Hohner Gola 120 Bass Accordion

Sorry, this accordion has now been sold.

Here at The Accordion Shop, we are pleased to announce that have recently taken a classic Hohner Gola 414 120 bass accordion, in full original unmolested condition, into stock. This sought after, top quality accordion is widely regarded to be one of the finest accordions ever produced, and nowadays costs in excess of £31,000 to buy new.

The Hohner Gola is a full size accordion with 120 bass buttons and 41 treble keys, and features an extremely straight four voice double octave tuning, making it ideal for the classical and jazz styles of playing.

This world class accordion also boasts some of the finest hand made reeds ever produced, as well as a double cassotto chamber, which together help to create a unique rich sound, which somehow manages to be both bright and powerful and warm and mellow at the same time.

The Hohner Gola was originally conceived in 1952 by the world famous accordion designer, Giovanni Gola, with the first models leaving the Hohner production line in 1956. 

Born in 1907 in the small Italian town of Stradella, Giovanni Gola started his accordion building career as an apprentice at the highly respected Dallape factory, where his mother had worked for many years. The proprietor, Mariano Dallape, soon recognized the talent and musical ability of the young Gola, and paid for him to have accordion and flute lessons, which led to him playing in the town band, and later, studying at the Piacenza music school.

After serving his apprenticeship, Gola began full time employment at Dallape as an accordion tuner. He was soon promoted to the design department, and eventually became responsible for all the technical aspects of accordion production. It was at this point that be began to build several one off accordions, including a six voice instrument with seven sets of reeds in the bass and a basso pedal, which was specially commissioned for the Pope.

Meanwhile, back in in Trossingen, The current Hohner head of design, fellow Italian Venanzio Morino, was approaching retirement age, forcing Ernst Hohner to begin looking for a replacement. The well known Swiss accordionist, Albert Achermann, put Ernst in touch with his good friend Giovanni Gola. The thee men met in the town of Lugano, and in June of 1952, Gola accepted Hohner’s invitation to visit Trossingen. A contract of employment was signed, culminating with Gola moving, along with his family, to Germany in September of that year.

In 1953, shortly after starting work in the famous Morino workshop, Gola produced his first accordion for Hohner. Like many of the instruments that he had previously produced for Dallape, it was designed primarily for classical music and featured an incredibly rich and mellow tone. This design was further enhanced, and in 1954, the characteristic “Gola grill” was added for the first time. By 1956, Giovanni had refined his design to a level where he felt comfortable to realise a brand new model combining all the best features of his previous accordions into one instrument. The Hoher Gola was born.

This world class accordion featured a truly outstanding sound, which is in part down to the exceptional quality of the hand crafted reed plates, each of which which were individually selected from the town of Castalfidardo in Italy by Gola himself. Ensuring that the initial response of each reed occurred at an identical air pressure, was a highly time consuming and precise task, so in 1956, Giovanni brought Dallape’s head tuner, Pietro Fillipazzi, over to the Hohner company to assist him with this.

Each and every Hohner Gola from this period was personally hand finished and checked over by Giovanni Gola himself, who was well known for his fastidious attention to detail. For example, when tuning a Hohner Gola, Pietro Fillipazzi had to use emery paper rather than a file to avoid scratching the reeds, purely as an aesthetic consideration. Only when all of his exacting criteria were met, would Giovanni personally add the famous Gola stamp on the reed blocks and under the grill. The Hohner Gola quickly became the choice of many world class players, and was produced in small batches of only twelve instruments a year.

In 1975, Giovanni Gola retired and returned home to his native Italy where he died on the 18th of October 1978 in his home town of Stradella. Today, a new Hohner Gola costs well over £31,000, and can take up to a year to build, being available only by special order, with its design and build process unchanged since 1956

Our own stunning example of this incredible accordion is now in stock. Please contact us for further details on 01344 873717 or via email at sales@theaccordionshop.co.uk. Please note, this accordion is not kept on site, so all viewings must be booked by prior appointment.