Paloma Compactina
Paloma's Compactina is ideal for demanding musicians in need of an extremely light and compact top quality instrument with full tonal range, round warm sound and an exquisite visual appearance. The light weight and slim shape are achieved without any cumbersome and delicate folding mechanisms.
Superior workmanship makes this a top-of-the-line harmonium, ensuring good fluency and dynamics of the keyboard and long-term tightness of the air chambers. Its 39 keys give a range of three octaves and two half note steps. Each note is fitted with two well responding quality reeds in middle and low octave (male / bass), producing a particularly warm and round sound. The two reeds can not be used separately, though, thus the Compactina does not have any register stops. The back bellows fold out and fill themselves automatically when unlocked. You just need to pull them towards yourself for playing - always against a little resistance, though. The main bellows open to the front and have removable springs for adjusting the air pressure. The level height of the keys can be adjusted as well. A special Paloma feature is the surface treatment with wax in order to enhance the beauty of the natural wood veining - it pleases eye and hand alike and gives the instrument a very natural, organic feel.
"BONUS: One month free online access to comprehensive harmonium teaching material at the Bhakti Breakfast Club with harmonium purchase!" - more info here!
Sound sample Paloma Compactina (bellows with half spring tension)
- complete melodic range
- three-note chords in middle range
- 39 keys
- range of 3 octaves and 2 semitones from C to D
- 2 high-quality reeds per tone in low (bass) and middle (male) registers
- no register separation
- 4 keys for continuous tones / drones C, D, G, A
- top opening bellows with double folding
- wind bellows opening to the front
- pressure in wind bellows adjustable by 2 removable side springs
- silk-matt sealed surfaces with visible grain
- cabinet made of teak wood
- key mechanisms made of beech wood
- key surfaces made of nylon
- padded carrying bag included
PALOMA is the international brand name for instruments by Haribhau Vishwanath from Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Haribhau Vishwanath was founded in 1925 as a small repair shop. Today Paloma is an international top brand for harmoniums. This is due to successful innovations such as the Compactina and Maestro models and unique quality standards. Working techniques and tools have been permanently developed further over decades. Under the direction of Ashish Diwane, Haribhau Vishwanath in 2018 was the first Indian instrument maker to integrate a computer-controlled CNC milling machine into the traditional handcrafted manufacturing process, in order to get consistent precision in the production of essential components.
Apart from harmoniums, Haribhau Vishwanath also manufactures shrutiboxes, santoors, swarmandals and some drums. In addition, the company is active in the instrument trade and procures some rarely needed instruments for which direct purchase from the manufacturer would not be worthwhile. Haribhau Vishwanath has been a partner of India Instruments since 2005.
In India, our harmoniums are tuned to international concert pitch of a = 440 hertz. In Europe, however, they usually sound slightly higher at a = 441 to 442 Hertz due to the colder climate. The difference is small and not necessarily noticeable even to trained ears.
On request we can tune exactly to 440 hertz for 28 € additional charge.
Tuning to 432 hertz is also possible by arrangement for an additional charge.
NOTE:
Air temperature and blowing pressure influence the vibration frequency of harmonium reeds. At higher temperature and higher pressure, it decreases; at lower temperature, it increases. In our workshop in Berlin we tune at room temperature around 20 degrees Celsius.
Measure: height 28 cm, width 56 cm, depth 18 cm, weight: 6.9 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.