Alternatives to Cassotto

[Deleted member 48]

Love the Owen Woods blog pages on the construction and mechanics of accordions
http://melodeonmusic.com/2014/07/12/making-melodeon/

very informative and great photos of inside mechanism of accordions on this blog

 

[donn]

This Titano, spotted on the local craigslist pages, reminded me of this thread - tube chamber for extra resonance:
http://images.craigslist.org/00r0r_6oFM9FAFiEM_600x450.jpg>

 

[nagant27]

Yeah I always see titanos with a tube chamber listed on ebay. Anyone have one? Does it make a distinctive sound? Interesting. I've never seen the inside of one, but appears to be plastic tubes in place of a grill mute type.

 

[JIM D.]

Ive been affiliated with a Titano Dealer -- http://www.falcettimusic.com/ -- since 1966 and have played and repaired - still play and repair Titanos to date. The firm Ernest Deffner bought the Titano brand of accordions from the firm of Traficante and had the Italian firm of Victoria make all their accordion models. The USA Titanos and Italian Victorias were clones with the Titanos having a different badge and grill. The tube chamber grill was a marketing design and with or without the tubes sounded the same. These white tubes would accumulate dirt easily and difficult to clean. The tubes disappeared in the 70s but the grill and tube chamber badge remained.

 

[nagant27]

Thank you jim. Good info as always. Are the victorias that are made today the same as titanos? Are titano's reed blocks like the conventional longer blocks we normally see or are they shorter and aligned width wise in the accordion? I only ask because I've seen some pictures where they are shorter and width wise and was wondering if victorias are the same way. Also what is the advantage or reasoning behind this layout?

 

[Nuuksu]

I have seen quite interesting cassotto on "Leningrad" russian PA - "Leningrad" was accordion brand in soviet union which was meant for professional PA players. I made very rough drawing <S>but discovered now that it isn't possible to upload it here</S>. Anyway they made accordion without normal cassotto but covered these valves which are near to keyboard with chamber made from aluminium or steel, I don't remember material at the moment. It is something like cassotto is moved outside from accordion and rotated 90 degrees.

UPDATE: discovered how to upload image

 

[debra]

That "outside cassotto" takes away a bit of the sharpness/brightness of the sound but not nearly as much as a real cassotto. This technique is sometimes used to even out the sound of reeds on different reed blocks. The Hohner Atlantic IV N for instance has such an "outside cassotto" covering a row of the highest reeds (4" or H) to compensate for the effect of the other row of these reeds being partly covered by the strip with switches. A similar technique is often needed to create a more even sound. I have done it on my Pigini basson accordion (one row of 4" reeds is behind a bar with the switches and the other row of 4" reeds is completely unobstructed and thus gives a brighter sound). I have also done it on a Hohner Artiste IV, again to compensate for one row being behind the bar with switches and the other row being unobstructed.

 

[Nuuksu]

Leningrad accordion didn't have just a strip to cover the reeds but sound can actually come out from bottom where valves enter to cassotto. Sides and top were closed, only bottom was open. It gave quite nice cassotto sound actually. I think that they did this because of need to cut costs.

 

[nagant27]

This seems similar to more like a mute effect I think by looking at your picture.

 

[Nuuksu]

It is very similar but in their conception it was cassotto. Leningrad was meant for classical accordion players in soviet union but its actual quality was still very low because bayan was only real professional instrument for them so they did PA but still cut cost where they could. Tula bayans had real cassotto. I have played Leningrad and actually it didnt sound bad at all but quality of keyboard was very bad. Here are pictures from different models I didnt find pictures from inner workings.

https://www.google.ee/search?q=leni...w=1280&bih=813#tbm=isch&q=ленинград+аккордеон