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