detailed* description posted to rec.music.makers.squeezebox might get an informed answer.