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Besides Klaus Gutjahr
of Berlin, who works on new constructions since
many years, the Carlsfeld people is anxious of having back their traditional
factory.
So Mr. Rockstroh of Carlsfeld built in 1997 one handmade bandoneon and which was tuned by Dieter Seidel, tuner of the Arnold factory after the war. They could demonstrate to own the necessary knowledge for building a new instrument. However, the central parts of this instrument, the reed boards, are still original Alfred Arnold's. I had the opportunity to play this instrument and I must say, that besides some necessary mechanical improvements, the sound is quite close to the original.
A further trial was made by Uwe Hartenhauer
of Klingenthal, the big
accordion center near Carlsfeld, and who is
bandoneon serviceman since a long time, skilled enough to direct
a future bandoneon manufacture. Uwe Hartenhauer went to Buenos
Aires and Montevideo contacting professional bandoneonists and possible
future customers exploring the commercial possibilities. See
also La Nación article
in Spanish.
However, it turns out to be difficult to find the needed
customers to insure a bandoneon factory. The actual professionals do not
need additional instruments and the youngsters don't have the money
for new ones. Additionally the needed investment for tools and
equipment will raise to about 1 million Deutsche Mark (about 570 000 us$).
Only one tool for one single of the 15 different reeds is about 9000 DM worth.
He needs to produce about 500 instruments a year to offer the product
at a competitive price. That is the reason why he did not produce
a prototype to demonstrate the sound qualities.
It comes out that under such circumstances Mr. Hartenhauer is not able
to carry the whole risk of such
a project by his own. He needs investors able to support that challenge.
In spite of the problems he announced on February 2002 the presentation
of a new octave tuned 142 voice model with zinc reed boards, the way
the traditional instruments were made. It will be presented at the
Frankfurter Musikmesse on March 13 - 17th at Halle 1.2 Stand E 37.
In parallel a sponsored project of the Vogtländischer Förderverein
für Musikinstrumentenbau und Innovation e.V.
became public on October 7th 2000,
on occasion of the annual Carlsfeld Bandoneon Meeting,
where two newly made pupil instruments were presented.
They were built by specialists of the
Institut für Musikinstrumentenbau Zwota
applying the know how of the previous
mentioned HARMONA factory. The keyboard design of the 110 voices is
based on the Einheitsbandoneon, permitting thus to be used by local young
pupils like at the introduction ceremony.
In spite of the used aluminum reeds, the sound of the new instruments
is quite promising.
A short sound check was particularly pleasant for the treble side of the
smaller of the both specimen.
Images of the new instruments:
(german, spanish, english)
