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Bassoon in Cavagnolo

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Nov 27, 2021
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Poland
Hello Everyone
I have a question: does anyone know what the cassotto in Cavagnolo Vedette 10 is made of? The bassoon is incredibly nice there, it's so warm. I also noticed one more thing, namely, of course, the Cavagnolo bassoon is rather inimitable and only this company can produce such a sound, but there are companies of other brands whose bassoon is similar, for example Piermaria, Gadji, Mengascini, Beltrami, Copperfisa, etc. I wonder what in the construction of the accordion it is important to obtain such a warm timbre of the bassoon. Many accordionists explain that the size of the body is important, but for example there are accordions for classical music that have a large body and the sound is different, as if "nasal", even though the accordion has very good voices. I noticed that when making accordions, Italian companies usually make cassottos from metal and I think this is one of the main reasons for this muffled, dull sound. for example, Weltmeister Cantora has a wooden cassotto and I think the soundboard is also made of wood, which is why it has a warmer sound. in turn, looking at the website mon-acccordeon.com, Georges Pellagrini installs a metal or wooden sheet on the back of the cassotto to "warm up" the sound of the cassotto. by the way, I installed a sheet of metal with glued felt in the same way in my Bugari C4 and it actually changed the color, but it's not what I want yet. I'm still thinking about unscrewing the cassotto and lining it with felt from the inside, but thinly enough so that it doesn't interfere with the operation of the key. Coming back to the question and my observations, it would seem that the wooden cassotto is better because the sound is warmer, but again, referring to the mon-accordeon website, it seems to me that the photos of the cassotto vedette 10 are made of metal and I don't understand what this phenomenon of this color is. I hope that I wrote about my problem clearly enough and my English is sufficient to understand me. I apologize for any language mistakes. :)
 
Hi, I'm not sure if the difference may be that accordions made for the french market, Piermaria, Cavaganolo, mengascini etc have reds nailed to leather rather than waxed to wood...
Just idea
 
Does it only have the bassoon in cassotto (so only the L reeds, no M reeds)?
That would explain the nice mellow sound. WIth a "single" cassotto the one reed block in the cassotto sits deeper inside than one of the reed blocks of a double cassotto.
 
Hi, I'm not sure if the difference may be that accordions made for the french market, Piermaria, Cavaganolo, mengascini etc have reds nailed to leather rather than waxed to wood...
Just idea
I also think that this may affect the sound, because wax muffles the sound and nailed reeds have a more transparent and clear sound, but this is probably one factor and not the main cause. but this is also my guess and not complete certainty.
 
Does it only have the bassoon in cassotto (so only the L reeds, no M reeds)?
That would explain the nice mellow sound. WIth a "single" cassotto the one reed block in the cassotto sits deeper inside than one of the reed blocks of a double cassotto.
Vedette 10 has a double cassotto (L and H) and the sound is beautiful Compact Plus has L and M in Cassotto and the L is also amazing
 
Hi, I'm not sure if the difference may be that accordions made for the french market, Piermaria, Cavaganolo, mengascini etc have reds nailed to leather rather than waxed to wood...
Just idea
That makes the sound more brilliant since the reed plate then has only the nails as well-defined contact points with the reed block. That doesn't transmit significant amounts of vibration to the reed block and keeps higher overtones. Reed quality differences may also help. In general, for a cassotto to make a good impact on the frequency response, you want rich overtones that the cassotto then "carves" its soundshape into. Without a rich spectrum, the effect of the cassotto becomes less defined and duller.
 
Vedette 10 has a double cassotto (L and H) and the sound is beautiful Compact Plus has L and M in Cassotto and the L is also amazing
L is always the deepest inside the cassotto. M has one row of reeds rather close to the "exit" of the cassotto and isn't as mellow then.
On a piano accordion that is the black keys (plus sometimes one or two white keys), and on a button accordion it is the third row of buttons, and if there are just two reed blocks in the cassotto then also half of the notes on the second row.
 
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