Guitar tuning now Accordians

[Billbrpt@aol.com]

Dear Tim, Keith and List,

Thanks for all the work you put in on the guitar posts.  I am interested to
 find out just how much tweeking Tim might be doing stated numerically.  Skip
 Becker did have some input on this which Tim in particular might find
 interesting:

<<Last night I tuned my guitar.  I've only owned it for a few months, but it's
 always been a problem to tune, never has sounded right to me.  I don't really
 play, but some friends have tried to tune it too, and I've never liked it.  So
 you inspired me to try.  I used my RCT (for one of those phony FAC tunings).
 I should probably add that the guitar is a small body solid mahagony Martin
 from 1943.  I don't know the model.

I chose a Baldwin L tuning (for no good reason), and tuned the guitar.  It
 sounded the best I've ever heard.  Then I converted to Broadwood usual, and
 tuned again.  The guitar sounds WONDERFUL.  So sweet.  I had no idea.  Course,
 now I can only tune it with the RCT.>>

As you can see, Skip believes he tuned his guitar in a "Broadwood" tuning but
 I understand now becauseof Tim's explanations that this cannot really be so.
 However, if helikes the way it sounds, I thinkthat is most important.

The only question I have left is that with either of my schemes, the 1/6
 ditonic Comma WT (Valotti style) or "Victorian" arrangement of the open
 strings, if Tim is still getting some "intolerable" intervals, isn't he
 getting the same thing with his arrangement, whatever it is, too?

Now, on to Accordians.  I bought an authentic Cajun button Accordian on Sunday
 in Mamou, Louisiana from a maker who lives in nearby Iota, Louisiana (both
 very small towns).  The brand name is "Bon Tee Cajun"  (literally, "Good 'Lil
 Acadian" in the Cajun French dialect.)  It is made of beautiful Curly Maple in
 a Cherry stain which gives the wood an orange hew.  It is obviously a piece of
 fine, individual American hand craftsmanship and it was NOT cheap!!!  I won't
 reveal the price because I consider that to be personal information but I will
 have to work an average week to pay for it!

It is actually a very limited instrument which makes it quite amazing at how
 powerfully loud it is and how intricate and seemingly complex the music it can
 make is.  It only plays a diatonic (C Major) scale and can really only play 2
 chords, C Major and G7.  It can play some 3rds too.  

Interestingly enough, it is NOT, I repeat, NOT, tuned in Equal Temperament.
 The 3rds of the C and G chords would sound far too harsh if they were tuned
 the usual 14¢ wide of just intonation.  They are tuned as pure 3rds.
 Sometimes the F is tuned sharp so that it will form a pure 3rd with the A.
 This does not pose a problem with the note C because F and C can never sound
 together.  Some notes are "push" notes and some are "pull" notes.  In the
 bass, to get a C or C chord, you push, to get a G7 or G7 chord, you pull.  It
 is similar to the way a harmonica's scale is.

The reeds do have some inharmonicity.  The lowest G2 reed when read on G6 has
 about 6¢ inharmonicity.  Since there are G2, G3, G4, G5 & G6 reeds, this would
 indicate the need for a slightly stretched tuning but there is another
 complicating factor.  When you play the bellows forcefully, the pitch will
 flatten a good 4¢ or more.  This phenomenon is what the maker wanted to work
 to try to get around.  He did not know what inharmonicity was but it may work
 out that he can use it in his favor to come up with some kind of stretch
 tuning.  The other reeds have similar inharmonicity and characteristics.

Interestingly enough, he used a Strobe tuner to tune with, knowing offsets for
 various notes.  He had an SAT-I but he found it easier to work with the Strobe
 Tuner.  I am glad that there was the discussion about these two ETD's recently
 because it did give me some insights I could pass on to him.  The SAT could
 listen to a single reed or partial but the Strobe tuner displayed all sound at
 once with the lowest being the most prominent.

I am going back to see him in August and will recondition his old upright
 piano and will plan on creating some programs on his SAT that will provide him
 some alternatives in tuning so he can create the very best sound possible but
 also give his customers some options. It is fully expected that some may like
 a stretched tuning and some may not, some may also like some temperament
 adjustments.  There are no plans to use an FAC stretch program or any Equal
 Temperament intervals.  These would only create an intolerable harshness in
 the instrument.  

Bill Bremmer RPT
Madison, Wisconsin