Anchors and Screw and Piccolo reeds

[Elizabeth]

Awhile ago I was complaining about my upcoming hand surgery. They put in anchors and a screw I have to wear this splint for another 6-7 weeks, but i am able to plunk out some notes on the keyboard with fingers, not thumb yet,andi am able to enjoy some melodies!
So back to my search for a new accordion., as I have a little bit of hope that I will be able to play with some modification. I was planning on trading in my 120 bass for a 96 bass. I am still pondering over the merits of getting one with a piccolo reed. I know a piccolo reed can add color, and can help boost the sound of an accordion over other instruments. I am wondering how useful, and important the piccolo read has been to anybody who cares to comment. I am mainly interested in whittling down the size and weight of my main accordion. I already have a lovely mussette tuned 72 base.thank you!

 

[jozz]

I guess classical pieces benefit from the high reed, and the typical 'organ' registration (L-H). I would love a H reed in a really small box, to cut through everything else.

Here is a nice audio sample comparison to help you decide:

Accordion Registrations - New Music USA

Pulling out all the stops in this accordion primer, complete with audio samples and notation hints.

nmbx.newmusicusa.org

 

[debra]

As the accordion world is moving away from very wet tremolo tuning (popular 50 years ago) to very modest tremolo, or even dry tuning, the benefits of 3 M reeds are fading away. So nowadays if you can have only 4 voices (because of size and weight) LMMH is becoming more common and also more useful than LMMM (unless you are in Ireland, Scotland or Amsterdam). But... choosing an accordion is far from trivial because the (volume) balance between the voices can be very different. Sometimes I want a piccolo but it should not be very strong compared to the M reed, so it adds a bit of sharpness but does not overpower the M reed. In that case I take out my Hohner Morino (Artiste X S) which has a fairly weak piccolo. Likewise when I want to use LH with a modest H in there. But sometimes I want a sharper MH sound and take out either a Bugari or my Russian bayan. On the Bugari the piccolo is sharper and on the bayan it is louder but more mellow (if you can ever call a piccolo register mellow). On high notes however the bayan is very loud and sharp, despite it having smaller piccolo reeds than Italian piccolo reeds...
If you want lots of choices in sound we start talking about a 96 bass LMMH with cassotto and while you are reducing size you will likely not end up with a very light accordion.

 

[Scuromondo]

In the US, the trend seems to me to be in the opposite direction. Here, accordions with piccolo reeds used to be ubiquitous and it was very uncommon to see the LMMM configuration. Even in 3-reed configurations, LMH was much more common than LMM. It seems only in recent decades that LMMM, and wetter tuning, has become more popular.

 

[Glug]

Yep, I've noticed LMH accordions on Ebay seem to be mostly from the US, I've never understood that.

If you want accordion you have to have a non-dry MM available in my world

 

[Elizabeth]

I guess classical pieces benefit from the high reed, and the typical 'organ' registration (L-H). I would love a H reed in a really small box, to cut through everything else.

Here is a nice audio sample comparison to help you decide:

Accordion Registrations - New Music USA

Pulling out all the stops in this accordion primer, complete with audio samples and notation hints.

nmbx.newmusicusa.org

Thank you so much jozz!
I look forward to reading this and listening to the samples!
The author of this, henry doktorski, came to alaska about 17 years ago, and introduced us to the accordion at the fairbanks summer arts festival.

 

[Elizabeth]

As the accordion world is moving away from very wet tremolo tuning (popular 50 years ago) to very modest tremolo, or even dry tuning, the benefits of 3 M reeds are fading away. So nowadays if you can have only 4 voices (because of size and weight) LMMH is becoming more common and also more useful than LMMM (unless you are in Ireland, Scotland or Amsterdam). But... choosing an accordion is far from trivial because the (volume) balance between the voices can be very different. Sometimes I want a piccolo but it should not be very strong compared to the M reed, so it adds a bit of sharpness but does not overpower the M reed. In that case I take out my Hohner Morino (Artiste X S) which has a fairly weak piccolo. Likewise when I want to use LH with a modest H in there. But sometimes I want a sharper MH sound and take out either a Bugari or my Russian bayan. On the Bugari the piccolo is sharper and on the bayan it is louder but more mellow (if you can ever call a piccolo register mellow). On high notes however the bayan is very loud and sharp, despite it having smaller piccolo reeds than Italian piccolo reeds...
If you want lots of choices in sound we start talking about a 96 bass LMMH with cassotto and while you are reducing size you will likely not end up with a very light accordion.

Thank you so much, paul.
Its always so interesting to read what you have to say!