Im going to be doing a little tuning of my accordion, I got the gospel according to marc 2 and the instruction on there, is there anything else I need to be aware of?

Try not to make your tuning sound grumpy.

Marc is one of the best tuners around and very experienced at that too (besides being a superb player with a keen ear). For me i prefer to use tuning bellows, and made one specially for cajun sized melodeons. Also to take reeds out if you need to adjust the inner ones, especially the smaller type, too delicate. You have better options then to check aperture, reed alignment and leathers that way. But i've done it too the "gospel way", if it's only for minor adjustments. A strobe tuner & even a tone generator come in handy too at times. - Nout

I would never tune without a strobe tuner handy.
Otherwise you can get the accordion in tune with itself, but nothing else!

DP

As you are tuning keep in mind what a new set of reeds cost. Makes you more careful!!.

I'm a rookie, but heres few little things to consider:

1. I was told by a wise man that when flattening a note, to grind parallel to the sides of the reed instead of across to minimize weakening.

2. Be careful when grinding to sharpen a note, the bit sometimes wants to slide off the edge of the reed, which can take metal off the side of the reed, or the edge of the slot, both of which arent good.

3. If a reed requires very much grinding, do it a little at a time so you don't overheat the reed.

4. Watch your reed gaps when tuning, they make big difference in response. Support the reed with something flat to avoid bending the reed and throwing off the gap. This is easy on the push reeds. For the pull reeds, you either have to take the reed out, or like Marc shows in the video, use a reed hook and tune through the gap. Problem there is that is the greatest chance of throwing the reed gap off, or damaging the slot sides. The small reeds have to be removed if sharpening the pull sides.

5. If you do remove the reeds to tune, make sure you remelt the wax after you get it tuned right. You can use a soldering iron if your careful, I use a lacquer burn in iron because it doesn't get as hot.

6. If it requires very much tuning, I think it's better to tune it, play it for a week or so, then tune it again.

It's very tedious, and it's very easy for patience to wane. Walk away from it from time to time, and refer to what John said. The one I have now, my guinea pig, is living proof they take a fair amount of abuse because it not only is my first, but has been the subject of much experimentation and retuning, but they have their limits.

Have fun.

- John, a full set of high end Binci reeds costs about the same as a quality set of double bass strings; i rather think they're not that expensive. The fitting & tuning is more costly though.
- Byan, thanks for the tips, and i use a 15 watt soldering iron with a light dimmer in between for waxing ...
- a PS: it's not wise to mouth-blow air through removed reeds because of saliva and moist. If you do clean the reeds with alcohol after such an abuse, eventually without the leathers fitted.

- Nout