I bought this as I play with a neighbour and we use his log cabin which is a bit of a walk away. I play the accordion and the guitar so was often carrying both and sometimes also a little amp. A standard accordion is a bit of a carry, especially in the dark down a farm track! I have a Strandberg guitar which is light and easy to carry so that was the guitar sorted (it is a beauty). So what about the accordion?
When I took the 60 out of the box my first impressions were that it looks such a tintsy little thing, a toy really. I did worry that the bases looked too small for my clumpy fingers. However, when I started playing it the bases were fine - I did not really notice any real difference from my standard machine. One thing I did notice was that it kicks out a mighty sound from what is a very small air volume in the bellows. It felt like more volume for less effort that a standard machine which I guess is what you would expect as there is less air to compress. What you see is what you get with it - it belts out the sound. The keys are nice and quiet - no clacking around. The sound was rather sweet and not harsh. I have a 60 year old Hohner and when I played it afterwards I thought it sounded a bit harsh and a lot clacker than the 60.
I did wonder if I would have problems with it having a limited number of keys so I sat and went through our song book to see how I would get on with that. There was only one song that had a low 'G' that was not on the keyboard so I just put one in an octave above for all the difference it made.
I guess that the straps are designed for a child more than an adult - I think that they will take a bit of fiddling around with to get just right for the machine - the question is whether to play it high up or let it rest lower down - I am not sure the answer on that at the moment and, based on playing so far - I don't think it makes any real difference. The one thing I did have a problem with was the back cross strap - it was definitely just too short for a grown up - I will need to buy a longer one.
I only gave it four stars for features as it is a bit hard to say that it actually has any really - that is part of the charm of it - two voices, kick on, and off you go with it.
I don't miss the 7th diminished row as I don't have any songs with a 7th diminished in. I would rather have the 60 configuration than a 48 with the 7th diminished. You can play in more keys with the 60. I have zero interest in doing an exam and needing a 7th diminished for that.
Overall - does it meet what I wanted it for? It has a cute little carry case, is as light as a feather, it kicks out a big sweet sound and plays pretty much everything in our song book. I don't have to stagger and trip down the farm track scaring the horses any more. What is there not to like about that?
