"Tipo" is type but really means like
(correctly 'such as')
"a" is by
"mano" is hand
So roughly...like "by hand" made
or , made like hand made reeds but not really
"a mano" is a true hand made reed..It has to do with the reed stock whether in sheets or ribbons and whether hand finished and riveted and other nuances and technicallities.
Binci, Salpa, Antonelli,Armoniche, Cagnoni and others make reeds
The make many qualities of reeds including machine reeds , dural,export, super dural, tipo a mano, a mano, bombate etc....
Most of the modern Cajun made accordeons use #1 or professional or a mano.. essentially the same quality of reed, many from Binci but others as well. Sometimes it's the "flavor of the day" that drives the choice.
However I have seen #2 or tipo a mano reeds in "Cajun" hand made boxes represented as, and thought to be, hand made reeds.. makers name withheld.
I have played some very dece nt older "Cajun" made accordeons with Hohner reeds.
Bryan makes a fine accordeon because he has dared to elevate the design, materials and workmanship beyond the previously accepted Cajun standard.
Were I to order a new Cajun made accordeon.. either B. LaFleur for something cutting edge, or Jude Moreau for a very finely made traditional box with a few propietary internal tweeks.
Were I to order a one row non Cajun made box for music other than CAJUN.... Castagnari..no question.
If Gaillard would stop his 2 and 3 row building long enough to get back to making a one row.. I'd order one ( he is so far backed up with orders I doubt this will ever happen again) .. or if Briggs decided to make a one row, I'd be in line. If I were going to play Nordic music... Bergflodt, if I wanted a 6 or 8 bass one row..I'd go with van der Leeuw , for Quebec style a Messervier.. beautiful and powerful.
Musette tuning..
Musette tuning is not simply wet it is a very spoecific type of wet tuning...
First it requires three middle reeds.
Next: one of the reeds is tuned to 440 (or 441 or 442 or whatever the regional standard might be for "A")
The other tow reeds are tuned one flatted and one sharpened..
there are variances and the extremes are soentimes known as French ot Italian or Scottish or other terminology...
it is not simply a case of "wet" where one reed is tuned sharo of the standard.
Old style Quebec tuning was one reed 5 cents below 440 and one reed high of 440 with no reeds at 440 except for the bass and piccolo reeds ( in their respective octaves) This is not musette because it lacks a middle reed at 440 ( or the regional standard for A)
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
