Innovations in manufacture of accoustic Piano and CBA

[Johnathan]

As I swapped between my Roland FR1X and my aged Zerosette Bayan the other day a thought struck me. Much development seems to have taken place in recent years regarding the use of electronics in accordions. The Roland range perhaps haven taken this farther than anyone else. But what developments have taken place in the manufacture of accoustic accordions Piano or Chromatic Button, that would mark out a 21st century instrument as being different, hopefully improved, from those of an age of my venerable Zerosette (probably about 25 years old).

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Beltuna had a number of patents. Certainly my Beltuna Euro IV appears to benefit from a more rounded profile to the bass side, in the area which your left wrist comes into contact with. They also have "Amplisound" in some of their models though I have no experience of the difference this makes, not having ever played a model that features it. Nor am I familiar with how this would be different from an instrument with Cassotto or Sordina. I think Beltuna also have been working on using other materials than celleloid to cover their accordions.

Does anyone else know of any examples of innovation in accoustic accordion manufacture that would lead to modern models being an improvement over their older siblings?

 

[debra]

I have tried the Beltuna with amplisound. Very interesting difference in sound by opening or closing an extra internal tone chamber (see http://www.bradfordaccordionband.org.uk/cassotto-revealed/ ). This additional tone chamber makes the sound warmer than the normal tone chamber (which is fixed and thus always in action on the Beltuna Leader V I tried.
I have a Pigini basson C40 which is relatively recent model. Its a basson accordion with 3 reeds and with registers. A basson with registers is a recent innovation.
Also, Older basson accordions had regular reed blocks whereas newer ones (but now were talking about more than 20 years already) have a construction where the 16 reeds have their sound diverted through an additional chamber. Older accordions already had this for the basson reeds: some Hohner Morino N series accordions for instance had the reed block for the lowest reeds extended and L-shaped so the sound for each note travels through a longer pipe, giving a warmer sound, like cassotto. The innovation in the basson accordions was to make the channel not L-shaped but U-shaped and part of the regular (not elongated) reed block.
Generally however it is true that innovations have been rather limited in acoustic accordions, other than improvements in materials that do allow for lighter yet equally strong instruments. And manufacturers are also trying smaller changes trying to generate more volume.

Below you see the inside of my Pigini basson. The large reed blocks are oversized to have room inside for that per-note tone chamber. You also see that it uses larger reed plates that hold 6 reeds and click in and out for easy access to the reeds for adjusting and tuning.
http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~debra/photos/divers2014/slides/P1250121.jpg>

 

[artelagro]

Attached is a snap of the bass machine of my Rembrandt (Borsini).
Small yellow PVC sleeves are used on the pistons to each note - Why?
There are also six booster springs on each side - In this photo, one of these is shown misplaced which was the main reason it was sold as 'faulty'
I have been used to older more common type accordions and this is the only good quality box that I have seen inside, so if these features are standard on newer or better models then I apologise.
Click on the photo to enlarge.
Garth

 

[landro]

The small yellow sleeves are probably there to reduce the metallic clacking noise. Actually pretty common in higher end models.
The older higher end Pancordion base buttons holes were fabric lined , all 120 of them .

 

[Farmer T]

My older Guerrini camillo maestro 4 reed has a mute switch on and off which really changes the sound by softening the sound. It is a wood cover just inside the grill with many holes in it that close when you hit the mute switch.

 

[JIM D.]

Very many Pro models of accordion's use just these vinyl sleeves to reduce wear and silence the bass machine.

 

[debra]

And sleeves were also used on the keyboard side, for instance in the Hohner Gola and the older Atlantic models.

 

[Johnathan]

Many thanks to all responders, with particular appreciation to those who took their accordions apart to provide photographs.

I am visiting Castelfidardo in May so if I hear of any innovations during my trip I will add to this discussion.

 

[landro]

My older Guerrini camillo maestro 4 reed has a mute switch on and off which really changes the sound by softening the sound. It is a wood cover just inside the grill with many holes in it that close when you hit the mute switch.

I suppose some ARE better than others but I`ve never seen one that made a significant change in sound or volume. That said my hearing isn`t exactly great either.
Even the faux sordina switch on my FRX3 is ineffective (to me).

 

[debra]

Button accordions exist in "flat" and "stepped" versions. The "flat" keyboard (popular mostly in Switzerland but I have one too) makes it just a bit harder to know what row you are playing on, but it makes a "curved" glissando much easier. The "stepped" keyboard is what we see on almost all button accordions. On the bass side with convertor it is very hard to use your thumb on anything but the first row. But there is a stepped version of the bass side as well that allows the same fingering on the bass side as on the keyboard side, there you can use all fingers on all rows.