This is a beautiful old Double Ray Black Dot Hohner in its original BC configuration that would be a good instrument for someone interested in playing Irish music. It has steel reeds on aluminum reedplates. The treble pallets have repadded with cushioned leather facings for quiet operation and better sealing. A truly beautiful old Hohner. It was probably made in the late 1940’s or 1950’s in the German Hohner factory. The bellows gaskets have been replaced with modern closed cell foam gaskets. The bass and bellows straps are quite functional. It has shoulder strap brackets and a thumb loop. I replaced missing felts under the top caps on the bass and chord buttons.

The treble side has been completely tuned with a mild tremolo. The beat frequency gradually increases from around 2 Hz on the the lowest notes to around 5 Hz on the highest notes. I used Vienna style (above and below pitch) tuning using A=440Hz as the reference frequency. This is drier than standard Hohner but much more pleasing to my ear. The bass and chord side is completely tuned on pitch. The basses were reconfigured to the modern or McComiskey arrangement better suited to accompany Irish Traditional Music.

It is in excellent condition overall. The black painted wood case is in excellent shape. The multi-layer Hohner logo paint looks wonderful. The original bellows are quite tight but show some signs of wear on the bottom and back where it rests on the knee. I will include some spare black bellows tape when shipped if requested in case the new owner wants to cover those worn areas. They are not leaking air. Please look at pictures for condition. It has 21 treble buttons and 8 bass buttons. The treble, chord and bass plates are aluminum. It has steel reeds. The original leather one way valves on the treble side, chords and mid-bass reeds were all removed and replaced with modern plastic one way valves for long trouble free life. The large bass reed valves were replaced with new composite valves for quiet operation. All reedplates were removed, cleaned, coarse tuned in a fixture then rewaxed onto the reed blocks. Final tuning occurs in situ with the reedblocks inside the case.

I have added an anti-resonance cross bar between the treble blocks. I added pressure relief holes on some of the highest reed chambers. The instrument is a delightful 6 pounds weight so can be played for hours without weight fatigue.

As the photo shows, the metal grill is in nice shape. The grill clothes also look fine. The wooden keyboard is intact with no cracks or missing pieces. Often there are cracks or entire sections missing between keys on some of these old accordions. The thumb loop is in place and functional. It has a pair of single wide shoulder strap brackets. No shoulder strap is included.

I have not limited the button travel on this Hohner as some folks don’t mind and prefer to save the cost. I can modify it to limit the button travel before I ship it out for a nominal fee if desired.

Most of these older Hohner accordions are found with numerous notes out of tune, wheezing or not sounding at all. This was just completely tuned. It has 124 reeds.