Help with button addiction

[wunks]

I just got this, along with a very nice fiddle, at a favorite junk shop.  It's ancient.  It's diatonic. It's very heavy.  It seems to be very well made.  The bellows have a couple holes in creases. All the reeds seem to sound, some when they shouldn't.  The buttons on the base (?) side are linked to form chords.  I know I should have left it and I know it's not a concertina. I'm looking for a Jeffries duet that has it's reeds and needs restoration

I'm sure someone here will know what this is and if it's of interest to anyone?  No external markings that I can see. The decorations are etched then filled in with lacquer(?) 

Edited July 18, 2020 by wunks

[Geoff Wooff]

If it is, as you say,  Diatonic  then  it  is  what  the  French call  a ' Mixte'  accordion.    A  60 bass  Stradella  left  hand  married to  a  three row  diatonic  right hand. There  are  many  permutations  of  the  right  side  keyboard  .   This  was  a popular  style of   accordion  prior to  the  1930's  and  it's  most  well known  exponent  , Emile  Vacher  made many  recordings  and  can  be found on  Youtube.     Claude Aubrie,  who  plays  in a band  with  my wife  and I  ,is one of the very  few  in France  who  still    plays  the  Mixte , his  has  the  row  layout  of  G / C / B .

Edited July 18, 2020 by Geoff Wooff

[Squeezebox Of Delights]

If it’s anything like a normal 60 bass, it should have two rows of single notes, one row of Corresponding major chords, one row of corresponding minor chords, and one row of corresponding dominant sevenths, going along diagonally. The diagonal chord columns go up in a circle of fifths, and if there is a button with a dimple in it, it is C. That way, you get the I, IV and V chords all next to each other, so you can play accompaniments with your left hand quite easily. 
 

 

as the right hand, it looks like a melodeon, but that’s all I can say. I’m a piano accordionist myself (don’t kill me!).

[wunks]

15 hours ago, Geoff Wooff said:

If it is, as you say,  Diatonic  then  it  is  what  the  French call  a ' Mixte'  accordion.    A  60 bass  Stradella  left  hand  married to  a  three row  diatonic  right hand. There  are  many  permutations  of  the  right  side  keyboard  .   This  was  a popular  style of   accordion  prior to  the  1930's  and  it's  most  well known  exponent  , Emile  Vacher  made many  recordings  and  can  be found on  Youtube.     Claude Aubrie,  who  plays  in a band  with  my wife  and I  ,is one of the very  few  in France  who  still    plays  the  Mixte , his  has  the  row  layout  of  G / C / B .

Fascinating.  Thanx Geoff !  I've just listened to some of Vasher's Youtube offerings: what a full sound it has,  even with his maddening ornamentation!  Some beautiful new tunes to try on duet also.  Was the Mixte developed in France?  It seemed to me to have an eastern European look to it.  

 

13 hours ago, Squeezebox Of Delights said:

If it’s anything like a normal 60 bass, it should have two rows of single notes, one row of Corresponding major chords, one row of corresponding minor chords, and one row of corresponding dominant sevenths, going along diagonally. The diagonal chord columns go up in a circle of fifths, and if there is a button with a dimple in it, it is C. That way, you get the I, IV and V chords all next to each other, so you can play accompaniments with your left hand quite easily. 
 

 

as the right hand, it looks like a melodeon, but that’s all I can say. I’m a piano accordionist myself (don’t kill me!).

That seems to be the way it's set up.  Don't feel bad about playing PA.  There was also a nice small (15 white keys 12 bass) Camerano that was tempting but I'm trying my best to stick to the duet concertina.  This Mixte, though, deserves more than to live in the back of my closet.  If I can't swap it I'll take it out to the Button Box for an evaluation.  Thanx.......?

[Geoff Wooff]

15 hours ago, wunks said:

Fascinating.  Thanx Geoff !  I've just listened to some of Vasher's Youtube offerings: what a full sound it has,  even with his maddening ornamentation!  Some beautiful new tunes to try on duet also.  Was the Mixte developed in France?  It seemed to me to have an eastern European look to it.  

 

 

Yes lots of  good tunes from Vacher, he  wrote many of them and  others  were  by  his  piano  accompanist.  Generally  thought of  as the  instigator  of  the  french  'Musette'  style  Vacher   never changed  over  to  the  Chromatique Button  Accordeon  that  most  Musette players  adopted.  I  doubt  the  Mixte was a french  development, more likely  of  Italian  origin, in the marrying of the  Stradella  bass  with the  diatonique  accordeon.  What  you have there  looks  to  be  a generic  model  produced  in their  thousands in Italy.

[Clive Thorne]

I the right hand rows were B/C/C# wouldn't it be a "British Chromatic Button Accordion", as expounded by Jimmy Shand, John Kirkpatick etc? But I must say that the cecoration looks distinctly continental.

[wunks]

5 hours ago, Clive Thorne said:

I the right hand rows were B/C/C# wouldn't it be a "British Chromatic Button Accordion", as expounded by Jimmy Shand, John Kirkpatick etc? But I must say that the cecoration looks distinctly continental.

The 3 lowest buttons on the diatonic side (RH) from the bellows outward yield (push/draw):  eb/g#,  c/f, and b/e 

[Geoff Wooff]

2 hours ago, wunks said:

The 3 lowest buttons on the diatonic side (RH) from the bellows outward yield (push/draw):  eb/g#,  c/f, and b/e 

That  is  certainly  diatonic  but  the  lowest  notes  might  be  out  of  sync  with  the  'system'.Better to  look for  the  'key'  notes  of  each row.  Go a  little  further up  the keyboard  to  find  four  consecutive  buttons  that , on the  push,  give  a  major  chord....  Tonic,  Major 3rd,   Major 5th  and  Octave.....  as  in  Doh - MI - Sol -  Doh .

[wunks]

5 hours ago, Geoff Wooff said:

That  is  certainly  diatonic  but  the  lowest  notes  might  be  out  of  sync  with  the  'system'.Better to  look for  the  'key'  notes  of  each row.  Go a  little  further up  the keyboard  to  find  four  consecutive  buttons  that , on the  push,  give  a  major  chord....  Tonic,  Major 3rd,   Major 5th  and  Octave.....  as  in  Doh - MI - Sol -  Doh .

I'll try it a bit later today.  There's a pad missing (on the base side I think) that over rides all else, plus the leaky bellows.  The 3 lowest RH notes were easiest to discern (judged against my duet which is modern pitch).

[wunks]

It's a bit wonky but I'm getting B C and G scales, starting on the push, from the bellows out.

Edited July 21, 2020 by wunks

[Geoff Wooff]

14 hours ago, wunks said:

It's a bit wonky but I'm getting B C and G scales, starting on the push, from the bellows out.

It  does sound interesting   I'll pm  you .