Right, single row, whether Cajun or Zydeco, is going to be dry in the vast majority of cases.

Yes, it's true that piano accordions and triple rows are more wet. That's the way they come from the factory and there's usually not much chance of changing it before hand.

But Charlie's question was about the kind of tuning to get for Cajun accordions, not PA and triple rows.

There is only one "dry" tuning and that is unison or a single reed, everything else is a degree of wetness.

To me, depends on the box.

Savoy's tuning may be wet or dry but also tempers differently than other builders..so it is a matter of the tuning (temperament) and dry or wetness....

I like Cajun boxes to be dry and "just" . I like other boxes in tempered (12TET) and dry to sloppy Scottish , the wettest of the wet.

I think this topic has been well covered, but I will add one thing.
If you are looking for volume of sound, a dry tuned box will be a little louder due to the sypathetic vibrations of the reeds.

DP

And you can always push an M stop halfways down and fake swing tuning on a dry as a desert tuned accordion .. Nout

Experts disagree...
What makes an accordeon louder is a result of "difference" tuning.. Ie even the slightest tweak of the second reed will sound "louder" than two reeds tuned in unison.

This is supposed to be a deep dark secret from the top Euro builders.

This technique creates the "illusion" of louder.

No charge for that nugget of wisdom.

I had my Hohner 114 tuned dry and it became significantly louder.

In my experience, it is a rare Hohner that is accurately tuned as it comes from the factory. Tones fight each other because of the inaccuracies. Most sound ba.. which unnecessarily drives folks to more expensive instruments when a simple professional tuning would do and give you a very fine box in a simple Hohner...

I would wager simply correcting what is known as Hohner's "almost" tuning in a stock instrument..
will improve it immensely.

Did you take a decible meter to it before and after to confirm your observations.

No, subjectively it sounded louder to me and some other listeners.. By the way a lot of the amateur old timers played Cajun music with wet hohner 114s. And many of the early handmades had hohner 114 reeds tuned dry.

I have seen and played "Cajun" built accordeons with Hohner reeds and Hohner parts.. namely Mouton.

I have also played Hohner HA 114 boxes with drier tuning. I will again suggest it is not necessarily the drier tuning that improves the box so much as Hohner's stock tuning off the bench is grossly inaccurate and by many is called Hohner's "almost" tuning.

I like dry boxes and wet. The older I get the more I prefer a slighty wet tuning.. some call this swing or demi swing.

These tunings make the statement that the instrument is an accordeon and not a diatonic harmonica or concertina.

I have played and owned concertinas that are louder than A Cajun made dry tuned 4 reed box. Namely my Jeffries. A single reed instrument.

I'm going to have to disagree with these "experts".
At least with a Cajun accordion that sound definitely sounds more "defused" on a wet tuned box.

The dry tuned box seems to be able to cut more sharply throught the other instruments in the band (when not using a mic)

There is this extra "honkiness" to the sound that only happens with spot on very dry tuned box.

I'm gonna have to agree with TJ and DP. I've seen those statements made on a Euro accordion forum, but to my ears, a dry tuning sounds louder than wet.

My original C box I had tuned wet. Larry Miller advised against it. He said it would be hard to figure out tunes by ear if my box was wet tuned. He had a few other reasons I can't remember.

I took that box to Augusta with me. Sat in a class and started playing it wet tuned, and everyone turned and glared at me. I believe I pushed in one of the stops. A couple of years later I was at Augusta again. Someone came in and started playing a wet tuned box, and I couldn't hear what the instructor was trying to teach.

I also subsequently had my box tuned dry. And even though I'm playing zydeco now, dry works just fine.

I was at Savoy's shop, testing out an A box. I liked the box except for the tuning. Slightly wet. It felt harsh to my ears. He said he tunes the lower boxes like that because he feels they need it to cut through.

Couple points..

No pretense is made here of being an expert..
The "experts" are those that have been making boxes for generations...I listen to them and the results of their tuning, such as Beltrami.

There is NO SUCH THING as a "very dry tuned" accordeon.
Dry is dry,, it is unison.. anything else is a degree of wetness... be it 1 cent or 22 cents.

"defused" or diffused ?

Anthoer, and more important, point

So why ios it so darned important to be loud. Boxes by nature are loud. I go for tone.. TONE.
Tone is king. Need to be loud ? Get a mic.

Baux why do you find it necessary to post under so many different names. You must have posted under at least five different names in the last five days. Your for mitered corners and cheap boxes. You say you have 4 minutes of time but you take that time under so many different people its hard to believe what s h i t you have to say.