Customizing button layout

[Marilyn]

A friend of mine who owns a Castagnari Lily has had it customized to include low notes on the melody side. He had all the reeds moved up one space, lost the top two sets of reeds but had low notes put in at the bottom. His Lily now has G on the fourth button up on the inside row and D on the fourth button up on the outside row. It seemed like a very, very good idea to me and it got me thinking!

I have a 3-row Castagnari Matti (C#/D/G) and some of the notes on the outside row are duplicated elsewhere. For example, I have F# on the draw on my G row and F# on the push on my D row and F# again on the draw on the C# row. What a waste! I think that F# on the outside row would be better as an F natural; that way I would have F natural on both the push and the pull on this row.

What do you think about this idea? i.e. having someone (Rees Wesson? Theo Gibb?) modify the outside row for me? There are other modifications I would like too e.g. C on the push, E on the push - I would kill for those!!

Have any of you done this with a 3-row? Do you think it would be a good idea?

[jonfreeman]

I don't know and it;s been a long while since I really did anything on these in/out devices although I still have my D/G box, a Hohner Erica.

One of my thoughts was, and it's used a fair bit in Irish tunes was to go B/C. Though I've had a Double Ray/ black dot, I'm afraid on the rare times I've tried it, I've not got my head round that system though.

Not that it's of any help to your question, I might wonder about the Shand Morino as a possible box for me or possibly even wonder about the chromatic accordions but it's not something I really think I'm ever going to get my head round.

[Marilyn]

I have a B/C box as well - a Saltarelle Irish Bouebe and it's a truly lovely thing, the tone is just amazing. I have tried quite a few other Irish Bouebes and, although they were good they just didn't compare with mine so I think the one I was lucky enough to get is an unusually good one.

Funnily enough, I tend to play Irish music on my C#/D/G box and use the B/C box more for English tunes. I guess I was just born awkward!

I think I will go ahead with the customization of the C# row because it seems daft to have notes duplicated (like F# on the draw on two rows) when I could have something that's actually missing like an F natural on the draw. Working out exactly what to have where is the big issue!

I did seriously think about the chromatic button accordion and, in some ways, wish I had gone down that route. The problem for me is the weight; my Matti is very light even though it's a 3-row and, given that I have ongoing problems with my shoulders, the weight is probably the most significant factor to consider.