App or tuning device?

[jakubko123]

Hi everyone! In the future, I want to become a professional accordion repairer. I have been repairing accordions for four years now, so I decided to sign up for the Accordion Craft Academy course. I would like to ask what exactly would be best for my situation if I want to do my job seriously. Should I buy a special device made for tuning accordions, or will Dirk’s Tuner and a decent microphone do the job?
Thank you for your answers!

 

[tcabot]

I am not a pro accordion tuner, and I am not aware of any devices made specifically for tuning accordions.
I am, however, a guitar luthier and I know a thing or two about tuners in general, albeit none of that knowledge is particularly helpful when it comes to tuning squeezeboxes.
The only "special device" that I can think of is a strobe tuner. It was a real breakthrough in precise tuning technology decades ago, and these days you can buy a digital strobe tuner that fits in your pocket but mimics the look of the analogue one - very successfully. These tuners did not really help me when it comes to tuning reeds.
There's no need for a high end microphone either. The tuner is not interested in the whole spectrum - it's just listening to the main frequency. Unfortunately, I'm too old and forgetful to remember how exactly that is done when it comes to analysing the frequency peaks - probably, just finding the highest peak.
The stuff you find in mid-range mobile phones is good enough these days.

There are many correct ways to do the job, you should listen to what they tell you on the course, try several and see which one works for you.

I have followed Debra's advice to use a mobile app called DaTuner which seems to be working out great.

To me, the real challenge with tuning professionally (not something that I ever intend to do) is nothing to do with the equipment, but knowing when to stop. That is, I can work on a box for a whole week and it will come out sounding incredible, but I'll struggle to find a customer who will be happy to pay for a full week of my time. How close to perfection do you take it, before the next installment of accuracy starts costing more than a regular Joe is prepared to spend on a musical instrument? You want a steady flow of customers and you want them to be happy, so it's a balancing act of how deep down the rabbit hole you go.
With lutherie, there is always another guy down the road, who will do a third of the job for half the money. He will make your (high quality) services look overpriced, and a lot of customers will go to him, waste their money, end up being unhappy with the job, and result in you losing out on extra income. Your main asset is your reputation. It's a tough balancing act, and a very tough occupation if you intend to have it as your main & only job.

 

[debra]

Hi everyone! In the future, I want to become a professional accordion repairer. I have been repairing accordions for four years now, so I decided to sign up for the Accordion Craft Academy course. I would like to ask what exactly would be best for my situation if I want to do my job seriously. Should I buy a special device made for tuning accordions, or will Dirk’s Tuner and a decent microphone do the job?
Thank you for your answers!

Dirk's accordion tuner is a great tool. I bought mine over 10 years ago (maybe 15?) and have it on an older laptop which I hope will keep going for many more years. But for 99% of the work an app on the phone is more useful. I use the last version of DaTuner (for Android) that was still free. That version *3.81) can still be found online for download on different apk download sites. It works great. You do need to set the sampling frequency to 48kHz (default is 44.1kHz) in order to be able to measure the C#8 reeds (the highest reeds in production).
(I used DaTuner while teking the ACA courses as well.) Elke recommended some other app and it did not do any better than DaTuner.
I am no professional repairer and only do between 25 and 30 repairs per year (just for friends, as volunteer work) of which about 25 are tuning jobs.

 

[Paul vdV]

For the last three years I have been learning about restoring and tuning accordions. I weekly work on projects in a professional's workshop and here I come in contact with many other people who are professional musicians and some of them tune their own instruments as well. At my home there are too many accordions, only last week I was given two Italian accordions ... One them is now past halfway in the tuning process. That is more than 10 hours work. I have used Dirk's Tuner in the workshop But I prefer my app on my phone, because I try to improve my tuning method, which I can use at home. Most people us an app on their phone and each one seems to have one's own preference as which app they use. People seem to get used to the visuals of their app, they virtually all use different ones. I use Airyware, which I like a lot.

 

[jakubko123]

Dirk's accordion tuner is a great tool. I bought mine over 10 years ago (maybe 15?) and have it on an older laptop which I hope will keep going for many more years. But for 99% of the work an app on the phone is more useful. I use the last version of DaTuner (for Android) that was still free. That version *3.81) can still be found online for download on different apk download sites. It works great. You do need to set the sampling frequency to 48kHz (default is 44.1kHz) in order to be able to measure the C#8 reeds (the highest reeds in production).
(I used DaTuner while teking the ACA courses as well.) Elke recommended some other app and it did not do any better than DaTuner.
I am no professional repairer and only do between 25 and 30 repairs per year (just for friends, as volunteer work) of which about 25 are tuning jobs.

Ok, i’ll give it a try. And do you use any special microphone on phone? Thank you for respond

 

[debra]

Ok, i’ll give it a try. And do you use any special microphone on phone? Thank you for respond

No special microphone is needed. I don't even have an external mic for my phone. I do use mics for the laptop to make recordings, but for tuning no expensive mic is needed. You always have to be careful that the tuning app is picking up the right note and not a higher harmonic. The sound of an accordion can be a bit sharp and throw off what the app sees. When you for instance measure a C6 it is possible that the app things you are playing G7 (second harmonic). If that happens and C6 is bang on you will see G7 with deviation +2 instead of C6. You might occasionally see C7 instead of C6 but that doesn't matter as the deviation will be the same for both (hopefully 0). It's the second harmonic that you should watch out for as it will suggest to you the note should be tuned down by 2 cents when in fact it is correct. (That's what the "well-tempered" tuning does to us...)

 

[oldbayan]

I use a real tuner, as I find it more fun than using a phone It's an old electro-mechanical Peterson model 500 strobe tuner which has all the bells and whistles to deal with octaves, cents, tone generator, etc. Plus the glowing strobe window is cool. I calibrated it using a modern StroboPlus electronic model, which I also use. Peterson has an excellent app that you can download for a modest price (you get what you pay for).

Thread 'A good tuner'

Jun 8, 2021

I have performed extensive work on old accordions lately, and tuning is always a very time consuming activity. I used to use a Peterson StroboPlus tuner, but recently got my hands on an old original electro-mechanical Peterson model 500 strobe tuner from the 70's. It's huge compared to today's electronic tuners (or phones with tuning software) but it's fun to use! It came with a little microphone, it also has an audio function to generate tones. It supports an amazing range of 8 octaves of frequencies, suitable to pianos, from about 32 Hz to over 7900. Each note can be adjusted to +/- 50...

• oldbayan
• Replies: 29
• Forum: How do I ....... ?

• 

 

[debra]

I use a real tuner, as I find it more fun than using a phone It's an old electro-mechanical Peterson model 500 strobe tuner which has all the bells and whistles to deal with octaves, cents, tone generator, etc. Plus the glowing strobe window is cool. I calibrated it using a modern StroboPlus electronic model, which I also use. Peterson has an excellent app that you can download for a modest price (you get what you pay for).
...

I understand the "charm" of a real strobe tuner but it has a drawback: it isn't mobile.
I don't do a lot of tuning "in the field" (for which an app on the phone is a must) but I do move quite a lot between tuning table with a reed block (to make corrections to the tuning and measure the correction) and my work table with the accordion. I not only take the reed block back and forth but also the phone with the tuning app. My eyes are not good enough to leave the phone in one place. The phone can pick up the sound from both locations without moving it, but I cannot read its output from that distance. I guess that maybe with the strobe I could see whether it is stationary or rotating (clockwise or counterclockwise), but with my app that shows a bar and numbers I cannot read the numbers from a distance.

 

[JerryPH]

You have to be a bit careful... the Dirk's tool ties itself to a laptop and you cannot install it elsewhere without following a whole process from the app creator. In other words, it goes on one laptop and nothing else, make sure its a nice reliable one, if the OS goes corrupt its a process... if you upgrade the OS, I believe that too causes all kinds of issues, so it basically becomes a laptop for nothing else but that purpose.

This is the best app on the market for tuning accordions, but it has some very rigid criteria.

 

[jollyrogeraccordions]

Still running Dirks on my 2012 Netbook, running windows 7. And yes, it's the only thing I use on it.

 

[debra]

Still running Dirks on my 2012 Netbook, running windows 7. And yes, it's the only thing I use on it.

Exactly what I do too: Dirk's Accordion Tuner (also from 2012 I think) running on an old laptop that's used for nothing else. It only gets turned on when I want to use the tuner, and turned off when I'm done. Wifi is disabled so nothing can interfere with the laptop.