Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

You bet it does, and I wasn't joking.

Back in '65, I was a keyboard player whose only keyboard was a Dallape Castelfidardo rhinestone-encrusted 120 bass accordion from 1937.



The guys in our Beatles/Stones etc. band gave me an ultimatum (no sense of humor). Get a real keyboard or get out!

For our next gig, a few weeks later, still broke, I compromised by borrowing a girlfriend's red pearl Scandalli Vibrato,



which was equipped with a factory-installed pickup system. It was nice and lightweight, too, being a woman's model. Only drawback, was the name, C O N N I E, emblazoned vertically on the left side in 1" tall chrome deco-style letters. I left it on...it showed that, unlike my fellow band members, at least I had a girlfriend (and a honey she was, too, accordion notwithstanding, or notwithsitting). Anyone who might be curious about what polka bandleaders call accordions played by female musicians, can drop me a line offlist.

Anyway, the Scandalli came with a nearly-new Ameg Reverberocket, which was a better amp than either our lead or bass player had. Lead player also played through an accordion amp, a "Tolini", made by Supro, and bass player had a smaller Kay. The guitarist lashed out in envy, but he could not wangle an input to save his life. I played on. The reverb was lovely.

Have you ever heard the rhythm and arpeggios for "And I Love Her" played on an electric squeezebox? Memorable.

You have a deep drawer, my friend. I knew they could be used as such, I just never knew it was that popular to amplify accordians. Curiouser and Curiouser. Is the accordian input lower sensitivity or what?

My Reverb Rocket is a re-issue 2 x 12 combo. I think it is 60 watts but it may be 40. Plenty loud since we Mic'd it when I gigged with it. I don't gig with it any more and mainly use my Heartbreaker.

Did check out the Tone Lab. Pretty cool looking. I guess you can plug straight into the board but is it mainly used as a pedal in front of an amp? I'm guessing this is kinda like the POD but better quality sounds?

JKC

I use my Tonelab LE like a preamp & effects unit. I set my amp clean and use the amp modeller to generate the different sounds, adding the 'outboard effects' (like delay, phase, etc) to the basic sounds. That way, I am using the amp sounds to generate the overdrive/distortion rather than a pedal sound ie: my 'warm overdrive' sounds like an overdriven AC15 rather than like an AC15 with a TubeScreamer in front of it. I also tend to use the A/B channel feature the same way it would work on an amp: A clean B same amp but overdriven, although for some songs with really abrupt dynamic changes, you can set A as a Fender Blackface clean sound and B as a JCM Plexi overdriven sound, which is really cool. If you plan it out and play around with it, it really eliminates a lot of tap dancing in songs where you change sounds or effects a lot.
It is also good for home recording because I can get great sounds without using an amp, which my wife appreciates.

I preferred the sounds of the Tonelab over the POD, I also liked the dual expression pedals and the metal switches.

Greg puts it very well. I understand that there was/is a Beatles tribute band who tour, each with his programmed Tonelab in a case. They plug into the board, hit a preset and rock!

Accordions were amplified in those days with a dedicated dynamic mic setup designed to be installed inside the bellows. Yes, they could be shrill if not set up just right. Then, along came the Cordovox. Polka was never the same after that!

I never liked the POD. I had one and spent hours trying to program my sounds, then, it seemed like when I got up to stage volume the values shifted and they sounded ******. I like what you are saying about warm overdrive... That is one of the things that pushed away from pedals and back to playing straight in... I play rhythm, so I'm not changing sounds as much, but sounds like this is worth a look.

Paul,

I can't tell from your post if that was the demise of Polka, or the final, magic ingredient that pushed that genre into the limelight of power pop! If you've never seen The Schmenges, Last Polka... Find it and watch it. Mocumentary about Polka along the lines of Spinal Tap and Mighty Wind. Too funny. John Candy and Eugene Levy are retiring Polka maestros.

+++

Back to the post, so it seems like the Vox custom class AC30 is a nogo, at least to one member... I saw the Brian May signature model a few weeks ago... I wonder how that would sound? My two cents is that they sound ****** through a Marshall JCM 800.

Yosh and Stan are my uncles.

The Brian May Ac30 has one control--volume. It's a bit, er, limited, tonewise...