The other night I finally got around to adjusting the spring tension on my Gabbanelli Cajun King in A. It had a much heavier action than my Bon Cajuns and while it was OK for Zydeco I had difficulty playing Cajun on it and especially the Waxia Special which I have been working with for a long time. I took off the fingerboard and stretched out the springs a little and voila, I got it just about equal to the Bon Tees. Waxia Special got much better on it. So I was wondering how many players do you think finally get a handmade or even a Gab and then don't really progress because the action on their boxes is just too stiff. I was just lucky that my first Bon Tee had Larry's typically light action and that is what I have always played and liked. I have played some friends' Martins which were much too stiff for me and other Martins which were much lighter in action and very comfortable for me to play. Li'l Anne's accordions come to mind since her Martin Bb which I have played several times feels light like my Bon Tees. I'm thinking that there may be players out there who have put their boxes in the case and have not taken them out in frustration at not being able to execute the licks due to an overly stiff action that is making it difficult to progress. Any thoughts on that.

Although I use a light action, I am not sold on the idea that light springs allow you to play faster.

There is another school of thought that stiffer springs will allow the the "flappers" to return faster and that will allow you to play faster.

Frankly the two things that have made the most difference to me are
1) learning never to take your fingers off of the buttons. Many beginners take thier fingers off of the buttons and the hammer them down on the buttons. This slows playing quite a bit.

2) Checking your button height.
(How far do your buttons stick out of the fingerboard?) Having buttons too high will show you down. Having buttons too low will make your playing sound "mushy"

DP

DP has it right on explaining spring tension. Light action does not make for faster playing. The strength of your hands and fingers has to be considered. To that I would like to add that spring tension should be set when you pick your accordion up from its builder as was done on my Cajun accordion built by John Roger in 2005. The tension was set using weights. You can't get that with cookie cutter accordions.