Dulcitone

I have just bought a Dulcitone. I’m hoping this is the end of long search for my perfect busking instrument. I’ve already bought and half learnt the accordion. I can *kind of* play it, but the leap to really master it is one I just don’t quite have the energy to make. Basically I’ve been looking for something portable that can be played like a piano and needs no electricity or amplification. I’ve already become obsessed with dulcimers and cymbalons through this journey which has had me seriously considering a trip to Hungary or Poland. So, enter the Dulcitone which I discovered accidentally while looking up harmoniums. There are some wierd karmic things going on here I swear it. It turns out the dulcitone was made in Glasgow by a fellow called Thomas Machell in the late 1800s. Glasgow is of course where I was born and I really do have a thing about objects from around this time. The instrument is not in perfect condition by a long way. I’ll see exactly how much when it arrives. I’ve probably paid over the odds for it and even more as it needs shipped from California to Switzerland plus whatever restoration work it’s going to require but somehow the idea of having this has overwhelmed me. I’m going to document this pretty fully over on whereisgordypops.wordpress.com with videos and photos. If you read that blog regularly, you have been warned.

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