What is the treble button size and spacing on Roland Chromatic Button V-Accordions?

[SteveBox]

I don't know if I will ever buy a Roland, but I've considered it. One concern is how the treble button spacing compares to my two acoustic CBAs. They both have the smaller button sizes (14.3mm and 15mm) and spacing (19mm in both cases). What is it on the Roland CBAs? I presume all models would be the same - but are they?

Since CBAs are not all the same, one would think button size and spacing would be a specification given by manufactures, but it never seems to be stated. Sure, one can adjust to a different keyboard size, but if you have to switch back and forth between different sizes, I think that might be annoying. There are no Roland dealers nearby, or I would just go and check one out.

 

[debra]

I don't know about the Roland.
But we have several button accordions and they come with different size buttons and spacing...
Two of them have the largest buttons (about 16mm), one has smaller buttons and spacing, two more have still smaller buttons and spacing and one has smaller buttons but the same spacing as the other two.
Don't forget that bass buttons also come with different spacing. They do not vary as much as the treble buttons but still... not all the same.
It is a bit of an issue to switch between the different sizes but not really a problem, unless you want to play the same song on accordions with different button sizes. That is definitely something you shouldn't do.
Considering a Roland it's important to only switch between it and another accordion with the same size, assuming you want to use acoustic and digital for the same songs!

 

[cestjeffici]

I just bought a Roland FR1 B. The buttons are significantly smaller and closer together than on my Scandalli Air III button accordion. I'm not at all sure how this is going to work out for me. The Roland feels very cramped but I've only had it a few days.

 

[debra]

I just bought a Roland FR1 B. The buttons are significantly smaller and closer together than on my Scandalli Air III button accordion. I'm not at all sure how this is going to work out for me. The Roland feels very cramped but I've only had it a few days.

Accordion makers mostly choose a button size and spacing that creates a "full" looking keyboard for the number of notes and size of accordion.
Many "full size" button accordions without melody bass have 46 or 47 treble notes (on 4 reed blocks for a 4 voice accordion) and then they use the largest buttons and add some dummy buttons to top and bottom to create a keyboard that looks nice. Your Scandalli most likely has this large size (just like for instance the Victoria Richard Galliano has been playing for over 50 years.
In more or less the same size accordion a bayan needs to have room for 64 treble notes (on 6 reed blocks for a 4 voice accordion). Some smaller size convertor accordions and French-style accordions (without convertor) offer 52 notes (also on 6 reed blocks for a 4 voice accordion). They can only fit all these notes on the keyboard (without additional dummy buttons) by using much smaller buttons and narrower spacing.
So that is why button accordions use different sizes and spacings. Larger buttons are (for me at least) more comfortable to play, but there just isn't enough room for them when you have more notes relative to the size of the box.

 

[pentaprism]

On my FR-1xb, the button diameters are 15 mm (treble) and 7.2 mm (bass). The spacings (center to center) are 19 mm (treble) and 12.5 mm (bass - diagonal, not row to row or column to column).

 

[SteveBox]

On my FR-1xb, the button diameters are 15 mm (treble) and 7.2 mm (bass). The spacings (center to center) are 19 mm (treble) and 12.5 mm (bass - diagonal, not row to row or column to column).

Thanks. That is the information I was looking for. The button spacings are the same as on my two French-style CBAs (these do have larger mushroom bass buttons, but are spaced the same). It is interesting that Roland chose the smaller buttons and spacing for their CBA keyboard. They could have used any design, as these are essentially computer keyboards and have no constraints due to pallets or reed blocks. I would expect the FR-4xb and others to be the same, but someone please speak up if that is not the case.

 

[Magnus Johansson]

They could have used any design, as these are essentially computer keyboards and have no constraints due to pallets or reed blocks.

Hello! Interestingly, also standard computer keyboards use 19 mm center to center in the button rows.