Accordions with bass sordina

[Morne]

Are, or were, there any popular non-Russian accordions with a bass sordina, or some similar mechanism for softening the bass side?

I know some bayans have this and even some garmons do too:


In that video it makes a big difference to the strength of that garmons bass. I suppose this takes the place of not having much in the way of bass registers and if you had a way of selecting fewer reeds, you could probably save some air too.

 

[debra]

The Pigini Sirius Bayan has the same type of bass sordina that Russian bayans (Jupiter, Akko) have.

 

[nagant27]

I have seen a pretty large piece of leather that was fashioned over the entire bass reed blocks to mute them It was done nicely and was effective. I actually sold the accordion last year, but might have a picture. I will look for it to better explain it.

 

[nagant27]

here, like this:

 

[donn]

This is probably a foolish question, but ... am I looking at a membrane between the reed blocks and the interior of the bellows, there?

 

[Morne]

nagant27, that's an interesting semi-permanent solution. Did you find that there were no suitable, lighter bass registrations on it? Or did you specifically want to mute all possible registrations?

 

[nagant27]

In general this just muted the bass slightly. I did not place this and actually took it on and off from time to time. Of course you had to pull the pins to get to it, so not something you could change while playing The bass was pretty strong on this accordion, so this was a good idea I think, and it was done well. It allowed you to still have all the basses, but just not quite so penetrating. It was an excelsior accordiana 320. In the picture you are looking down at the bass side of the accordion, inside the bellows. The bass reeds blocks (5 reed) are all covered by the leather. I sold it I think about a year ago.

 

[Geronimo]

In general this just muted the bass slightly. I did not place this and actually took it on and off from time to time. Of course you had to pull the pins to get to it, so not something you could change while playing The bass was pretty strong on this accordion, so this was a good idea I think, and it was done well. It allowed you to still have all the basses, but just not quite so penetrating. It was an excelsior accordiana 320. In the picture you are looking down at the bass side of the accordion, inside the bellows. The bass reeds blocks (5 reed) are all covered by the leather. I sold it I think about a year ago.

I was thinking at first about some complaints we had have here about accordions with the bass reeds influencing the treble sound, sometimes addressed by an aluminum plate shielding part of the bass reeds. That could be similarly inspired.

However, looking at models for sale on Youtube, I got two plausible alternate explanations. The first was a bellows-internal flutter mechanism causing a sound similar to a bellows shake. The leather could conceivably be shielding the bass reeds from the flutter, either to steady their sound or their amplitude (to avoid having them hit reed chamber or instrument walls).

The next instrument sported bellows-internal microphones. This leather construct would go towards lowering the amplitude of bass reed sound on the microphones as well as evening out the response for different bellows openings and different reeds sounding.

If you had bellows-internal microphones or your grille at least has closed-up holes where the jacks/pots might have been, that would be a good explanation for something that has more effect inside than outside of the accordion. Or they dimensioned that accordion model with acoustics prepared for this kind of leather shield in case a customer wanted mics, and then they did not want a different balance on the mic-less models.

So I got my theories prepared for any eventuality and can ask without fear whether you remember mics or mic remains on that accordion.

 

[nagant27]

OK. No mics currently present, but definitely was microphoned at some time or another. I remember mic remains on this accordion for sure. The control knobs were still present on the grill, just didn't connect to anything.

 

[george garside]

have never heard of a sodina and am unclear as to what it does. Does it separate the bass reeds from the treble reeds so the bass sound and the treble sound does not get mixed up in the bellows - but if so how does the air go back and forth through the bass reeds or is there provison for sufficient leakage through the device. Alternatively is it simply a sort of baffle to reduce the amount of air going through the bass reeds relative to the amount going through the treble reeds I,e to change the balance of bass/treble volume.

If its to change the bass treble volume why not simply have a sort of flap valve across the bass endwhere the bass end joins the bellows together with an external leaver to open and close it or adjust to intermediate positions. ????

george

 

[debra]

have never heard of a sodina and am unclear as to what it does. ...

Generally a sordina is any form of damper. The one we have seen here (with the leather over the bass blocks) is unusual.
Often the sordina takes on the form of a grill or curtain that can be open and closed and that sits just under the regular grill or bass end-plate. Examples of accordions with a treble grill style sordina are the Hohner Atlantic IV (not the IV N) and the Hohner Gola, and bayans (whether Russian or an Italian copy) have it on the bass side. By (partly) closing off the way the sound exits the instrument the volume is reduced, and more so for the higher than the lower frequencies.
A different type of treble sordina are the accordions with the saxophone valves. A few brands tried this for a while. It looks a bit odd but it is an effective sordina.
There have been a few (mostly experimental) accordions with a mechanism inside to restrict the airflow from the bellows to the reeds on either the treble or the bass side, but that idea has been abandoned.

 

[george garside]

thanks Paul for the explanation. I would have thought restricting airflow to the reeds would work better than just muffling the sound would work better, it could possibly be the answer to overloud bass on some of the small 2 row diatonics where muffling the output doesn't do the trick. Might give it a try by simply wedging a piece of wood to partially block the bass end from the bellows as that would be easily reversible.

Some diatonic players seem to like overloud bass (all 8 of them !) but I prefer a fairly quiet rumble in the background which helps to minimise the inevitable occasional miss match between bass and treble

george

 

[Geronimo]

thanks Paul for the explanation. I would have thought restricting airflow to the reeds would work better than just muffling the sound would work better, it could possibly be the answer to overloud bass on some of the small 2 row diatonics where muffling the output doesnt do the trick.

Why use large reeds in the first place if you then restrict the air flow? Expressiveness, responsiveness, pitch stability, bass articulation technique will suffer. Just use smaller reeds to start with then.

The point of a sordino is not to reduce loudness overall but reduce higher overtone content. Done on the bass, it might leave more breathing room for the treble.