A while back I was researching harmonicas, I had an idea on how to build them better and more versatile, and I stumbled across the Savoy Music Center. (Harmonicas and accordions work on the same principle, but where accordions have a bellows, harmonicas have your mouth.) It’s a wonderful site; if I ever get to Cajun country, I will be sure to visit it. In particular, I was taken by Marc Savoy’s autobiographical opus: Ponderings of a Reincarnated Neanderthal, which I have mirrored, since the site doesn’t provide a direct link. (You can get to it by pressing the “writings” button on the left.) It’s an inspiring tale of entrepreneurship. Marc Savoy is an accordion-playing boy who stumbles into building them out of sheer gumption, and a can-do attitude. He is now the premier builder of Cajun-style accordions.
After playing my first song on the Sidney Brown accordion, I was very very impressed, not just with the fact that it was handmade, but also with the way it handled. It had the response of my Hohner, but with a much smoother keyboard action. The tone was also a major improvement, but unfortunately it did not quite have the bass response that the old pre-wars had. I don't remember sleeping at all that night, and it was during this long sleepless night (which was destined to be one of many) that I decided to build an accordion also.
More:
Up to this point I had pretty much tried to duplicate the design and measurements of the old pre-wars, but with these new reeds that were considerably longer and narrower than the old reeds, I realized that I would have to make some drastic changes and redesign the entire interior. Moreover, these Italian reeds were fitted to plates with a much closer tolerance than the old reeds were, and as a result were much more efficient in their air requirement. It was back to the drawing board. With a few test jigs, my mother's vacuum cleaner for a constant air source, a few pressure gauges, etc.; I came up with measurements that differed considerably from the ones I had been previously using.
Finally:
By the fall of 1965, I had pretty much taken up my father's outdoor kitchen with my accordion building hobby. Accordion parts were scattered all over the place. Sawdust from the woodworking covered all the surfaces, so my father, who realized that I had developed a pretty good little business with accordions, told me one day, "Well, it looks like you want to be a musician and instrument maker, and since I would like to have my outdoor kitchen back, would you please re-establish yourself somewhere else?"
When I start to feel demoralized, I like reading stories like this. Marc Savoy gives the impression of being relaxed and energetic, friendly and enterprising, and honest. Someone to learn from.
UPDATE: Go here to learn more, and here for some music.
UPDATE: The words for accordion and harmonica in Hebrew are mapuah and mapuhit, respectively. The root is: n-p-h, the “n” assimilates into the “p” and doubles it. Other words from this root: nefah (volume), nafah (blew, exhaled), napah (blacksmith), nipeah (inflated), hitnapeah (became inflated).
Posted by David Boxenhorn at August 1, 2004 11:48 PM