Hello Braves...

long time (occasional) lurker here...
trying to learn the art...

I do have a question though...

acquired an accordion, La. Handmade by Larry Miller
seller claimed it as a Key of C unit...

does not sound like key of C to me... or several musician type friends...

who knows, maybe we were all mistaken... in any event...

how could I easily test to confirm which key the accordion is in?

Many thanks to you all...

press the air button and open the bellows.

them press on the third button from the top of the box (if it is a 10 button box) and push the bellows together.

If you have a piano handy, compare the accordion note to the piano notes. That 3rd button note on the push should be the key of that box. Could be out of tune, but will likely be between notes rather than shifted totally to another. What constitutes out of tune on a cajun box is for another topic.

or
open bellows
press both bass buttons [left hand side]- both the chord and 'note'
squeeze bellows together

compare that to a piano chord or guitar, see what it matches, start with c since that is what they told you


chord might be easier to distinguish than single note


pressing both buttons removes necessity of 'top vs bottom' and counting buttons at all

[[if you pull the bellows apart, a C accordion will play a G chord]]


wle

hi lurker Who's Not Dave, welcome,
Dwight of course is Right!



ralph

Is there any way that you can post an audio (or video)
recording of the instrument for us?

All you'd have to do is hold just about any combo
of buttons down, give it a few pushes & pulls & we
could tell you what you have.

--Big

y

Beats me why the manufacturers can't stamp, emboss or fix a plate to , say, the bottom, of the accordion with the "ex-factory" key..

It may also help a potential buyer to identify if an accordion has been retro-fitted with different keyed reeds ( perhaps dare I say inferior quality reeds ? )...ie. it plays like a Bb but it says it's a eg. Martin C ....

It may even be helpul if the embossing identified that it was a say, C box with eg. 5 c Wet tuning ex-factory.

ALL of the harmonica manufacturers have no problem with embossing their diatonic harps..why not discreet stamping/embossing on the accordions. ?

It's probably even better to force makers to use a CMA approved color scheme for accordions for each different key .... Like Cyan for C, Brown for B etc. Come to think of it, i'd love a totally Chrome plated Acadian for my C ..... Or a bar-code plus a free bar code reader? Two bleeps i C, three is D etc, so the blind will be less left in the dark .....
PS a converted accordion should be banned & branded with this sign across the bellows:



PS, maybe on the top i there's a nice crayfish present at the front ...


-N

His box is probly a B# or a C#b and not a C.

I usually would use an electronic guitar tuner and push in the third button and find the key quickly.