Bisonoric Diatonic Accordion...

Hanging out w/Sid Sward.

I went to see Sid, and he showed me something really neat!! He pulled out/showed me this very old accordion from approximately the 1850's. If I'm not mistaken it is what is called bisonoric diatonic accordion- obviously it's so old and doesn't quite really look like accordions the way we know them now, but some really early button accordions were like this.

But if you look closely despite its funky shape, you can see it basically is the same thing. Just a neat early model of what became the accordion we know really. Only no buttons on the other side, you just pump one side; press the tiny buttons on the other side and it makes whole chords, his even worked, though didn't seem totally in tune. He said it was originally in pieces and he had it put back together, but it did still make sound and it wasn't terrible- it simply sounded its age!

When you push you get one chord and when you pull you get another with it, also I love the way the little levers and circle parts move freely in front of you to see every time you press the keys. I couldn't believe he had it, I have no idea where you would even find something like that.




So I asked him if I could take some pictures of it, and he didn't mind; so I thought it would be fun to share this. It's a neat piece of history and an interesting look at one of the many precursors leading to the full-size 120-bass accordion that you see now. In fact, if you take the time to dive into some brief history and/or google it; you'll find that there are many different types of accordions: some are the same note either way you push/pull, others sound a different note when pulling one way and a different note when you push. Others are piano on one side, and buttons on the other. Then there are a ton of combinations of how many bass buttons, some common ones being: 12, 48, 72, and 120- but many more.