Buying a bandoneon?

I'm an expat and bandoneonista living playing and teaching bandoneon here in Buenos Aires and via skype to the rest of the world (www.benbogart.com).

There are instruments in bad condition that need to be repaired and that are available in ba and in the provincia. In fact nearly every bandoneon sold on mercadolibre in any music store in BA probably fits this criteria. I have only ever seen one instrument for sale in ready to play condition despite the claims of the salespeople.

The bandoneon export law so far is bad for everyone. It has created a mad rush on instruments by people who might someday want to play and has inflated the price of instruments outside of Argentina by nearly 80%. Many of these people will never play and are purchasing un playable instruments. Those instruments will likely rot in a closet.

To date I have not heard of anyone actually being stopped by customs leaving the country with a bandoneon. I traveld in October with 2 and had no problems.

If you are looking to fix up an instrument, look on mercado libre or on segundamano.com.ar and go look at the cheapest ones. There are certain things you cannot fix, missing or damaged reedplates being the best example.

If you do do this, and you finish it, please learn top play it or sell it to someone who will. One thing we all know at this point is that there are not enough of these instruments for any of them to be kept as souvenirs. If you fix it up and sell it or play it you will be adding 1 instrument back into playing circulation and helping the effort to preserve tango (even if you do it outside argentina).

Lastly I have to counter recommend against Promusica. They certainly have lots of instruments in very bad condition, but they are very expensive. They sell them as being in good condition but they are usually totally unplayable. These stores have done more towards extinguishing the bandoneon than anyone who has ever bought one with the intent of playing it. Those instruments travel outside the country with someone who tries to learn to play it but can because the instrument is in bad condition and it ends up lost in a closet.

PS. Good Bandoneon Luthiers are in high demand around the world right now.

Good luck,
Ben
 
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