Retuning?

[Beemer]

I have a niggle about the treble tuning on my 18 month old Scandalli Air LMMM. It's not about the width of wet tuning but a slight harshness when in a MMM register compared with what I hear in other MMM instruments. Would any of you insist that the dealer send the instrument back to Castelfidardo or would you take it to a tuner yourself and bear the cost?

 

[Ventura]

what i would do is first investigate in detail

i am hoping through the shifts you can isolate each M reedset

now in a quiet room, with a decent Tuning machine/app/analysis tool
test each reed for it's exact pitch, both in and out, and write this down
on a huge sheet of paper with lines and columns so you can SEE anything unusual
regarding the tuning values compared to the other reeds up and down

this is really using numbers on a spreadsheet to reveal what would be
typical in general behavior, and what stands out as different

then if you can see something interesting out of the "ordinary" you can now
accurately convey this information to a technician, and they may be able to
(within a reasonable amount of time and effort) adjust certain reeds to be
more in line with the normal

this is how i would approach it

if you ask the technician to spend all that time making the chart
it would cost way too much money, if you ask the factory to do that
they probably will just look for a quick solution

it is also possible that the MMM tuning they employed had an unfortunate
choice for wetness that happens to have a lot of dissonance from frequency
collisions that are not pleasant to the ear

it is also possible that the physical design of this specific model has some
unfortunate reflective angles built in that emphasize certain dissonant frequencies

 

[Beemer]

Thanks for your detailed response which I realise is a good route. My Scandalli is a double cassotto. My acoustic piano software (PianoMeter) can provide me with the reed frequency and partials. One thing of which I am uncertain is whether the single notes of any chord actually are designed to sound more than one reed, e.g. fundamental plus octave?

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

Thanks for your detailed response which I realise is a good route. My Scandalli is a double cassotto. My acoustic piano software (PianoMeter) can provide me with the reed frequency and partials. One thing of which I am uncertain is whether the single notes of any chord actually are designed to sound more than one reed, e.g. fundamental plus octave?

You mean the chord buttons? You will hear 1 to 3 reeds playing each note in a chord, depending on how many banks of reeds your accordion has in the bass, and what register you are employing. So if your accordion is 4/4 (4 sets of treble reeds and 4 sets of bass reeds) you will typically have a choice between hearing 3 reeds per chord, or 6, in octaves. Some accordions with 5 sets of bass reed will have the various sets of reeds start on different notes, to aid in the Shepard tone effect, in which a scale can seem to ascend or descend infinitely, depending on the expectation of the listener.

 

[debra]

I have a niggle about the treble tuning on my 18 month old Scandalli Air LMMM. It's not about the width of wet tuning but a slight harshness when in a MMM register compared with what I hear in other MMM instruments. Would any of you insist that the dealer send the instrument back to Castelfidardo or would you take it to a tuner yourself and bear the cost?

Hard to say what you mean by "slight harshness". As your instrument is a double cassotto your MMM with the middle M in cassotto will always sound differently from non-cassotto accordions that have MMM (or a cassotto accordion with only L in cassotto and all three M's outside).
It is a sound that take a bit of getting used to and really depends on the brand and model of the accordion. Some cassotto accordions have a more pronounced sound from the middle M in cassotto coming through and others do not.

 

[boxplayer4000]

Beemer,
I think people here (helpful people) may be a little confused about what your problem is. ‘Slight harshness’ is very vague term and when you start talking about chords and partials the problem becomes even more complicated. Since your accordion is nearly new it would seem the perceived fault might a tuning one rather than a mechanical fault.
After checking for obvious things which might affect tuning such as incorrect coupler operation then Ventura’s suggestion to plot a tuning chart of every treble reed is one (time consuming - 2 hours?) but which will throw up any tuning pattern irregularities is a good one.
Incidentally you mention using a tuning device which will use frequency (Hz). You’ll make life much simpler if you use a tuning device to show ‘cents’ which is much more relevant to tuning.
You’re fortunate being located in So. Lanarkshire, Scotland as you are near to a few good tuners who I’m sure would be pleased to have a listen to your accordion and advise accordingly.

 

[Beemer]

You mean the chord buttons? You will hear 1 to 3 reeds playing each note in a chord, depending on how many banks of reeds your accordion has in the bass, and what register you are employing. So if your accordion is 4/4 (4 sets of treble reeds and 4 sets of bass reeds) you will typically have a choice between hearing 3 reeds per chord, or 6, in octaves. Some accordions with 5 sets of bass reed will have the various sets of reeds start on different notes, to aid in the Shepard tone effect, in which a scale can seem to ascend or descend infinitely, depending on the expectation of the listener.

Not the chord buttons, I did mention treble.