Has there ever been a piano accordion with piano keys on both hands?

Question

It's possible to find a piano accordion with piano keys on the right hand and the triangular arrangement of buttons on the left-hand. It's also possible to find a button accordion with the triangular arrangement on both hands and a free-bass system instead of the Stradella system. The bayan is a 20th century solution to the centuries-old quest to find a portable, sustained-note keyboard instrument.

The obvious other way to go is to have piano keys on both hands. In some ways this is a more obvious instrument to me than a bayan, given that the piano keyboard is already a thing. There are obvious problems around playing piano keys freely with the hand that's controlling the bellows, but perhaps not insurmountable. Has anyone ever made such a thing: a piano accordion with piano keys on both hands? If they did, what was wrong with it: why didn't it catch on?

Answer 1

If you google "double keyboard piano accordion" you can see at least a couple of different designs have been manufactured, one being the Soprani Luttbeg. They're very rare though, so if you want to try the idea out for yourself you could get hold of two identical piano accordions and swap the piano section of one for the button section of the other (this may not work on all accordions, you might need to resort to gaffer tape like these guys).

I imagine you'd quickly discover that playing chords would be a lot more challenging than using buttons. The usual Stradella button layout on the accordion makes for a very economical way of moving through related chords with minimal movement of the fingers.

A true double keyboard would also make the whole instrument significantly wider and more unwieldy - you'll see those that have been made don't really have full second keyboards. It would also make bellows control harder as it would be difficult to strap a hand in.

The one advantage would be the ability to play mutli-voice keyboard music as written, but this is possible (and arguably easier) on either a free bass piano accordion or a chromatic button accordion. Chromatic button accordions have the added advantage of a greater range as the buttons are smaller so you can fit more of them in.