Weltmeister Rubin 60 at folk club tonight

[Rosie C]

It was our monthly folk club tonight. Usually I sing and play mandocello, while most people sing and play guitar with very few exceptions - there's occasionally an autoharp and bazouki but that's about it.

But tonight there was a lady with what I'm fairly sure was a Weltmeister Rubin 60. She made a lovely mellow, quiet sound - low enough for her to sing over top of without a mic. I was fascinated by this as my Hohners both chuck out a *healthy amount* of volume. I noticed she moved the bellows very little, and frequently, changing direction almost every note.

Having spent the last couple of months with dancers only ever asking if I can play louder, it was quite an experience. I'm assuming her accordion isn't much different to mine, and the difference is in playing technique and skill. Sadly I didn't get a chance to speak to her afterwards. But i was intrigued, and it was my first live accordion performance since I took up the instrument myself. Next time I'll ask beforehand if I can film her performance and share it here.

 

[JerryPH]

Interesting indeed.
Every place has different etiquette, but if you are in public, having aspirations of privacy is a folly... lol I'd have recorded it and then asked if it was an issue sharing it, but I bet the answer would have not been a negative one.

 

[OuijaBoard]

My never-dull menage of housemates includes a Hohner Concerto IIIT purchased new about five minutes before production of Hohner's West German Workhorses moved to China around Y2K, and a Welt Rubin acquired used from Allodi about six years ago.

The Rubin is a 2-voice MM like your Concerto II, or like the MM register on your Concerto III. Possible factors in the comparatively "mellow" voice you perceived in the Rubin:

---In PAs, bigger often have more lung power than smaller. Not 100% across the board, but often. Your Hohners are 34\72 in bigger, heavier chassis than the Rubin, which is 30 skinny treble keys in a chassis the size of a 26-key.

---While today's Weltmeisters have improved to a point of just about equalling the quality of the best Hohner West German Workhorses in playability and sound and are plenty loud enough, somehow I do think Welts of the same size are not quite as robust and gutsy in lung power and timbre as the Hohner WGWs. Could be something reed-related, could also be a difference in mass. Welts are a lighter, "flimsier" build that may contribute to less blitzkrieg in the projection.

The other side of the coin is, those light builds can make for very expressive response especially in a 2-voice. Why? "Responsiveness" is not only about reeds or soundboard or bellows. The chassis or body itself is a factor. So long as the reeds are "good enough," a lighter-built MM can be expressive as hell, like playing a fiddle. How long that flimsier build will hold up, who knows.

---The Rubin player may have had their MM setting custom tuned to be less wet or nearly dry. Welt factory tremolo is even wetter than Hohner. But here is a drier swing- tuned Rubin--compare with demos on the 'tube of the factory tremolo:





---The Rubin player may have been playing the M reed by itself. On your Hohners, the single M voice will also be "mellow" compared to the wet MM tuning.

---Unless the accordion is totally deficient in bellows and valves, or has defective reeds, shades of volume dynamics are one of its main attributes. You too can gain the control to play softly behind a singer or get 'em jumping up and down smashing their wineglasses.

 

[dak]

---In PAs, bigger often have more lung power than smaller.

Pressure in the bellows is pushing force divided by the cross-sectional area of the accordion. So somewhat counterintuitively, smaller accordions make it less effort to really force the reeds. That's one of the reasons you want good reeds for large instruments. Of course. the duration you can play on one breath increases with bellows size.

 

[Rosie C]

My never-dull menage of housemates includes a Hohner Concerto IIIT purchased new about five minutes before production of Hohner's West German Workhorses moved to China around Y2K, and a Welt Rubin acquired used from Allodi about six years ago.

The Rubin is a 2-voice MM like your Concerto II, or like the MM register on your Concerto III. Possible factors in the comparatively "mellow" voice you perceived in the Rubin:

---In PAs, bigger often have more lung power than smaller. Not 100% across the board, but often. Your Hohners are 34\72 in bigger, heavier chassis than the Rubin, which is 30 skinny treble keys in a chassis the size of a 26-key.

---While today's Weltmeisters have improved to a point of just about equalling the quality of the best Hohner West German Workhorses in playability and sound and are plenty loud enough, somehow I do think Welts of the same size are not quite as robust and gutsy in lung power and timbre as the Hohner WGWs. Could be something reed-related, could also be a difference in mass. Welts are a lighter, "flimsier" build that may contribute to less blitzkrieg in the projection.

The other side of the coin is, those light builds can make for very expressive response especially in a 2-voice. Why? "Responsiveness" is not only about reeds or soundboard or bellows. The chassis or body itself is a factor. So long as the reeds are "good enough," a lighter-built MM can be expressive as hell, like playing a fiddle. How long that flimsier build will hold up, who knows.

---The Rubin player may have had their MM setting custom tuned to be less wet or nearly dry. Welt factory tremolo is even wetter than Hohner. But here is a drier swing- tuned Rubin--compare with demos on the 'tube of the factory tremolo:





---The Rubin player may have been playing the M reed by itself. On your Hohners, the single M voice will also be "mellow" compared to the wet MM tuning.

---Unless the accordion is totally deficient in bellows and valves, or has defective reeds, shades of volume dynamics are one of its main attributes. You too can gain the control to play softly behind a singer or get 'em jumping up and down smashing their wineglasses.

Some great points there, thanks! I should have thought about the M vs MM register. My accordion might as well have the MM fixed down with a strip of duct tape as it's always selected. I'd also assumed my Hohner and the Weltmeister were more or less the same size - certainly the little 12-bass I part-ex'd on my IIIN was a lot quieter.

As to robustness of my Hohners... yesterday I was doing some mix and match to see if the generic bag the Concerto IIS came with and the Hohner bag the IIIN came with were interchangeable, and left the IIIN in its bag on the floor of my practice room. I came back into the room wearing just socks and somehow caught my little toe on the bag and it now has a purple line and associated pain like it's fractured. Needless to say, the German accordion didn't have any give in it!

 

[Ventura]

some say once an accordion turns on it's Master
it should be put down

 

[dak]

some say once an accordion turns on it's Master
it should be put down

It depends. On an LMH accordion, Master is certainly a legitimate register choice.

 

[Ffingers]

Excuse a raw beginner jumping in here: I started off with a Paolo Soprani 'Super Organ' of hefty dimensions:




and later found an Hohner of a less formidable mass:





The PS has cassottos galore ( I have yet to source actual technical detail ) and the Hohner none, but the little one has much greater sound projection than the 'beastie', albeit of rather coarser quality.

Each would have a place in the pantheon of musical wants and needs, but I suspect that the 'Norma' would better suit open air performances of the kind that Rosie engages in.

A case of the age-old adage of "Horses for Courses" I guess

 

[Rosie C]

some say once an accordion turns on it's Master
it should be put down

No need for master now I have an amplifier! I'm using the lighter of the two bass registers and MM in the treble side. Switching everything on gives a heavy feel that doesn't really work for dancing. That said, I have plans to try some walking bass lines with the treble in "bassoon" register sometime.

 

[kimric]

The reeds/plates used on the smaller weltmeisters are in fact a bit smaller. This means the sound will be a bit different. I have had them custom made with hand finished versions of these reeds with good effect. They will also custom tune them from the factory.

 

[OuijaBoard]

The reeds/plates used on the smaller weltmeisters are in fact a bit smaller. This means the sound will be a bit different. I have had them custom made with hand finished versions of these reeds with good effect. They will also custom tune them from the factory.

Interesting. I've often thought my Rubin and Juwel sounded kind of like accordion-reeded concertinas. Perhaps that's why. Different from small Italian PAs, but a timbre with its own folky charm.

What about the Kristall 30/60? Would that be more normal size reeds, or also smaller?

 

[kimric]

I think the smaller reeds, I believe the Topaz is the smallest instrument they make that is available with Italian reeds.

 

[OuijaBoard]

I think the smaller reeds, I believe the Topaz is the smallest instrument they make that is available with Italian reeds.

I like that little red "Stylish grille" Perle on your site. But what's the story on this, it says, "Veltmeister"!

 

[Pipemajor]

No need for master now I have an amplifier! I'm using the lighter of the two bass registers and MM in the treble side. Switching everything on gives a heavy feel that doesn't really work for dancing. That said, I have plans to try some walking bass lines with the treble in "bassoon" register sometime.

Hi Rosie,
now you have an amplifier, you may wish to consider a wireless transmitter/receiver instead of using an audio cable.
I have the Getaria as used by Jerry PH and can vouch for them, but the price has gone up recently.
I have just ordered a set of Huiop transmitter/receivers to use with my Blair digital bagpipes from Amazon which are only £16 and have similar specs, to the Getaria.
The beauty of wireless is you are not tied to a cable and of course, being Amazon, if they don't suit, you just send them back.

 

[Rosie C]

Hi Rosie,
now you have an amplifier, you may wish to consider a wireless transmitter/receiver instead of using an audio cable.

I do have a wireless connection now! It's not yet as useful as I'd like - my accordion is wired with a stereo 1/4" jack, with the bass and treble mics coming out separately. But the wireless dongle (Boss WL20L) also uses a stereo jack and assumes what it's plugging into is a mono jack. So at the moment I have a short cable which takes the 'ring' contact at the accordion end to the 'tip' contact at the amp end.

But, I've just ordered a miniature toggle switch and I'm going to re-wire the accordion mics to have a "stereo / mono" switch - mono for when I'm playing through a guitar amp with a jack lead (or wireless dongle), stereo for going into a mixing desk with XLRs.

 

[kimric]

I like that little red "Stylish grille" Perle on your site. But what's the story on this, it says, "Veltmeister"!

I was probably using voice to text, that is how the Germans pronounce it , and I sort of picked it up I guess after spending so much time at the factory.

 

[dak]

I was probably using voice to text, that is how the Germans pronounce it , and I sort of picked it up I guess after spending so much time at the factory.

More like "Veltmicetah".

 

[OuijaBoard]

H

I was probably using voice to text, that is how the Germans pronounce it , and I sort of picked it up I guess after spending so much time at the factory.

Heh, I meant the metal marque lettering on the face itself---it appears to read, "Veltmeister." I thought it might be a waggish one-off.