Jim, enjoyed meeting you and your Dad at Augusta.

Larry Miller uses a "graduated" wet tuning, where the higher notes have less difference than the lower ones. I have a friend who has a Bb tuned this way and it sounds good.

Personally, I like "cajun wet" (not as much as musette) for songs which are slower and less ornamented, particularly waltzes. IMHO it's a fuller, more soulful sound, and full dry for punchy, fast tempo tunes. But as good as you play, it'll sound good regardless.

Take care, Chuck.

About fifteen years ago, Chris Miller demonstrated his wet accordions to me at a festival showing how he gets the wet sound and dry sound whenever he wants it. It wasn't until a couple of years ago when I started playing with Chris that I became sold on it.

In the past, the rule of thumb was 10 cents of wetness, and someone even mentioned Larry Miller's method of graduated wet which I believe starts at 10 at the top and goes down to 2 by the time you reach the bottom button.

I recently had both of my accordions wet tuned by Jude. As I recall, he told me it was either 5 or 7 cents wets. Chris told me this weekend that he had Jude do his as well. On my C, it is only slightly noticeable until you close the low bank, then it screams wet. My D is much more noticeable. The advantage is that I can get five or six unique sounds out of each box for a variety of things.

In response to your question, Jim, I think even a little wetness on an E would be very noticeable.

Ganey

A graduated wet tuning makes sense as the wetness can seem stronger in the low notes. With my Hohner 114, I would regularly close one of the middle banks to make it drier and more "Cajun" sounding. Marc Savoy says, though, that the old Monarchs were actually as wet as the 114 fully open. It may be something of a change of tastes over time.
I have found myself playing with several stop combinations...(middles only for proctice when people are in the house who want to be able to talk) and the different sounds are very interesting. I'll even play just the high bank late at night when I want something soft and sweet and stay away from the bass notes as well.

Last year, Jr. was telling me about the latest "in thang" with the zydeco players, KF in particular. He said it was "sloppy wet." Czech reeds right out of the package and installed un-tuned. He didn't have a box handy for me to hear this, but he said that's what KF had ordered. Obviously, what KF does often becomes trendy. You might ask Jr. 'bout this tuning as I'm very curious what the heck it's all about.

Most of my boxes are tuned 5 cents wet. I like that sound the best. I've got a Falcon A Box tuned 10 cents and it too is pretty cool. Likewise with my Falcon E & F -- they are both tuned 10 cents and I wouldn't change them for the world.

R!CK

I seem to remember Richard Lebouf's style being a little on the wet side, as I think Beau Joeque used single rows some dry?

When I said I don't want "Zydeco Wet", I was thinking about a certain majority of people who play zydeco on triple row, which is very wet. Not quite an old Wive's tale. And I think very many zydeco players who play a triple row, also try and reproduce that wet sound with a one row. Not too far fetched.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna got with 7 cents wet, or maybe 5. Probably not too much of a difference...

Cheers!

Jim

OK...I'll confess that I'm a total newbie at playing the cajun accordion. I'm confused about wet vs. dry sound.
I think the wet sound is the sound that sounds a little out of tune?....but my real question is this: when all the stops are pushed in, my accordion only plays the bass notes on the left hand....none of the ten buttons of the right make a sound as I push and pull. Is this normal? I sure hope so....am guessing that I've cut off the air supply to the buttons on the right when I push the stops completely in? Thanks for your patience! Liz

Welcome Liz.

You are right on the stops, when you push them in, you have cut off air to all 4 banks of reeds. Each stop control air to one of 4 banks of reeds.

The wet/dry thing refers to tuning. Dry tuning refers to each corresponding reed of a certain note is tuned exactly the same. So say the third button on a C accordion is a C note on the push, which has 4 C reeds for each of the 4 banks of reeds in that octave. Each would be tuned exactly the same. On wet tuning there is some difference, in different degrees of wetness. I think it is usually one row of reeds are tuned a certain degree from the others. This tuning is more common in zydeco, and it seems like most European and Canadian types of music, whereas dry tuning is usually the one used in Cajun tuning. In fact I dont know if any other genre of music uses dry tuning.

Did that make sense?

Thanks Bryan! Now I'll take someone's advice who poasted earlier on this thread (I think?) and attempt practicing with the middle stops pushed in. I'm caring for my parents (both in their early 90's) and they're very patient with my accordion practice....however, like most of us, they do need to get a little shut-eye from time to time.

Thanks again for the very interesting info on this wetness/dryness topic. It's very interesting! Liz

On what Rick said, of having his tuned at 10 cents. I have been talking to Jr on this. The accordion he is building for me, is going to be tuned wet and he told me your going to like this one he is going to tune it at 15 cents low to 2 cents on the high side in the key of D. Can't wait. he said it will be ready in three weeks.. Jim, here is Junior Martin's. phone number he will answer all of your questions on tuning.
(337)232-4001