Noisy bass buttons (mechanics)
CarstenBN
play. It annoys me because the prospect of playing something fast
gracefully basically died as soon as I realized that the button
mechanics will distract anyone listening.
I don't know too much about accordions, and thus ask if accordions
with properly QUIET bass sides exist? Converter models must surely be
quiet enough to play melody lines on the left hand? (My current
accordion is standard bass, but one day I'll move up to a converter.)
If anyone out there is a specialist in messing around with and
repairing the interior of an accordion, is it possible to somehow de-
noisify the left hand if the mechanics are loud?
Thanks in advance.
David Kastrup
> Dude, the buttons on my bass side are clickety-clicking away when I
> play. It annoys me because the prospect of playing something fast
> gracefully basically died as soon as I realized that the button
> mechanics will distract anyone listening.
>
> I don't know too much about accordions, and thus ask if accordions
> with properly QUIET bass sides exist?
Yes. But quite correlated to price...
> Converter models must surely be quiet enough to play melody lines on
> the left hand? (My current accordion is standard bass, but one day
> I'll move up to a converter.)
Depends.
> If anyone out there is a specialist in messing around with and
> repairing the interior of an accordion, is it possible to somehow de-
> noisify the left hand if the mechanics are loud?
Two points are concerned: adjustment and dampening. The mechanics need
to be adjusted such that the bass levers have no slack when unused, and
then it's best if they are stopped on felt rather than metal.
However, you can also reduce noise significantly by your playing
technique. Instead of letting the buttons snap back to home position,
let them push your fingers out, so that the spring energy does not have
to be dissipated somewhere else.
I am somewhat lucky in that my main accordion has quite weak springs: if
I lay the accordion down instead of in playing position, the chord
buttons will not get out entirely when being pushed. By pressing one
after the other repeatedly, more and more will gradually sink in until
they are all down.
That's not normal (though if you press _all_ chord buttons at once, they
_might_ stay down in that position even on more ordinary accordions).
In the case of my accordion, this soft adjustment is more or less
necessary because there is a special octave-coupling mode which more
than triples the operated chord notes and consequently the operated
pallets. In this mode, the buttons have rather strong counteraction
even with the weak springs.
And then noise becomes minimal by letting the springs push the finger
out instead of letting them snap the button in position.
That requires fingerings without jumping/smearing fingers from one
button to the next unless you are playing staccato. But even in
staccato play, making good use of your available fingers is sensible
since it gives you more control over the articulation.
--
David Kastrup
Squeezy99
what you pays for.
david
"CarstenBN" <ma...@carstenbn.eu> wrote in message
news:84bc1d02-b550-4d01...@3g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
marino.michael
> Hohners clack loudly but castagnaris are loveley and quiet. Again you gets
> what you pays for.
>
True you get what you pay for but there are Hohners which do not have
the clacking problems and there more than a few Italian made
Accordions which do have a problem (depends on what level of accordion
you are buying).
To the original poster, David made some good suggestions, in that felt
and better finger control can decrease a lot of clacking you get from
the instrument. This is seen not only in Accordions but also
concertinas. Where you want the spring strength to give better note
control while having to work on achieving the finger control to reduce
the amount of clacking you get (some will show up even on felted
instruments when played with a very fast rate, this can be diminished
by different means but not completely eliminated as far as I know).
Michael
Ike Milligan
"David Kastrup" <d...@gnu.org> wrote in message
news:87fx7dj...@lola.goethe.zz...
Dave, I found that an accordion with weak bass springs might often have the
strip that holds the springs for the chord notes pusshing in the middle away
from where it is anchored, due to the wood letting go and the collective
pressure of the springs. The solution is to get to this strip, usually by
disassembling the bass, and add some screws to help hold it down and
sometimes put some extra glue under it. In the olden days there was not such
a wood strip with a metal strip anchored to it for the springs, but each
spring was screwed down into the wood. The valves did not pivot in a metal
strip, but were each spearately nested to pivot between two pieces of
hardwood, etc. Of course clever inventive types are always trying to improve
accordions, but often causing problems of this nature.
Ike Milligan
"marino.michael" <chiro...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f1ec8c7a-1772-40db...@s31g2000yqs.googlegroups.com...
Michael
(IKE) He needs to get another accordion. Better designed bass machines have
lots of dampers. Trying to modify it in any way would likely run into
adjustment issues, which when solved would take a fair amount of time. If he
wanted to mdify it, however, he should look at a more expensive damped bass
machine and copyu the improvements.
Like there would be a plastic damper on the little projections of the
pistons, and quieter valve pads, which would alter the height adjustment and
clearances if changed.
There would also be damped boosters on the ends of the rotating rods. And
everything would be adjusted with near-zero clearnace.