Re: CBA Tunning question??Please help, please...


"AccordionTom" <thmcg2003@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1179592779.268119.253440@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On May 19, 3:42 am, GINO <hardcorechicano2...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

(...snip, snip...)

Ive been a member of the Reyes forum for almost a year already an I
have visited the Gabbenelli shop in Houston, most people on the Reyes
Forum say that the Gabbys are not made the way they used to be so I
think I may just have to stick to the mussete tunning.
1 question?? how many different mussetes are there? Is French Mussete
an the same as just Mussete???

Sorry to have caused confusion, Gino. There is no such thing as "just
musette"...let me try to sort this out.

As far as the statement that "the Gabbys are not made the way they
used to be"...this could be said of many brands of accordions today,
including the Hohners, the Excelsiors, and many others. As the costs
of manufacturing have gone up, many of the makers of accordions have
lowered the quality of their product, to keep the costs in line.

But, that's not the issue we were discussing. You have a Chromatic
Button Accordion (CBA), and you would like it to sound like a Diatonic
Button Accordion (DBA), specifically the one in the video that you
referenced. We talked about Musette tuning, and then I muddied the
water by telling you that, even if you had the same exact Musette
tuning, the DBA might be tuned to "Just Intonation," which you would
not be able to duplicate on your CBA. In other words, your CBA might
not sound *exactly* the same as that Gabbanelli, even if you were to
have it re-tuned. Let's just set the term "Just Intonation" aside for
now. I don't think you need to worry about that level of detail.

If we talk about "musette tuning," what exactly does this mean? Your
accordion has to have two, or three, sets of Clarinet reeds. These
are often called "Middle Reeds" or M Reeds, for short. One set is
tuned exactly on-pitch. Then, the second set is tuned a little bit
sharp (actually "out of tune"). When you play a note, the two reeds
sound together, but since they are out of tune with each other (by
only just a little bit), you will hear a "beating" sound. This is
what is called "Musette" tuning.

The different "musettes" you hear about are created by varying just
how sharp the sharp reed is tuned, measured in "cents" deviation from
the original (on-pitch) reed. Traditionally, the different musette
sounds coming from different accordions have been given various names,
such as French Musette, or Italian Musette. However, these names have
limited usefulness, because they are not rigidly defined. This has
caused a lot of confusion in the accordion world!

Here's a good article that will help you to understand some of this:
http://www.accordionpage.com/wetdry.html

Gino, my recommendation to you would be to learn to play your Hohner
and make the best music out of it that you can. It may not sound
exactly like the Gabbanelli that you heard, but you will find that
most accordions sound a little different from each other anyway. If
you really want to play like that guy in the video, you might want to
think about getting yourself a 3-row DBA, since I believe that's the
type of accordion that is mostly used in the Tex-Mex style of
playing. Or, as I said above, simply learn to play your CBA the best
you can and enjoy the music you make.

As to the idea of having your box re-tuned, be cautious about that.
It can be pretty expensive, and there are really very few people who
know how to do it.

Tom.

Also, the the DB accordion will not ever sound the same as the CB accordion,
no matter what tremolon it has, because the technique of playing it is
different. It could be tuned the same way as far as musette. In tex-mex this
would be about 20 cents at A 440 but the cents will vary up and down the
scale because the tremolo speed will increase up the scale and decrease down
the scale, and the beat speed of the tremolo vs. the cents is not a linear
realtionship up and down the scale. At A 440 20 cents is about 4 hz but at A
1760 it would be about 20 hz (approximately). That would sound way out-of
tune, so the cents would decrease while the hz tremolo gradually increases
up the scale ( all this explanation is very approximate). I think Gino wnats
his accordion to have a faster tremolo. This could be changed by the Hohner
service dept., or any good tuner, of which there are very few. He should
look for someone who is very experienced, and in Europe, specifically
Germany or maybe elsewhere, there is certification for accordion
technicians. There was a small-claims case I heard about where a player took
his accordion to have straps put on it, and the accordion person said, for
$100 I will put a musette sound on your accordion. then the customer got his
accordion back and it sounded terrible to him and he sued. I wrote a letter
to the Court, as did the Darrows in NJ and eventually the accordion dealer
settled by taking the accordion in exchange for a Sonola, presumably one
that the dealer had never tuned.


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