Hohner Conterto 3 bass registers

[Shalomjj]

Hi! I am so excited to have purchased a very nice Hohner Conterto 3 from Germany. It is a beautiful instrument.
I am new to the bass registers. Can someone tell me the differences between the two? It seems one is softer the other louder and also seems they affect how loud the right hand sounds as one seems to push more air.
Thanks ?

 

[Glug]

Hiya,
The Concerto 3 bass side has 4 sets of reeds: bass, tenor, alto, and soprano.

One of the bass switches is 'master' and all the reeds play.
The other plays fewer reeds, it could well be 'soft bass' which is bass+tenor+alto

This page shows the common reed combinations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradella_bass_system#Register_switches

 

[Scuromondo]

It would be good if the 2nd switch was Soft Bass. Most accordions I’ve seen with only two bass switches support only the Tenor switch (along with Master). In my opinion, Soft Bass is much more useful than Tenor.

 

[Glug]

Yep, totally agree.

My Hohner Lucia has 3 bass registers: tenor, master, soft bass.
I leave it on soft bass all the time.

 

[Shalomjj]

I think mine has the soft bass as it is quieter and seems to breath air quicker than the master which makes the playing soft. Tenor would be a balance between the two?

 

[Glug]

On the Concerto
Master = bass + tenor + alto + soprano
Tenor = tenor + alto + soprano
Soft Bass = bass + tenor + alto

So Master (4 reeds) is loudest and uses the most air, Soft Bass and Tenor (3 reeds) are quiter and use less air.
Tenor sounds higher pitched then Master (it's missing bass)
Soft Bass sounds lower pitched than Master (it's missing soprano)

The only way to be certain what it does is to take the bass reed blocks out and observe what the register sliders do when you press the register switches. You should probably just use whichever register you like the most that's a lot easier.

 

[olivigus]

Ah ha. This discussion was very useful for me. My "new" (old) Hohner Verdi IIN is the first accordion I've had with more than just the two register switches. I'm thinking now that it must be the same as the Lucia, with the tenor - master- soft bass. I don't care for the tenor register at all--it seems to compete with rather than support the right hand treble. Now I know why. Both of the others sound good to me, but now I have a bit more understanding when choosing them. Thanks @Glug ! And @Shalomjj congrats on your new Hohner! Hope you have many happy hours playing it.

 

[Glug]

Yep, 'Soft Bass' is also known as 'Bass Piano', it does a good job of complimenting the treble without drowning it out.

If you really want to check what the bass register switches do you probably need to take the bellows pins out to get access to the bass reed blocks.
Some accordions actually have the bass register switches marked, but none of mine do.

On the bass you can tell which reed bank is which from the length of the reeds (2 banks per reed block).
Remove the reed blocks (label them first) then move the register switches.
That makes a metal slider (2 under each reed block) move to block or open the air holes, you can see them moving.
Try each bass register switch and see which reed banks are active (hole open).

If you've got 5 bass reed banks though the 5th (Soprano) is often waxed to the bulkhead so you can't see the slider directly.

Warning: there's an alternative mechanism where the slider is actually built into the reed block, but I don't think Hohner uses that mechanism.