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Accordion tuning

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brianr

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For almost 60 years I have never played with other musicians so as long as my accordion sounded OK I have never had to worry about the exact tuning. I recently bought a Sonola Sorbonne 96 bass instrument with a few notes needing attention and bought a Korg tuner to investigate. This suggests that the instrument is tuned to approx A = 444 Hz, rather than concert pitch. With the Korg set for A = 440 Hz the low and medium reeds show approx +20 cents, the medium sharp reeds show approx +40 cents and the medium flat reeds show approx +0 Hz. Surprised at this I checked my 3 voice Victoria instrument and found almost identical tuning.

Please can anyone tell me if this tuning is common for piano accordions? If not it would seem that I would never be able to join an accordion group with either of these instruments!
 
This is odd when you see it in multiple accordions. Standard tuning is A=440. Some accordions are tuned A=442 (Pigini does this by default.) The tuning A=444 is rare and when it is found it is most often because the frequency has gone up due to the age of the instrument.
It could be that the Korg tuner is off. The easiest way to check is to use an app on your phone that will play A=440 and see what the Korg thinks about that.
 
Yes 444, is extreme, should be 442 which was always the norm for US made & Italian imports to the US.
You might re-check it again and play the 1st C from the chin and with a dry tuned M reed selected.
The reasoning for the 442 tuning came from many years ago when there was no amplification and the accordion at 440 had no presence when played with other musical instruments. Tuning to 442 gave them presence and took the place of sound volume. And yes the cents change with the octaves - you might give a read here and refer to the last part of the chapter --
http://www.accordionrevival.com/ACCORDION_REPAIR_3.php
 
I have two PAs tuned up to 442 and 443 respectively. When I use them I ask the other guys to tune up too.They can sound a bit off to my ear, I would rather they were tuned 440 like my others.
 
Many thanks to all for these quick replies. I will try to check the Korg against a known signal, I hadn't doubted it because it was very reproducible over a wide range of reeds! Thanks to Jim D for the reference, I will study it when I get chance this week. Brian.
 
Mine's about 444 Hz. Low in the low reeds runs a little flatter, high in the high reeds a little sharper. Could 60 years old, at a guess.

My tuner is a cellular phone application, so no fancy hardware in there, but it has worked when needed so far. It's a pocket watch, a tuner, and in an emergency I can make phone calls on it.
 
To my ear 442 tuning plays better with guitars than 440. Guitars as strummed will go sharp a couple of cents. I have one box 440 for playing with other accordions. All the rest 442 low reed. I even changed my sum of my Roland to 442 that made a big difference in the dry tuned box sounds. All synth sounds still 440.
 
donn said:
Mines about 444 Hz. Low in the low reeds runs a little flatter, high in the high reeds a little sharper. Could 60 years old, at a guess.

My tuner is a cellular phone application, so no fancy hardware in there, but it has worked when needed so far. Its a pocket watch, a tuner, and in an emergency I can make phone calls on it.
I have heard that because of the way our hearing works tuning the lower notes a bit flat and high notes a bit sharp is general practice, for instance in tuning pianos. But of course these go much lower and higher than an accordion. On an accordion I simply tune everything correctly, so that octaves and even double octaves stay completely dry.
 
Thanks for the additional comments, most helpful. I suspect that the problem is one of age but was surprised that both instruments seemed to have more or less identical tuning. I won't worry about it unless I wish to join a group! With regard to debra's comment I have checked the Korg CA-40 against a standard A=440 signal and it is spot on, it seems an excellent piece of equipment for under £12 (£11.95 delivered from RST Music Ltd on e-bay). Regards to all.
 
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