What does unscalloped mean? are you talking about the bass relief? This one had that already on the edge, different from usual railboards with the bass relief in the middle. It was pre-designed for this type of tunning: Emmett thinks of everything and had it already made!
Markussz, it’s you and the whole of the community that truly restores faith True heroes in my book


Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk

Many thanks Roman and Rodrigo for the best ever unpacking ceremony put to video. We all enjoyed it here at Stick Enterprises, also with our daughters Diana and Grace last night on "Mothers' Day Eve". This video event was gratifying and heartwarming in every way.

Even the musical "score" was a coup, coming from Roman's own hands on his old (now stolen) teak Stick made in July 1996 and tuned in a single sequence of major 3rds. I'd never recognize the custom tuning by his colorful Latin style or choice of songs - a minor (or major 3rds) miracle in itself.

I hope his new Railboard with the same custom tuning will open up new sonic possibilities for Roman's "Kantana" and that we'll hear some outstanding recordings from him in the not-too-far-off future.

If I remember right, those old European accordions had the diagonal rows of buttons on the melody side arranged in minor 3rds across the rows, and of course chromatic half steps along each row. In the late '70s, I tuned a Stick that way for the famous Dutch jazz accordionist Matt Mathews and he picked it up and played it, well, for a while anyway.

Many thanks also to all who contributed funds to make it happen - another memorable story to add to our community history.

yep in one diagonal row direction you'd get half steps, in the other (normal to the fist) you'd get whole steps. As I remember, some patterns "reversed" which direction was which, but I don't know if it was maker or style or nationality, etc that decided that
sort of janko-y

One day I will learn to write emails in esperanto using a dvorak layout on a linux machine simply to annoy my wife

Due to this kind of things I feel proud to belong to this community.

My son visited Lisbon a few days ago, and i remember Roman used to play there the last time I saw him. Do any of you have some news from him in this particularly tough times for (street) musicians?

Unfortunately, COVID restrictions eventually chased Roman off the streets of Lisbon. This wasn't the time for turists/buskers, and the years of living on the edge weren't helping his health either. Now Roman has settled on the Polish-Czech border in beautiful Cieszyn. Whith a liitle problems, he works hard on his two obsessions: the collection of Polish dances on Stick and playing in quintoles.

I think he is easy to find on FB and as a very sociable person, he will be very happy to hear from old friends.

Thanks for the detailed answer.
I'd like to meet him again, he was such a nice person when I came to Lisbon, although I felt he was already struggling with a difficult period. What an amazing musician too.
Thanks again.

I'd just found an old video of him with his previous (stolen!) Stick:

The Facebook algorithm just send me today a notification about a picture I posted with Roman 8 years ago in Portugal. Quite curious to have some news from him.

Please don't mention this tuning to Steve Adelson.