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Weltmeister Unisella (project)

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Hello Eddy,

I'm afraid that I have precious little to contribute, especially as my knowledge of electrical stuff is so poor. Born in a time when television sets were a rarity and valve radios were king, my generation have not had the grounding in electronic devices that subsequent generations take for granted.

My wife & I have even have to seek the help of our daughters or grandkids whenever we buy a new laptop or mobile (cell) 'phone. Luckily for us, all our progeny are bang up to date in these matters.

Will I ever buy an electronic accordion? What do you think?

Kind Regards,

Stephen.
 
JStephen Hawkins said:
Hello Eddy,

I'm afraid that I have precious little to contribute, especially as my knowledge of electrical stuff is so poor.  Born in a time when television sets were a rarity and valve radios were king, my generation have not had the grounding in electronic devices that subsequent generations take for granted.

My wife & I have even have to seek the help of our daughters or grandkids whenever we buy a new laptop or mobile (cell) 'phone.  Luckily for us, all our progeny are bang up to date in these matters.

Will I ever buy an electronic accordion?  What do you think?

Kind Regards,

Stephen.
Neither will I, Stephen. I have plenty of MIDI keyboards and they’re handy for what I do. However, there’s a reason that people prefer real pianos, Hammond B3s, clavinets, Fender Rhodes, Moog Synths, and there are similar reasons we play real accordions.
I was describing it to a guitar player who just got a vintage Gibson Jumbo. We both described the experience of playing our respective instruments as soul soothing, and like holding a living thing to your heart.
So, no, I don’t expect you to get an electronic accordion, Stephen.
 
Hi Eddy,

I'm relieved that you don't expect me to buy an electronic instrument, as I would hate to disappoint you.

There are those, on this very forum, who like electronic accordions. I'm sure that these members are doing what they think is right, and it is certainly not my place to discourage or dissuade them in any way.

Though the UK has used metric measurement for about forty years now, I still convert everything into the old Imperial Measurements. I guess it's an age thing.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.
 
Result so far: just look how nice and tiny it is!


 
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Very cool! Looks like a LOT of fun.


Stephen Hawkins said:
Hi Eddy,

I'm relieved that you don't expect me to buy an electronic instrument, as I would hate to disappoint you.  

There are those, on this very forum, who like electronic accordions.  I'm sure that these members are doing what they think is right, and it is certainly not my place to discourage or dissuade them in any way.

Though the UK has used metric measurement for about forty years now, I still convert everything into the old Imperial Measurements.  I guess it's an age thing.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.
Yup. They are always in tune, usually lighter, can cut through a band full of guitars, and they’re fun to play. Same with a sampled piano. And there are people who can’t tell the difference and there are people who can play them convincingly. No knock on them at all.
But for me, like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell sang, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby. Nothing like the real thing.”
 
Jozz ....... Very entertaining, but a little too "lively" for my taste. Keep it up.

Eddy .... I wholly concur. My wife must have been thinking along the same lines when she met me.

Kind Regards,

Stephen.
 
JerryPH pid=65342 dateline=1558341079 said:
Brutal cutoff, too early... I wanted to hear more! :D

Jerry, here is an even beter cutoff for you... :) (i admit, its slightly lively)


 
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I have a new one:

getting hit in the face by a CO2 jet (at 0:05)

but my contraption still functions!

[video=youtube]
 
A quick update on this project:


I had expected some repairs would be needed by now, but 3 months in and still functioning.

It survived brutal heat and splashes of water and beer.

Best bit still is carrying this lightweight stuff in and out of the gigs.
 

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That sounds great! I love the tuning of this accordion, and for a band environment, is easily heard amongst the others so not only does it have a great sound, it "sits" well within the group and adds a lot to the flavor. A big success story, I'd say!
 
JerryPH said:
That sounds great!  I love the tuning of this accordion, and for a band environment, is easily heard amongst the others so not only does it have a great sound, it "sits" well within the group and adds a lot to the flavor.  A big success story, I'd say!

it is still a succes

the MM is offset around 10 pc which makes it bright in a pop/rock mix

thing to consider is it sits really close to a violin, and could benefit from a wetter tuning there

still going strong on the same 9V battery too
 

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Not much contribution here either other than to say awesome short shots of the live action, love the Flogging Molly!

Reassuring as well considering I followed your reccomendation on the mics...currently waiting for the sealant to set where I drilled holes and put wires through.  You are right in that they have serious volume output!

Nice handiwork - great idea and selection for the new grill cloth!
 
So it is a rainy day here and I figured I might as well tear this thing apart to look for possible weak points or routine maintenance.

Decided I would change my mic setup to L + R instead of just R.

Took me a couple of hours:
- drilled a hole in both soundboards
- de-soldered the wires from the connectors
- passed through and glued the wires in the soundboards
- re-soldered the wires to the connectors again, added shrink tape
- re-arranged the grille layout, now it's 2 mic's on the right and 1 on the left, instead of 3 on the right
- did a little audio testing to see if my solder joints hold up, was okay
- snaked and taped the connecting wires to the inside of the bellows

Currently waiting on the glue to totally set to take it for a spin later on. Hopefully I didn't mess things up and it will be road worthy.

so far so good!

DSC_0594.JPGDSC_0595.JPGDSC_0596.JPG
 
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first results are in:

- it works
- seems airtight
- no distortion, ground loops or hiss so far
- got some prominent sweet spots on the righthand because of only 2 pickups now...hope this will be camouflaged in a loud setting
- might need some tweaking yet with mic positions, i put the 1 bass mic in the middle pointing away from the pallets but it is kind of muddy and hollow, unsure if that is good or bad for this particular accordion.. future will tell

some example audio:


[video=youtube]
 
So, I'm back from my first outing: it was a disaster.  :angel:

I didn't get decent input level all across the pallets on the right. On top of that the basses pickup sounded like they're in a plastic bucket.

This was all into IEM, without any adjustments to gain and input levels on the mixer rack. Furthermore, I went straight in without a DI. What I should have done is have gain set to compensate weak pickup of the highest notes to get more towards the testrecording, but there wasn't really time to do this.

The songs where I go into the higher octave suffered a lot.

I wonder if I can pull this off without a third capsule on the right hand, just by readjusting gain. Will have to see. Also, bass pickup needs to be moved to a better spot.

Needs more tweaking & testing :exclamation:

(one good thing*: it took a beating without falling apart or distorting)
 
Did some tweaking today

- moved the righthand capsule bar down, bending the first capsule upwards
- this is more like my other accordions that do have builtin stock mic's
- turns out that is the way to go, also should I have to play over floorwedges, this first capsule is not pointing directly into them

On the righthand I have now pretty even coverage, with loads of presence in the high octave but less so down, but the decline only really affects lower C and B. 

- moved over the bass mic the same way, but this didn't make a whole lot of difference. So instead of having it midway on the back of the instrument pointing sideways, it is now on the bottom point up- and inwards towards the holes.

Still sounds hollow, so I'm beginning to wonder these 'CZ034' are any good at all for accordion. They seem to miss certain frequencies. At least in my ears.

 

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So this morning I thought it a good idea to tweak the Unisella further.

Instead of having the two thin flathead screws for securing the grille to the body, I wanted the typical knurled type bolts with threaded inserts. I had ordered some, along with a couple dozens bellows pins, and they had arrived in the mail this week. Makes it a little easier to service under the grille on the go.

A cup of coffee, some tools on the table and an hour later it was finished:



THe main challenge was the fact that the screw would be protruding on the inside once fastened. But it snuggled in nicely in a space together with the bolts that fix the reed block to the soundboard.

I had no idea if the insert would be airtight once the screw was in there, but that also was okay. At least not less airtight than the old screws that had worn out the wood a bit.

Slowly, steadily, this thing keeps on getting better!


end result inside and out
 

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