Octave tuning

[Bill N]

I have just got my hands on a 20 button Castiglione (German made) concertina in D/A. I was pleasantly suprized by the build quality (much better than a Scholer that I owned once) and the casework, bellows and action are in very good condition. The steel accordion reeds however are corroded and horribly out of tune. ( If the tuning wasn't written on the box you'd be hard pressed to figure it out).

 

I bought this for an experiment in Newfoundland tunes which are typically played on a one row 4 stop accordion in D, or an AD melodion-various reed configurations.

 

i have rigged up a tuning bellows, and am prepared to have a go with a brass brush and files to see if I can make it playable. No high hopes, but worst case it will be an interesting learning experience.

 

Any advice on the following would be appreciated:

 

• What is the best way to remove corrosion? (it's black, and kind of granular-it seems to sit on the surface, and doesn't appear to have pitted the reeds very much)
• What sort of relative spread on the 2 reeds in each pair would create a dry-tuned accordionish sound? Should one be tuned spot on, or should the 2 straddle the note?

Thanks!

[Larry Stout]

 

I bought this for an experiment in Newfoundland tunes which are typically played on a one row 4 stop accordion in D, or an AD melodion-various reed configurations.

 

 

 

I can't help with your instrument repair question, but I'm interested in your musical project. (I just bought an A/D melodeon to augment my free reed collection though EC remains my primary instrument.) Do you have a good source you can point to for the Newfoundland tunes?

 

I did a quick search on "Cleaning reeds" and got 50 threads in response. I remember some of those threads looking promising.

[Bill N]

I can't help with your instrument repair question, but I'm interested in your musical project. (I just bought an A/D melodeon to augment my free reed collection though EC remains my primary instrument.) Do you have a good source you can point to for the Newfoundland tunes?

 

 

 

Here are 2 really good sources. For lots of good tunes, "Inshore Fiddling" (which comes with CD) and "Easiest Dance Tunes from Newfoundland & Labrador" (with dots & accordion tab) by Christina Smith (a great NFLD fiddler) are available at http://www.batteryra...To%20Order.html

 

Daniel Payne (an amazing multi-instumentalist) has a couple of excellent DVDs http://danielpayne.squarespace.com/ on playing the button accordion.

 

I have a 2nd home in Harbour Grace, and will be heading there in a week. There are lots of good sessions on the go there!

 

Bill

[Leo]

I can't help with your instrument repair question, but I'm interested in your musical project. (I just bought an A/D melodeon to augment my free reed collection though EC remains my primary instrument.) Do you have a good source you can point to for the Newfoundland tunes?

 

 

 

Here are 2 really good sources. For lots of good tunes, "Inshore Fiddling" (which comes with CD) and "Easiest Dance Tunes from Newfoundland & Labrador" (with dots & accordion tab) by Christina Smith (a great NFLD fiddler) are available at http://www.batteryra...To%20Order.html

 

Daniel Payne (an amazing multi-instumentalist) has a couple of excellent DVDs http://danielpayne.squarespace.com/ on playing the button accordion.

 

I have a 2nd home in Harbour Grace, and will be heading there in a week. There are lots of good sessions on the go there!

 

Bill

These are two sites I use.

http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/

http://nfldsongs.tripod.com/

 

Thanks

Leo

[jrintaha]

 

• What is the best way to remove corrosion? (it's black, and kind of granular-it seems to sit on the surface, and doesn't appear to have pitted the reeds very much)
• What sort of relative spread on the 2 reeds in each pair would create a dry-tuned accordionish sound? Should one be tuned spot on, or should the 2 straddle the note?

Thanks!

 

For rust: I've used a small homemade brass brush (replaced the bristles of a small paint brush with brass wire from a big brass brush, then glued the whole thing back together with epoxy) and high-precision diamond files with good results.

 

As for tuning: because accordions generally have several register switches, and usually just two sets of "regular octave" (8') reeds, the first set has to be tuned spot-on - because it will generally be used on its own or with the bassoon or piccolo reed set - and the second set is tuned slightly sharp. "Musette" accordions usually have the 3rd reed set tuned slightly less flat than the 2nd set is sharp. For a dry tone, you might want to try something like 5 cents sharp, maybe even less. I like to first tune the first set of reeds spot-on, then tune the 2nd reed set mostly by ear (playing both sets of reeds at once and listening to "beatings"). Usually you'll want to have a larger difference (measured in cents) in pitch for the lower notes than the high ones to achieve a progressively increasing "beating rate" across the tonal range of the instrument.

 

http://talkingreeds.com/ goes into much more detail than I should in a forum post. Don't believe what they say about taking "stretching" into account though! An accordion is not a string instrument, and does not suffer from any noticeable inharmonicity like a piano or a guitar does.

 

Cheers,

Jori

[michael sam wild]

Some people advoacate a fibre glass pencil for cleaning circuit boards etc. From Maplins in UK. Best to sue a mask. I scrape off rough stuff with a razor blade first or a scalpel

[Bill N]

Thanks all for advice so far. i've had some success cleaning rust with a brass wire wheel on my Dremel tool. The corrosion seems not to have pitted the surface too much, and after rust removal and setting the reed tips the few reed blocks I've worked on are more recognizable as the notes that they should theoretically be. (Haven't attempted any tuning yet.)

 

Now a possible "German Anomally" arises. If it was following the Wheatstone convention, the lowest pull note on the inside (A row) left hand would be a "B", but the apparent note doesn't seem close. However, my C/G Henry Harley (a cosmetically "Anglicized" c. 1870 German concertina - see previous threads) has a "D" rather than the Wheatstone "A' in that position, which would transpose to an "E" for a D/A box. I recall that my G/D Scholer of blessed memory also had a non-Wheatstone note at that position. "E" seems closer to the current note.

 

I intend to play this box mostly in the home keys, in an accordion style. Any thoughts on the relative merits of the German vs. Wheatstone layout? (Michael, I know you started out on cheap German concertinas)