Poor man's cassotto.....What a friend we have in Gsus

[losthobos]

Tried modding this old two reed box by adding masking tape beneath grill to soften the harsher frequencies and smooth out the rest (as suggested in another thread)...
I like it and may add another layer of tape later....as well as ironing out a couple of flustering valves...
What a friend we have in Jesus

New video by Terry St George

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[John M]

The treble sounds good, but as you filter/soften the harsher frequencies more and more, you may experience a louder (off balance bass) that may need to be softened.

 

[Ventura]

the thought occured to me that could this be one way to tell
the difference between hand whatever/damn good reeds and
all the rest is they don't need no (steenkin') felt strips or masking tape
inside the grill because they sound right just the way they are ?

poking the hornets nest.. i know..

 

[losthobos]

@Ventura ....that's why it's a 'poor mans' cassotto....
Though I did consider trying on a higher spec reed and cassotto chamber box too just to see what it sounded like..

 

[dak]

the thought occured to me that could this be one way to tell
the difference between hand whatever/damn good reeds and
all the rest is they don't need no (steenkin') felt strips or masking tape
inside the grill because they sound right just the way they are ?

poking the hornets nest.. i know..

I think you got this the wrong way round. High quality reeds have very narrow gaps between reed and reed plate (when "hand-made reeds" were still hand-made, they were filed/adjusted until they just stopped buzzing). That gives them light response and good dynamics. It also gives them lots of harsh (if you want to, brilliant) overtones. You can use a cassotto and other constructs to carve a rather individual sound from what is a rather wide frequency spectrum. That kind of common sound envelope helps reeds of different pitches to be formed into a blended sound.

"Lesser" reeds, apart from worse response and dynamics, have less of an overtone spectrum for the accordion maker to work with.

The sought after Gola models in the heydays of Gola himself are fitted with an internal adjustable "jalousie". Which would work like an adjustable "steenkin' felt strip inside the grill." Masking tape tends to, well, "mask" a lack of registers or other means of maintaining balance between left and right side for different accompaniment styles. Several older models (I think both from Scandalli and in Morinos) indeed have a separate control just for disabling the highest reed in the bass for all registers, saving you the masking tape.

I actually often just use a single bass reed and a single chord reed, a registration that is not really typical for "standard" accordion music.

 

[losthobos]

Alan Young RIP taught me how to silence the wheezy high notes on the bass side by threading a piece of paper over and under the reeds ...great tip

 

[debra]

...
The sought after Gola models in the heydays of Gola himself are fitted with an internal adjustable "jalousie". Which would work like an adjustable "steenkin' felt strip inside the grill." Masking tape tends to, well, "mask" a lack of registers or other means of maintaining balance between left and right side for different accompaniment styles. Several older models (I think both from Scandalli and in Morinos) indeed have a separate control just for disabling the highest reed in the bass for all registers, saving you the masking tape.
...

The Crucianelli I have from around 1970 has the highest reed bank (octave) included in all bass registers. I have used masking tape (under the reed block) to block that reed bank permanently. The bass sounds less sharp and high now and for my taste that's a lot better.
For the treble side I still need to find a moment to try the "cardboard box" poor man's cassotto under the grille. Until now I have always used felt to take some sharpness out of a treble side (very much needed on an Atlantic IV N for instance). The felt only dampens but gives no reflection. The solution with masking tape under the grille will offer some reflection. I think the cardboard box construction must offer even more reflection. We'll see (much) later.

By the way, the Morino way of disabling the highest reeds for all registers has the sometimes undesirable side-effect that it also disables the highest octave in the melody bass.

 

[saundersbp]

The deed is done adding 1kg of weight as i ended up doing a double layer of industrial van sound insulation!
Actually the sound quality (of a poisonous reed sounding new instrument) is also massively improved as well and its a pleasure to play now!

 

[JerryPH]

The deed is done adding 1kg of weight as i ended up doing a double layer of industrial van sound insulation!
Actually the sound quality (of a poisonous reed sounding new instrument) is also massively improved as well and its a pleasure to play now!

You should post sound samples of before and after, I'd be interested in hearing the results!

 

[losthobos]

You did the bass end too....where did you get insulation...

 

[debra]

So it looks like two very thorough Sordinos on both sides. Which makes me wonder how powerful the sound is that still comes out. On the bass side obviously sound can still get through the holes the buttons go through, and on the treble side sound can still escape through the holes for the register switches, but both seem rather limited in what they can let through. I expected some holes/openings to be left, but as far as I can see there are none...

 

[saundersbp]

You did the bass end too....where did you get insulation...

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A huge financial investment!

So it looks like two very thorough Sordinos on both sides. Which makes me wonder how powerful the sound is that still comes out.

You can hear the difference here. I switched off the sound equalisation/boost on the phone for a fair comparison and you can hear the insulation cutting down the screeching tone a bit, although i'd like more for travelling!

AFTER

BEFORE

 

[debra]

You can hear the difference here. I switched off the sound equalisation/boost on the phone for a fair comparison and you can hear the insulation cutting down the screeching tone a bit, although i'd like more for travelling!

That;t truly a remarkable difference. From a screeching sound with headache guaranteed to a very nice mellow tone!

 

[Walker]

I don't mind either. The BEFORE sound is clear and quite natural. I imagine it would sound nice in a big hall or other room with a bit of echo.

The AFTER is more muted and it's nice too. It reminds me of the M voice on a Roland digital accordion. Lovely.

 

[JerryPH]

The AFTER is more muted and it's nice too. It reminds me of the M voice on a Roland digital accordion. Lovely.

Yes and we all know how much Saunders loves the V-accordion (haha!)
I was expecting the shift in tone, for sure, but I was (probably incorrectly), expecting a bit more reduction in sound volume. Now, it just might be and thanks to the marvels of auto gain on most lower end cameras and all phones, it may be more quiet, but the gain being raised to where the recording device thinks it should be, matching the first recording.

 

[dak]

Yes and we all know how much Saunders loves the V-accordion (haha!)
I was expecting the shift in tone, for sure, but I was (probably incorrectly), expecting a bit more reduction in sound volume. Now, it just might be and thanks to the marvels of auto gain on most lower end cameras and all phones, it may be more quiet, but the gain being raised to where the recording device thinks it should be, matching the first recording.

I have a camcorder without microphone input socket, one with microphone input socket, and a still camera with microphone input socket. Of the three, only the camcorder with microphone input will let me at the gain. That is particularly annoying with the still camera because it will autogain silence on the input socket into considerable hiss, meaning that the input socket is pretty useless for improving audio quality over the built-in microphones.

 

[saundersbp]

The AFTER is more muted and it's nice too. It reminds me of the M voice on a Roland digital accordion. Lovely.

You are naughty!
I don't think Pigini would appreciate the comparison!

 

[dak]

You are naughty!
I don't think Pigini would appreciate the comparison!

Shrug. As if that would be a relevant comparison. Roland of course samples good instruments. So recording them should sound as good as recording a good acoustic instrument. It's just that live they still sound like a recording of a good acoustic instrument rather than a good acoustic instrument...

 

[JerryPH]

Yes and we all know how much Saunders loves the V-accordion (haha!)
I was expecting the shift in tone, for sure, but I was (probably incorrectly), expecting a bit more reduction in sound volume. Now, it just might be and thanks to the marvels of auto gain on most lower end cameras and all phones, it may be more quiet, but the gain being raised to where the recording device thinks it should be, matching the first recording.

I have a super cheap camcorder that did that... REALLY annoying, but I found 2 solutions. For most people one or the other will work.

#1. If your camera permits, disable auto gain control, control it manually and connect a special cable in to it when recording.


#2. Use an external sound recorder and sync the audio to the video.