Irish waltz ??

Call then anything you want but those 4 knobs control what are really registers or tone changers and should be used at will. Piano accordions usually have several and they work just fine. They help but are not really necessary for tuning the accordion. If that were the case how would ever tune a 4 bass one hohner, etc with no stops (registers). Hmmmmm!!!

Be happy!!!!!

I have closed the stops on my martin "C' box (one at a time)but when I tried to open them up to full open the stop closest to the finger board would not come up without some difficulty. Did anyone ever had this happen? What can be done to fix it?

I have closed the stops on my martin "C' box (one at a time)but when I tried to open them up to full open the stop closest to the finger board would not come up without some difficulty. Did anyone ever had this happen? What can be done to fix it?
In fact all of the stops are extremely hard to open and close!

Cajun accordion stops are made completly of wood, subject to expansion/contraction and can bind. Making the stops seem to be the most difficult part of construction a Cajun accordion. The stops on my Le Capitaine are fairly stiff and tight. They move easily enough. Friction seems to be the method of keeping them open. That is why they are tight. They sure don't close on their own. Stops, registers, switches on most other accordions are metal. My Gabb "Cajun King" had metal stop slides and they always worked smoothly. They have a spring clip that engages when the stops are pulled fully up which holds it open nicely. I've wondered why cajun box builders don't install metal stops. Maybe it would change the acoustics. Wooded stops can wear with age and get loose. Metal stops don't.

Metal is not always the answer, Hohner 114 models have metal stops that are known for getting loose and not staying open. But admittidly all piano accordions I repair have metal slides which work smoothly.

Funny you all are arguing about those stops. Years ago when I first got my Martin, I went to take lessons from a "renowned" accordion lady who swore she could teach me to play a Cajun one (but first wondered why on earth I would want to play such a 'limited' instrument, especially one that you had to "heave in and out so much!") She closely examined my new accordion and struggled mightily to get the stops to move and whereupon told me my new accordion was..."defective." Well, I happened to have Jr. Martin's phone number handy and got the man himself on the phone. As I recall, he said that the stops were more or less for decoration these days and in the old days if a player was out playing and a reed broke in the middle of a set, he could close that reed bank off and finish the night. He said if you worked the stops and an air leak was created, the accordion was virtually impossible to fix. ...So not to mess with them.