Saltarelle
OK, sorry I am late to this discussion, I have been away.
I have one of these boxes and in principle I agree that the bass is too loud when trying to do drones against the single reed etc.
BUT, as my box is now becoming played in the reeds are firing better and are more responsive, I am able to as George G indicates, play more softly so that the bass does not overwhelm the treble. This is also a function of me getting to know the box better. I am a newbie to CBA and so am learning the techniques from scratch even though I have played melodeons for far too long.
When I am attempting to get a drone effect on for example a Playford tune, I tend to use the chord rather than the Bass note, this works for me in my amateur style.
That said my overall comments on the box are as follows.
Action – superb
Weight and moveability- superb
Tuning-mine is in my opinion unbalanced, biased towards the bass side, even though the reeds are now becoming run –in, and I am learning how to play it better!
I will be seeking to have some work done to improve this as I had a saltarelle melodeon where the holes that let air to the reeds were too small for the reeds and therefore the reeds did not fire properly. Nils Nilson re-reamed the holes and the reeds fired properly. I will also have the tuning changed to slow down the beat speed .. it is too weak a sound for me compared to my melodeon tunings. I do not do this myself, I get a professional to do it.
Bass side – lovely rich sound which would benefit from a coupler/ changer to remove the bass reed to leave the tenor reed so giving a wider range of effects. Can this be retro fitted to a box? I am not an engineer so I have no idea of the complexity of doing this.
Overall I love this box, and it will be even better when I can play it properly.
Merton and Kendall
3 TM
