[Alan Brinton]

Suzuki produced an S-25 from 1965-1987, sometimes as the Soprano 25. I acquired this one recently, which I’m guessing is from the 1960s. It has small keys, of about the same length as those of the original Hohner Piano 26/27, though a bit wider. Suzuki says that the small keys were, as we might expect, for the tiny hands of pre-school children. I’m still working on this one, before which I played it only to see if all the keys were working. One was not, on account of a small piece of plastic from a chipped endpiece that was in the key mechanism. Like a few other early Suzuki sopranos, this has an air chamber that protrudes out the bottom, but its most interesting feature is the key mechanisms that release air to the reeds; also, it has opposing reeds like the earliest Hohners.

Both end pieces were cracked, which did not show up in the auction photos or description. One broke apart when I started reassembling, and so it is now in the process of being glued.



This particular Melodion is more complicated to reassemble than most and has tiny screws whose heads will strip easily.

[Alan Brinton]

I have been collecting and examining quite a lot of vintage melodicas, and this one is a puzzle to me because it is one of the most sophisticated designs I have seen. But it is a model that was clearly designed for kindergartners and preschool children. I think Suzuki must have been giving their creative people quite a bit of leeway in exercising their creativity. Suzuki was incredibly innovative during the 1960s.

[Steve]

Hi Alan,
Did you ever get this S-25 playing? are you happy with it tone wise? and do you know how it relates to say a Suzuki A-32 as far as scale?

[Author]

Posts