"Gabbanelli Tuning" Musette

[Sebastian Bravo]

Hi to everyone!
Today, a guy asked me if i can make his Hohner Student VM to sound as a Gabbanelli
I told him "maybe", and explained him the difference between dry/wet sound.

The question is, does anyone knows how wet is a Gabbanelli? These accordions are not that popular in Chile.

I supose it's something between (440-445) or (440-446) at A4.

 

[debra]

The short answer is that you cannot make any accordion sound exactly like some other accordion. But you can tune them the same. What you do is measure the tuning on the original (so you need to see that and be able to measure it) and then replicate that on the other. You measure the M reeds and make a note of how many cents they deviate from each other. Do that with the central A (and a few surrounding notes to average what you find). Then you need to do that an octave lower, an octave higher, and yet another octave higher because the tremolo in cents goes down as the frequency goes up, yet the tremolo in Hz goes up as the frequency goes up. Creating a tremolo that sounds nice in the low and high notes is actually best done by ear, but to replicate the Gabbanelli tuning exactly it should be done through measuring. I always do it mostly by ear. My AKKO (bayan) was ordered with tremolo from the factory and it sounded awful so I did a complete retuning of the tremolo to get it to sound the way I want. It is not rocket science. It is tuning to what you like. (The trouble with customers is that they may not like exactly what you like, but so far they have been happy with how I tune their instruments after they tell me how they want the central A to sound.)

 

[colinm]

Paul
If there are no other problems and it is just a matter of retuning to restore an existing tremolo, would you unwax the reedplates or tune without taking plates off the block ?
Cm


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[debra]

Paul
If there are no other problems and it is just a matter of retuning to restore an existing tremolo, would you unwax the reedplates or tune without taking plates off the block ?
Cm

Taking a reed plate off (and then rewaxing it) is only done as a last resort, if everything else fails. Tuning of an accordion is always done with the reed plates in pace (on the block).
Note that when you take a reed plate off and put it back with new wax the tuning may go slightly off as the wax settles over the first few weeks. When a reed plate is rewaxed with new wax it is recommended to postpone tuning for 3 weeks. But obviously many customers cannot wait that long ...

 

[Sebastian Bravo]

The short answer is that you cannot make any accordion sound exactly like some other accordion. But you can tune them the same. What you do is measure the tuning on the original

I know!
My problem is, i cant measure the original Gabbanelli tuning because these ones arent popular accordions in my country. I was asking if someone knows how high is the tremolo in a Gabbanelli instrument. I also tried searching on youtube but they all play these accordions super fast, i cant measure by ear each notes tremolo.

Does anyone owns a Gabbanelli in this forum?

 

[dunlustin]

With nothing much to do for 20mins, I thought I’d see what I could find.
Here: https://www.reyesforo.com/post/dry-tuned-gabbanelli-7391386
I found:
“Can I dry tune my standard gabbanelli ….it sounds great but was looking to get that dry tuned sound from it”

Also:
“Your typical … Gabby… will be tuned about 15 cents wet from the factory ,but a vintage Italian piano accordion will be tuned 0-7 cents wet (this would be a very dry tuning). (extract)
The above was from Kimric who posts here too – he is a solid source.
Maybe there is more to be found on the ‘reyes’ forum.
Hope it helps.
Richard

 

[donn]

It wouldnt be surprising to me if Gabbanelli may use different tunings, depending on the type of accordion and maybe other factors.  If your customer were here in the western US, Id expect he might have something like this in mind -
Acordeon Gabbanelli 2011

But they make all kinds of stuff, like for example this chromatic:
Wood Gabbanelli Chromatic 5 Row C System LMMH

To me, the 3 row diatonics dont even all sound the same.  So, my guess is, there is no way to identify the tuning, without more guidance from the owner.  Maybe he could try to round up 3 videos of accordions - Gabbanelli or not - that exemplify the tuning he wants.  (Not just one!)  And then see if someone who really knows this stuff can say roughly what sort of tuning that is.  That sure wouldnt be me, though, and I have no idea whether we have anyone in our midst whod be ready to try that.