How long can one expect a tuning to last before it becomes noticeable the musette has drifted?

[SteveBox]

My understanding is that brand new reeds have a break-in period, during which one can expect the tuning to drift. I noticed this with my small CBA from Atelier Loffet after the first year. So I had it retuned in October 2022, when it was 14 months old. My tuner gave it a wonderful demi-swing tuning, which I really liked. Today, 16 months later, it has become obvious that the musette is uneven, especially in the upper half of the note range. It is not terrible, but some notes are noticeably dryer, and some wetter. I had expected the tuning to last longer before I started to consider getting it tuned again. It usually gets played several hours each week. It is a 2-reed accordion with Voci Armoniche TAM reeds.

Is this normal or unusual? Are the reeds still breaking in? Can I expect the tuning to become more stable in the future?

 

[debra]

How fast reeds go out of tune depends on many factors, including the quality of the steel of course, how much the accordion is played (and how loud), the number of times it has already been tuned (scratched and filed), the strength of the rivet, dirt settling on the reed and hopefully not applicable here: the development of rust.
How fast you notice that the reeds are going out of tune also depends on how precise the tuning was to begin with. When you have two reeds tuned exactly the same (0 cent deviation) and one goes up by 0.5 cent and the other goes down by 0.5 cent you hear a 1 cent tremolo which unless it's with very high notes you very likely will not notice. But if the tuner tuned these two reeds to 0.5 cent too high and 0.5 cent too low you have a 1 cent tremolo to begin with. With the same deviation added after the same amount of time the tremolo now becomes 2 cents which you are very likely to notice. So with a tuner/technician who works with more precision it will take longer before you notice the tuning goes off. This also applies to a very mild tremolo. With a very wet tuning you won't hear a 2 cent difference (like between 19 and 21 cents) but with a very mild tuning like 4 cents you will hear a 2 cent difference.
Professional concert players who practice for several hours a day will need to get their accordion tuned at least once a year but more likely twice a year. An enthusiast amateur with good hearing will notice after three years the accordion needs tuning. But I also know people who play a lot and think that after 30 years their accordion still does not need tuning (while of course it is horribly out of tune).
I am currently tuning an old but good quality full size accordion with convertor. I got to the point where some notes had a 0 cent deviation two days ago. Today some were still at 0 cent and some now had a 2 cent deviation. That's pretty bad. How is this possible? The main cause is very likely rust that started developing and is very noticeable on the blue side under the valves. In the ACA courses we were told very explicitly that we should always refuse to tune an accordion with rust on the reeds, because you cannot get them right and the tuning won't last very long (in this case, not even two days). You should also never buy an accordion from a previous owner who lives by the coast. The salty air can ruin the reeds in a matter of just a few years, while the same type of accordion can go for 50 years without any rust at all.

 

[dak]

How fast reeds go out of tune depends on many factors, including the quality of the steel of course, how much the accordion is played (and how loud), the number of times it has already been tuned (scratched and filed), the strength of the rivet, dirt settling on the reed and hopefully not applicable here: the development of rust.

Also consistency of the wax and/or other gaskets. When an air leak develops (or the valve of the opposing reed loses function), the frequency goes up due to less resistance. When the wax or gasket hardens, the frequency goes up because of less dampening. When it becomes brittle, the frequency goes down because the reed plate gets more involved with the vibration.

So if an older accordion without signs of rust starts going over the place with its tuning, it may be a fool's errand to only scratch the reeds without thoroughly checking the quality of reed plate fixation, valves and sealing.

 

[debra]

Also consistency of the wax and/or other gaskets. When an air leak develops (or the valve of the opposing reed loses function), the frequency goes up due to less resistance. When the wax or gasket hardens, the frequency goes up because of less dampening. When it becomes brittle, the frequency goes down because the reed plate gets more involved with the vibration.

So if an older accordion without signs of rust starts going over the place with its tuning, it may be a fool's errand to only scratch the reeds without thoroughly checking the quality of reed plate fixation, valves and sealing.

Those are all very good observations about what happens in the long run. None of these should affect the overall tuning accuracy of the accordion over a short time period. When an accordion that is tuned perfectly goes out of tune within a few months something else must be the problem. In my experience the most important cause of an accordion going out of tune quickly is rust. Bad (hardened) wax may cause some reed plates to no longer sit tight so these notes will quite suddenly start to sound bad, not necessarily out of tune but just bad. Similarly, when a valve falls off a note will suddenly go badly out of tune in one bellows direction.
An accordion in good shape and without defects should stay reasonably close to being in tune for a few years (when used by an amateur, i.e. not played for 5+ hours a day.

 

[SteveBox]

I appreciate the general discussion about what causes reeds to go out of tune. My question is specifically about brand-new reeds. I have gleaned bits and pieces of information over the years that new reeds have a break-in period, during which they can be expected to drift out of tune more quickly than older reeds, and that they may also change in timbre somewhat. However, I have never found an expert statement to this effect. Has anyone else heard of this?

As evidence, back in the 80s, when I was playing PA, I bought my first new accordion, a full-size Giuliette from Julio himself. If my memory is accurate, Julio told me to play it on the Master register as much as possible to break-in the reeds. Back then, I don't recall noticing any change in the tuning, but then my ears were not attuned to this back then. I sold the Giuliette after several years, too big for folk music.

As I related, my recent new accordion needed retuning when it was a year old. Now, that it is 30 months old, it seems to need retuning again to restore the musette. I understand that the cause could be many factors, but is a break-in period one possible cause? If such a thing exists, can it last 2-3 years?

Just curious if this is a common experience with new accordions.

 

[debra]

I appreciate the general discussion about what causes reeds to go out of tune. My question is specifically about brand-new reeds. I have gleaned bits and pieces of information over the years that new reeds have a break-in period, during which they can be expected to drift out of tune more quickly than older reeds, and that they may also change in timbre somewhat. However, I have never found an expert statement to this effect. Has anyone else heard of this?
...

A new accordion may indeed need retuning for minor deviations after about a year (of enthusiast amateur use). The wax needs to settle and harden a bit more than how it leaves the factory. This is minor but I have noticed the small tuning issues in new accordions (bought by friends of mine as well as accordions I bought) after a year. I don't think that after that the tuning goes off faster. In fact, old reeds are more likely to go out of tune than new reeds (but that is mostly due to old wax and old valves). The change in timbre should be small and is again due to the wax, and maybe also the reed tongues "getting used to vibrating".
With your accordion that has a very mild tremolo you will notice sooner that the tuning goes off a bit than with an accordion with a more pronounced tremolo. People with Amsterdam, Scottish or Irish wet tuning may not notice anything wrong with the tremolo after thirty years...
The advice that I heard about "breaking in" a new accordion is to play softly for the first few weeks (some say months). I think that the advice you got to use the master register was part of that: you can produce a reasonable amount of volume without forcing the reeds to play loudly (individually).

 

[dak]

With your accordion that has a very mild tremolo you will notice sooner that the tuning goes off a bit than with an accordion with a more pronounced tremolo. People with Amsterdam, Scottish or Irish wet tuning may not notice anything wrong with the tremolo after thirty years...

By then they will be tone deaf anyway.