There is little information available about this extremely rare tabletop version of the Weltmeister® Basset, but it is in many ways identical to its predecessor, the Basset 1. Difficult to acquire in the US, this rare “Cold War” electro-mechanical keyboard instrument was in production for a brief time in the late 1960s by accordion manufacturer, Weltmeister in East Germany.
The battery-powered Basset 2 was popular in the 1960s and early 1970s with East German dance bands. Its mechanical piano action was derived from its big brother, the Weltmeister® Claviset. Pressing a key causes the lip of a rubber disc to pluck the tine. When the key is released, the sound is stopped by a foam damper. A warning label in German, Cyrillic Russian, and English warns of “danger of life” if you connect it to a radio or an amplifier with AC-DC!
