Dry Tuning versus Wet, Can it be changed?

[ben]

I purchased a very nice concerto accordion. It has 13 register switches on the treble side. I was a little disappointed to find that it is dry tuned, and has no tremolo. I am wondering if people ever change the tuning from dry to wet. How much does it cost to get an accordion tuned?

 

[Dingo40]

Ben,
Short answer, yes.
It's done often ( in both directions) as needs change.
Things to consider are:
•Drier tunings are currently more popular.
•Heavy tremulo tends to "wear off ".
•What genre do you intend to play ( different tunings suit different genres), though drier tunings seem more versatile.
•Big changes in tuning will shorten reed life in the affected reeds.
•Will you still like your new tuning in 12 months?
•Can you arrange a trade ( cash difference)?

 

[Tom]

I think it's fairly common. I have one that was recently tuned in this way. Finding someone to do it will be your challenge.

 

[Ben-jammin]

Hey other Ben. I would check for prices at Cincinnati accordion and Liberty Bellows. I talked to Cincinnati accordion before and it seemed like they were avoiding large tuning jobs because Liberty Bellows is better equipped to handle that kind of work. Tuning reeds is pretty labor intensive, I would be surprised if it is going to be less than 500$

 

[Siegmund]

Want to trade? I was disappointed mine was so wet

It does seem that not everyone is diligent about saying what tuning an instrument has when they post ads. It's the kind of thing you forget to ask once when buying remotely and having an instrument shipped...

Retuning is theoretically possible but have seen web folk advise against it, as it's a substantial amount of scraping, on each of 80-120 reeds, depending how many notes your instrument has. That's a lot of time on the tuning table at your tuner's hourly rate. I would second the suggestion to ask about a trade-in as an alternative to retuning.

 

[Dingo40]

Ben, Siegmund has made a great suggestion!?

 

[debra]

When you want to change the tuning (from dry to wet) it's an illusion that only the "tremolo" reed bank needs tuning. For a good result the whole treble side needs to be tuned, so the dry reeds (L, M, H on accordions that have it) are perfectly in tune and the offset applied to the tremolo reeds (the second M tuned a bit higher) is applied to the right standard. I all to often encounter accordions that have the notes sound more or less OK individually but then when I measure I see that the tremolo was often adjusted to whatever the "dry" reed was, and both end up being either too high or too low...
I'm saying this because whether changing the accordion from dry to wet is done the right way (tuning the whole treble side) or the wrong way (only tuning the tremolo reed) has a big influence on what it is going to cost. Changing only the treble reeds may perhaps take an hour or so whereas tuning the whole treble side takes between 4 and 10 hours depending on how carefully it is done (and corrected a bit each day for at least 3 days after the work starts). The cost is almost entirely labor.

 

[ben]

Thanks to you all for the kind replies! Some of you make me wonder if I would really want to go that route.. Especially if it is going to cost about $500 to do it!

This is the accordion I have, a very beautiful instrument that I really want to love. Perhaps the reason it struck me so much about the dry tuning is that I was comparing it along side my FARFISA Super Syntaccordion, (modified to be only accoustic, with the electronics removed) and that one has a definite tremolo.

I like the instrument better from the Concerto, but I think I like the sound better from the Farfisa. I can't afford to keep both. I paid just under a thousand for the Concerto, and about 1200 for the farfisa.

 

[ben]

Thanks to you all for the kind replies! Some of you make me wonder if I would really want to go that route.. Especially if it is going to cost about $500 to do it!

This is the accordion I have, a very beautiful instrument that I really want to love. Perhaps the reason it struck me so much about the dry tuning is that I was comparing it along side my FARFISA Super Syntaccordion, (modified to be only accoustic, with the electronics removed) and that one has a definite tremolo.

I like the instrument better from the Concerto, but I think I like the sound better from the Farfisa. I can't afford to keep both. I paid just under a thousand for the Concerto, and about 1200 for the farfisa.

And just for kicks, I will show you a pic of my "camping accordion". One that I bought cheap, did some maintenance and repair to, and it is going to be the one that I am not scared to take out camping, in differing temperatures, etc.

 

[ben]

Want to trade? I was disappointed mine was so wet

It does seem that not everyone is diligent about saying what tuning an instrument has when they post ads. It's the kind of thing you forget to ask once when buying remotely and having an instrument shipped...

Retuning is theoretically possible but have seen web folk advise against it, as it's a substantial amount of scraping, on each of 80-120 reeds, depending how many notes your instrument has. That's a lot of time on the tuning table at your tuner's hourly rate. I would second the suggestion to ask about a trade-in as an alternative to retuning.

What do you have?

 

[Tom]

And just for kicks, I will show you a pic of my "camping accordion". One that I bought cheap, did some maintenance and repair to, and it is going to be the one that I am not scared to take out camping, in differing temperatures, etc.

Beautiful!

 

[ben]

Beautiful!

Paid less than a hundred for it.

 

[Scuromondo]

And just for kicks, I will show you a pic of my "camping accordion". One that I bought cheap, did some maintenance and repair to, and it is going to be the one that I am not scared to take out camping, in differing temperatures, etc.

Nice!

 

[ben]

Also, this concerto has a mute, and unmute switch, one on either end of the row of register switches, but they do not affect a thing. Why would they be there, if they do nothing?

 

[JerryPH]

Is it possibly a Sordina switch?

 

[ben]

Is it possibly a Sordina switch?

Um.... what's that?

 

[Ben-jammin]

• Mute (aka sordina, tone modulator, tone labyrinth) is a feature that places a wood, plastic, or metal slide mute system across the treble pads. This has the effect of muting the sound to create a darker tone and can help reduce feedback on some microphone systems.

 

[ben]

• Mute (aka sordina, tone modulator, tone labyrinth) is a feature that places a wood, plastic, or metal slide mute system across the treble pads. This has the effect of muting the sound to create a darker tone and can help reduce feedback on some microphone systems.

Ok. So you are saying that it is not supposed to disable the sound, but rather tone it down, where it is not as loud?

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Just my guess — a disabled mute or a disabled sordina. Maybe somebody did the disabling before you got the accordion.

By the way, I heard a story about a dealer who had sample accordions that were tuned wet, but ordered a dry-tuned one whenever a customer placed an order. The dealer would deliver the dry-tuned accordion to the customer and then charge the customer extra to have it wet-tuned. I can’t verify this story - as far as I know, it’s just a legend.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Ok. So you are saying that it is not supposed to disable the sound, but rather tone it down, where it is not as loud?

There are sordinas that work as described, but there are also mutes that completely stop sound from the reeds and they are used in acoustic accordions that have MIDI installed. That way, if the MIDI is equipped with bellows pressure sensors, the accordionist can choose whether to have the reeds sound with the MIDI or not. My acoustic accordion with MIDI is not so equipped. If I want to use the MIDI without the reeds, I have to strap the bellows closed and control the MIDI volume with a pedal.