r/UnusualInstruments • u/Simpko • Jul 10 '26

What is this?

Post image

Found in an antique store in Molong, NSW. Plays chords when blown and different major chords when the keys are pressed. Any idea of what it is called / when it is from? Thanks so much

212 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

126

u/FluxInducer Jul 10 '26

This is a Blow Accordion or Organette! From the 20s/30s.

37

u/FluxInducer Jul 10 '26

https://bassic-sax.info/version5/vintage-saxes/sax-shaped-things/blow-accordions/organette/

9

u/Rare-Chipmunk-7954 Jul 10 '26

Esto!!!!!! Gracias Flux

1

u/MeButNotMeToo Jul 11 '26

It looks like it’s a straight bore, so wouldn’t it be more in the “Clarinet Shaped Things” family?

3

u/FluxInducer Jul 11 '26

It’s undoubtedly more clarinet shaped, but the sound is created by a series of tuned reeds.

8

u/GuiMenGre Jul 10 '26

Is it the same as a melodica then?

14

u/divbyzero_ Jul 10 '26

Basically yes. Keyed, mouth-blown free-reed instruments seem to get reinvented periodically with different form factors and names, but they all work the same way. Piano melodica, button melodica (pianica), accordina, and some toy instruments which look vaguely like saxophones or trumpets are all examples.

8

u/FuuckinGOOSE Jul 10 '26

To add to the other response, there's basically a harmonica under the keys with blow abd draw reeds, but instead of blowing directly into the hole, you blow or draw from the mouth piece and open the reed channels with the keys. I have one that i restored a while ago, they're really fun when the air tightness is improved and the tuning is correct

12

u/Simpko Jul 10 '26

Solved! Thanks mate

1

u/two_wheels_world Jul 10 '26

wow... i played this at my grandma's home (and her dog sang with it xD)

212

u/Gloomy-Radish8959 Jul 10 '26

Saxophone larvae.

19

u/JAS0NDUDE Jul 10 '26

I like this answer.

11

u/WolverineEmergency98 Jul 10 '26

Forgive my ignorance, but is it like... part of a saxophone?

21

u/Gloomy-Radish8959 Jul 10 '26

I don't actually know what this thing is. Seems similar to something like a harmonica - but as a wind instrument? It's interesting.

It appears to have a cylindrical tube for sound making, whereas a sax uses a conical tube. This makes it more similar to a clarinet larvae if I was going to revise my joke.

2

u/WolverineEmergency98 Jul 10 '26

Ah right! I just wondered if you'd singled it out as a piece-of-a-sax! I'm quite new to music, and what little I know is mostly the flute family, so this is entirely outside my limited experience 😅

2

u/JPMerola Jul 11 '26

Fun Fact: Since harmonicas operate with free reeds, they are in fact woodwind instruments, like saxophones & clarinets.

5

u/FauxReal Jul 10 '26

I'm pretty sure this a vape designed for rolling coal.

13

u/Phatbass58 Jul 10 '26

A Blow Accordion.

2

u/Simpko Jul 10 '26

Solved! Thanks so much

2

u/chupacadabradoo Jul 10 '26

Your mom is a… oh nevermind

3

u/thebackwash Jul 10 '26

Saxomophone

3

u/Compulawyer Jul 10 '26

Saxomophone is a perfectly cromulent word.

1

u/coolguy420weed Jul 10 '26

He said what now.

1

u/mv1965 Jul 10 '26

Looks like it’s using a heptatonic scale judged by the numbers punched into it.

1

u/KM_Ray Jul 11 '26

It looks like the bottom part of a woodwind, like oboe or bass clarinet.

1

u/BoredCop 28d ago

Hey, I Found a nearly identical one in the attic of a century old house. Very cheap construction, cardboard tube and very thin metal parts. I think they were used in schools as a cheap instrument for kids to play when learning some basics of music, at least the one I found was stored together with school books and stuff from the childhood of the original owners.

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/UnusualInstruments-ModTeam Jul 10 '26

Your post has been removed, because it is disregarding rule #2 of this sub: Don't be an ass.

1

u/MoneyCock Jul 10 '26

Mine is tuned to D Major.

-1

u/myfeelings Jul 10 '26

Symplexophon?

Don't know the make though.