Stradella Register Choice

[Scuromondo]

There has been much discussion about treble/right-hand register selection, but very little regarding the bass/left-hand (Stradella) registers.

It seems as though printed accordion music, if it includes a bass register setting recommendation at all, will almost always specify the “Master” setting. I find that I only choose the Master setting when the right-hand Master is also engaged, and even then only for a subset of material, because I feel that it can easily cause the bass side to undesirably overpower the treble side. I find that the “Bass” switch (which disengages the soprano and alto reeds, and includes only bass, tenor, and contralto reeds sets) is a much more pleasant choice, and is what I generally use.

One of my frustrations with lower-end accordions, even those of good quality, is that they generally do not include the Bass switch; if they have any switches at all it is usually the Tenor selection—which I think is of more limited use as it can sometimes be a thin sound and a bit “reedy” for my taste.

Do other players have a rationale for choosing a bass switch other than Master, or do most players let the left side permanently set to Master ?

 

[NickC]

My accordion only has 2 switches...the master and the higher (tenor?) reeds. I use the master 99% of the time, but I would prefer to have an instrument with more options. I am also not comfortable enough where I can remove my left hand to switch registers within a tune and be confident that I can be in the correct hand position before the next phrase. I would imagine that with more experience and the right instrument, I would probably experiment more often.

 

[debra]

There is something you should keep in mind about how the standard bass works on an accordion without convertor. There are 4 or 5 voices (rarely 6), of which the lower 2 play only with the base notes and the higher 3 play with base notes and chords. The base notes lift two pallets: one for the lower 2 voices and one for the higher 2 or 3 voices. There may be many registers but you will not find any register where the base notes only play the lower 2 voices because then nothing would sound when you press chord buttons. So you cannot have just a deep bass sound for the base notes. There is always at least one of the higher voices also playing with the base notes. There are some old top-notch accordions like the Scandalli Super VI that have an "octave decoupler" switch that makes it possible to have the base notes only lift the pallet for the lower 2 voices. I just learned about this yesterday. I didn't think any non-convertor accordion had the option for lowest-voices-only base notes (except Russian bayans and Italian knock-offs).
When you have a convertor accordion the situation is different. One of the reasons why I only want convertor accordions is to have the possibility of the deep sounding base notes. A convertor accordion gives you the 2 lower voices only for the base notes unless you use an "octave coupler" switch (the opposite of an "octave decoupler").

 

[Glug]

I use soft bass (aka 'bass piano') most of the time which is bass+tenor+contralto normally or bass+temor+alto on my Lucia IVP (3 bass registers using 4 reed banks).
It has the advantage of not drowning out the treble: alto only on chords, bass+tenor+alto on bass notes.

 

[losthobos]

Thats interesting Paul, thankyou..
Ive oftern entwined a strip of paper through the higher reeds on accordions without register switches to get rid of the reedy shreaker reeds... ?

 

[Alan Sharkis]

What would cause the manufacturer of an accordion with five bass reeds to put only four bass switches in that accordion instead of the usual seven?

 

[Scuromondo]

I use soft bass (aka 'bass piano') most of the time which is bass+tenor+contralto normally or bass+temor+alto on my Lucia IVP (3 bass registers using 4 reed banks).
It has the advantage of not drowning out the treble: alto only on chords, bass+tenor+alto on bass notes.

Yes, my mistake. My terminology was incorrect. This ‘Soft Bass’ switch is the one I use.

 

[Scuromondo]

What would cause the manufacturer of an accordion with five bass reeds to put only four bass switches in that accordion instead of the usual seven?

As with most things, I would guess cost and weight are always factors. But, just as a practical mechanical limitation, shorter accordions (37 and 34-key) may have difficulty even fitting them, as I have noticed that these accordions rarely have the full compliment of seven switches

 

[Alan Sharkis]

As with most things, I would guess cost and weight are always factors. But, just as a practical mechanical limitation, shorter accordions (37 and 34-key) may have difficulty even fitting them, as I have noticed that these accordions rarely have the full compliment of seven switches

This is a 41/120 piano accordion, so I vote for cost.

Thanks.

 

[debra]

What would cause the manufacturer of an accordion with five bass reeds to put only four bass switches in that accordion instead of the usual seven?

There was a period when people really liked the highest reeds in the bass, so accordions only had (typically 4) registers to select between the lower 4 voices and the highest (5th) voice would always sound. Crucianelli for instance did that, and so did Excelsior (and probably several others). It could be that they changed their game after many people started taping off the highest reed bank, thus negating the advantage of having a 5 voice bass over a 4 voice one.

 

[Ventura]

.....There are some old top-notch accordions like the Scandalli Super VI that have an "octave decoupler" switch that makes it possible to have the base notes only lift the pallet for the lower 2 voices. I just learned about this yesterday. I didn't think any non-convertor accordion had the option for lowest-voices-only base notes (except Russian bayans and Italian knock-offs).

hi Debra,

it may then interest you to know of a hack for Scandalli drop-out bass that
accomplishes that

there are 12 simple flat metal pushers from the chord voicing pallet row to the
two Bass reed pallet row... only held in by general spring pressure from the mechanism...

you can lift the pressure and drop out these 12 connectors and the result is as expected

i did this on my cream and blue 4/4 aluminum grille 3/4 size so it would use a bit less air overall
and the bass is not quite so strong, which helped me as i used this for Strolling in the Hospitals
and medical Care centers for many many years

ciao

Ventura

 

[Ventura]

and as to the original question...

Scuromondo, my "go to" setting is MIDI String Bass and MIDI Fender Rhodes chords

 

[debra]

hi Debra,

it may then interest you to know of a hack for Scandalli drop-out bass that
accomplishes that

there are 12 simple flat metal pushers from the chord voicing pallet row to the
two Bass reed pallet row... only held in by general spring pressure from the mechanism...

you can lift the pressure and drop out these 12 connectors and the result is as expected

i did this on my cream and blue 4/4 aluminum grille 3/4 size so it would use a bit less air overall
and the bass is not quite so strong, which helped me as i used this for Strolling in the Hospitals
and medical Care centers for many many years

ciao

Ventura

Not entirely sure how that hack works...
But I believe the "octave decoupler" used by Scandalli is similar to the "declassement' found in some older accordions on the treble side.
And I also believe that both these techniques were eventually abandoned because they were prone to jamming: if you press a bass (base note) button and at the same time operate the octave decoupler (decoupler off, meaning coupler on) the bass mechanism could jam. It's never a good idea to have a mechanism that can jam due to "user error", and this is also a common criticism to converter switches that cause the bass mechanism to jam when the convertor is pressed while a bass button is also pressed.

 

[Ventura]

oh if you had one to look at you would spot them easily

basically the drop out bass has downrods that push the chord pallets open,
and then these crossing flat metal couplers transmits that energy through to
the bass pallets, allowing (potentially) all the reeds to sound

so you just pop them out and then only the pallets over the higher chord reeds
open and close when you play chords

about those convertor mechs jamming... i can also tell you that once they START
jamming they must also get loose and stretched somehow, because it was
a constant headache for Warranty service on the titano models with all the
extra bass rows... Faithe would say that they could spend days fixing one and it
would be back within 2 weeks jammed again

 

[Dingo40]

Ventura
"a constant headache for Warranty service on the titano models with all the
extra bass rows..."
That's worth knowing!??
So, unexpected consequences!?

 

[debra]

oh if you had one to look at you would spot them easily

basically the drop out bass has downrods that push the chord pallets open,
and then these crossing flat metal couplers transmits that energy through to
the bass pallets, allowing (potentially) all the reeds to sound

so you just pop them out and then only the pallets over the higher chord reeds
open and close when you play chords

about those convertor mechs jamming... i can also tell you that once they START
jamming they must also get loose and stretched somehow, because it was
a constant headache for Warranty service on the titano models with all the
extra bass rows... Faithe would say that they could spend days fixing one and it
would be back within 2 weeks jammed again

Now I understand. I do know how the bass mechanism works and I do know about how the base notes open the two pallets by means of that metal coupler. I had not realized that what you seem to suggest is to permanently decouple them, rather than create your own "octave decoupler" switch.
Now I'm unsure what you mean by the Titano, because the "Titano models with all the extra bass rows" seems to refer to the 8-row quint-convertor accordions. These have no convertor mechanism but the convertor works with register sliders instead. So they do not jam when you change between Stradella and free bass while having a bass button pressed. The register mechanism of course has many more sliders so that could potentially jam, but not through user error. The jamming convertors I mean are regular C-griff or B-griff convertors. They have a rather intricate bass mechanism and the way the pistons push the individual notes open looks so flimsy to me that I'm surprised this actually works, but it does...

 

[Dingo40]

I'm simply confused ?

 

[colinm]

Me too, i did not have any problems with the bass before i read all this.

 

[debra]

I'm simply confused ?

Let me explain using the following picture...

The bottom row of pallets are for the lowest 2 voices (base notes), and the top row are for the higher 3 voices (chords). The lever that opens one of the bottom row of pallets has an angled end (hook) that catches the lever for the corresponding pallet in the top row. So a base note will open both pallets, sounding all voices that are "open" through the registers. The chords use the levers for the top row only, so the chord buttons only play the top three voices, if they are "open" through the registers. So chords play, depending on the register, one, two or three voices. The base notes play zero, one or two voices from the lower set, and then one, two or three from the top set. In order for the chords to play at least one of the three higher voices *must* play, and because of the "hook" the base notes will then also play at least that one of the three higher voices. It is not possible for the base notes to only play voices from the bottom rows because the base notes also play the voices used for the chords. If you cut off the hooks then the base notes will only play the lower voices (and if a register is used that only plays the higher voices then the base notes won't play at all). The old Scandalli Super VI had a mechanism called "octave decoupler" that made this "hook" switchable, on or off.

 

[colinm]

Paul, thanks for the explanation, i wondered why the system had the hooks, i even got them assembled wrong way round once and had to take it to pieces and reassembled again.
The acoustic accordion is an incredible assembly of bits.