Dry Tuning versus Wet, Can it be changed?

[Ben-jammin]

Ok. So you are saying that it is not supposed to disable the sound, but rather tone it down, where it is not as loud?

For a straight acoustic accordion that would make the most sense. Some acoustic/electronic accordions have register switches to shut off the acoustic sound, but I don’t think I ever saw one on a straight acoustic.

 

[JerryPH]

I think that from what others have told me, that going from dry to wet is always doable, but that going from wet to dry can often shave off so much material from the reed that they can easily become damaged or weakened in critical areas. Of course this is all done with file and shaving the reed tongues and hence why the challenge.

 

[olivigus]

@ben, are you sure you can't keep them both? Personally, I would try find something else to sell if I needed to. How else is your accordion collection going to grow? Seriously though, I think it's fun to have the option of different sounds for different styles of music, and I think it's possible to love more than one accordion. You didn't say if you enjoyed playing one instrument more than the other. My original accordion is a Marotta Concerto of a very similar vintage, and, although dry tuned and only LM, it just plays so smoothly and nicely that I still turn to it often, particularly for lessons and when I'm learning songs--even those I'll probably want to eventually play on another accordion with a wetter sound.

Just looked at the picture that shows the register switches--are you sure the Concerto is completely dry tuned? I can't imagine why there would be a musette option with two M reed banks that didn't have at least a little difference between them. Perhaps it just sounds dry compared to the other?

 

[ben]

@ben, are you sure you can't keep them both? Personally, I would try find something else to sell if I needed to. How else is your accordion collection going to grow? Seriously though, I think it's fun to have the option of different sounds for different styles of music, and I think it's possible to love more than one accordion. You didn't say if you enjoyed playing one instrument more than the other. My original accordion is a Marotta Concerto of a very similar vintage, and, although dry tuned and only LM, it just plays so smoothly and nicely that I still turn to it often, particularly for lessons and when I'm learning songs--even those I'll probably want to eventually play on another accordion with a wetter sound.

Just looked at the picture that shows the register switches--are you sure the Concerto is completely dry tuned? I can't imagine why there would be a musette option with two M reed banks that didn't have at least a little difference between them. Perhaps it just sounds dry compared to the other?

@olivigus thanks for that input. The truth of the matter is that I have fallen in love with that concerto, even though it has a more dry sound, it is a really mellow and pretty sound, and to be honest when I play my farfisa after playing the concerto, it almost sounds harsh.. It is pretty too though, and maybe I should do what you say, and keep both, but then I would have THREE.

I think you are right in your suspicion that it is not completely dry. On the mussette switch, it has a very slight tremolo sound, though I could definitely handle more. Also, I had taken it apart on the treble side after I posted the question about the mute switch, and found that it has a wooden shield in place, with many slots in it, and a thin membrane that slides to open or close those slots, to correspond with the mute on and mute off button, though I will say that I can not hear a bit of a difference whether I have it on or off.

My bigger issue right now with that concerto is some raspy base reeds, as you can see in this thread. I am desperately hoping that I can get that taken care of, or I will have to part with an accordion that I am growing quite attached to aside from that issue.