Scandalli F3 tremolo

[Glug]

Hiya Folks,
I've been looking at tuning curves while I wait for some pallet facings to turn up in the post.

Basically my 1950s Scandalli seems to have been tuned to around 12 cents with a linear bps progression and I'm trying to decide what beat progression to use when I retune it. I'm going to try 12 cents at A4 again because that's how I got it and my Hohner Lucia is 16 cents so it gives me a choice, I might even find I prefer 12 cents

The question that I need advice on is how much tremolo to have at F3. When it arrived it had about 0.95 bps which I think is a bit low, the Hohner Lucia is around 1.7 bps (but 16 cents). So I'm wondering if anybody has numbers for an existing 12 cent tuning they like.

I've done graphs of the curves:



The '12c 1.28' curve is an attempt to match the shape of the bottom part of the cents curve of the Hohner Lucia (F3 - F#4), but there's no musical reason why 1.28bps should be an ideal value.

Or I could just wait until I've put the bass back together and try some tuning ...

 

[debra]

From the three curves I would use the red one, not the blue one: when you have 12 cents at A4 going up to about 15 by F3 is fine. You only go down a bit again for the lower notes your accordion does not have.

 

[Glug]

Cheers, red curve is 1.5 bps at F3 which is easier to tune anyway.
I can try tuning the first octave on the red curve and see what it sounds like.

What would you suggest as the max and min cents at F3 for a 12 cent tuning - just so I get an idea of the ball park ?

 

[Glug]

1.5754 bps at F3 (15.5 cents) gives a horizontal cents curve (yep I was bored, and it's quite easy with a spreadsheet).