House of Musical Traditions
7040 Carroll Ave.
Takoma Park, MD 20912
TEL: 301-270-9090
FAX: 301-270-3010
email
HOURS: 11 am - 7 pm
Tuesday through Saturday
11 am - 5 pm Sunday & Monday
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Toy Accordions
Made in China
ATTENTION: HERO TOY ACCORDIONS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE AT OUR STORE
We are leaving this information on our web site as a courtesy to you
Read before you buy
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Are these real accordions, or strictly toys that don't play music?
They are miniature, very cheaply built versions of regular
accordions. Wood body
covered with plastic, like a regular accordion, only
cheaper wood and plastic is used. Vinyl shoulder straps. Real
bellows, but with no leather parts or protective metal corners. The
reeds are low quality brass instead of steel, and do not sound as
strong as, or hold up as well as regular accordion reeds. The reed
valves are also of a cheap material, and will not last long before
they lose their shape. The adhesives and other materials used are of
lower quality. However, you can play real music on them for as long as they last. You can find
them marketed under different brand names: Hero, Goodlin, Schylling,
and others too numerous to mention.
Q: Is this an instrument just for children, or can adults play them too?
A: They are designed primarily for the younger set, but some adults
use them to take to the beach or backpacking. Adults will not
be satisfied with a Chinese toy accordion as their primary
instrument. If you're out of elementary school, consider them to be
novelty instruments.
Q: Where can I find instruction books for these instruments? The
instructions translated from Chinese are nearly unintelligible.
A: We carry a book specifically written for the miniature button
accordion models, and you can find it on our Diatonic Accordion Book
page. For the piano keyboard accordions, you can start with Palmer Hughes Method Book
One - click on Basic Instruction.
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Read before you buy
Here is some more relevant information, quoted from the book
"The Pretty Complete
Guide to Squeezeboxes":
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" Cheaply built button
accordions (and also concertinas) especially the Chinese toy button accordions which
are sometimes sold under the name "Hero", present some
special problems for young players. On inexpensive instruments,
button travel is not restricted in the interior of the instrument, so that if the button is pressed farther than the distance necessary
to sound the note, it will get caught underneath the keyboard.
Because their fingers are so narrow, children can easily press
the button straight into the hole, where it will remain stuck
until an adult takes a screwdriver and opens up the box to pop
the button back through its hole. In addition, buttons which
are glued on can come loose from their posts when children press
them too hard, or at an angle.
- If you are mechanically inclined,
you can easily doctor most of these cheap instruments so that
your child cannot push the button in far enough that it gets
caught under the keyboard. Using a water based wood glue, attach a strip or block of wood to the action board underneath the button mechanisms to prevent them from travelling all the
way down."
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