Stepped keyboards

[KLR]

Do any of you CBA players favor the stepped board, or not, and if so, why? I know the basic principle behind it, that it allows you to use the thumb on the middle rows without accidentally sounding buttons on the outside row - but is that really an issue? I have flat keyboards on some of my diatonic button boxes and can use the thumb in the middle OK, it doesn't seem to be a big stumbling block.

 

[george garside]

A large proportion of CBA players use the thumb routinely and for that reason a stepped key board is very much the norm

On the other hand there are relatively few 'diatonic' players who use the tthumb regularly and for no particular reason diatonics come in both stepped and flat. I once haad a 3 row paolo soprani BCC# with stepped keyboard aand it was not nice to play as fingers tended hit the edge of the middle and inside rows and playing it was like going up hill. I have not come across another BCC# with a stepped keyboard and got rid of the paolo very quickly

george

 

[barkis]

Stepped are basicly the only ones around, at least where I live. I have never tried flat.

 

[KLR]

As it happens I have a Paolo BCC# with a stepped board, which I'm not fond of either, everything feels a bit remote like you say. The left hand seems little more than a piano accordion bass grafted onto a diatonic box, not the best, air valve is just a simple button in the corner with undersized hole, etc. I had the hole enlarged a bit and last night did a bit of work to fix leaks in it so it's working a bit better now at least.

 

[george garside]

the thought did occur to me that the stepped keyboard Paulo BCC# could have been a conversion of a 3 row continental - Maybe the one KLR has is the same one I had around 30 years ago?

The airhole on a BCC# needs to be aat least twice the size of a piano boxes orifice and really could do with an 'air bar' reaching down as far as C on the bass so that the thumb can reach the air bar when playing playing in Ab

george

 

[debra]

My Hohner (Morino) Artiste XS has a Swiss type flat C-griff keyboard. My Bugari (504 ARS) has a stepped C-griff keyboard. So I have quite some experience with both. Both are not very different to play. For a "circular glissando" motion the flat keyboard works better than the stepped keyboard. The flat keyboard (essentially only C-griff) has been very popular in Switzerland. Nowadays almost all button accordions have stepped keyboards.
I have no trouble using the thumb on either keyboard, on any row.

 

[george garside]

That's interesting Debra. could it be anything to do with the quality and smooth action of the Morino .

george

 

[KLR]

A friend thought my Paolo was a converted continental too, but boxes just like it are shown in old catalogs. The air button is quite deficient, I enlarged it and attempted to add an air bar but it's still too leaky to be manageable. They don't seem to have done much more than graft a PA or CBA left side onto a BCC# right. I've revalved most of the reeds and patched up other leaks where I can but. I know about the BCC# forum too, am registered there as well.

 

[george garside]

Eliminating leeks is very important an any accordion but even more so on BCC#. The air hole does not have to be round and sometimes a sqare or even L shaped orifice fits best, obviously requiring a new pallet.

Whilst a large air hole is required for the odd occasion when the bellows must open wide the aim should be to keep them pretty tight , no more than 10 or 12 inches and often much less. This is achieved by playing a number of notes 'out' followed by a similar number of notes'in' See many youtube vids of BCC# players

 

[KLR]

I play Irish music and notice that Joe Burke sometimes has the bellows out quite a bit, he's famous for playing lots of rolls which go in one direction of course so perhaps that's what's going on, or he's showing off for the audience, that happens too, like Dick Contino fanning the bellows open a mile so the audience has something to stare at. But anyway, keeping the bellows as shut as possible is diatonic accordion 101 stuff.

What also made a big difference for me was playing as softly as I can, until I'm up to speed anyway, then throw in some volume here and there when I can. I also have a Trichord and hate it, buttons are too small and you seem to have to squeeze like crazy to get any sound out of it, the Paolo helped a lot in that regard, and it lets me lay off the pressure a lot more.

The air hole my repair guy installed was a big rectangle, yes. I had to remove the valve and cut off a bit of the pallet/file away a bit of the case to make it work perfectly, that was a bit of a job, it's in a really tight corner. You can't count on these repair guys all the time.

I'm going to take a crack at converting this thing to a flat keyboard - last night I turned out a bunch of wood spacers for the buttons, to raise up the height of the lower rows. It'll actually still be a stepped keyboard but just with very small steps, I guess. That'll help with getting grace notes from the next row down, as it is it's like playing a typewriter.

 

[george garside]

I thought that Joe Burke played a 2 row which if I am right would account for the extended bellows due to smaller bellows requiring more travel for same air supply anad lack of alternative notes.

Each to their own but I very much like my trichord (3 voice prewar or very early post war) with near Sahnd Morino tuning. Its very responsive and requires very little bellows pressure to make it sing. I am in the process of changing the bass end to 32 stradella .

to be fair I don't think much of the 2 voice trichords.

george