The free bass system that Nick Ariondo plays (invented by Tommy Gumina) is the same, except the low notes are on the outside, and the octaves go up as your hand goes in towards to the bellows. The advantage is that you don’t have to “jump over” a counterbass row to get to the next octave. The disadvantage is that you can’t make it a “converter” with a normal stradella. So based on the projected sales, Titano opted for their version.
Yes on all counts chromatic I think is much better. At least we do have chord patterns. Thanks for the video and love the piece you played. Titano is a beautiful sounding accordion!
Love your great ‘how to’ videos and recommend them to other accordionists. Emilio Allodi who runs an accordion shop here in London sold me a freebass converter some years ago and I probably play 50/50 stradella/freebass left hand.
I just bought a Guilietti Super CT. Finnish system treble side and C-system free bass converter. I’ve been having a blast learning easy 1 manual organ music!
There's two free bass switches the other one has 4 (or more) dots that allows the Lowest Octave to couple with the 2nd Octave to give it more clarity etc
Thanks for the comment. Yes it’s probably unfair of me to not point that out. The video was so long already. I just don’t like the sound of it which is not a fair reason to not mention it.
I’m really only attracted to single read sounds in the right hand and I’m constantly fighting the overpowering of the right hand by multi reed combinations in the left. In my Jazz playing I compensate by generally playing very short notes in the left hand. I work my hardest for clarity by using the Bellows as best I can. What do you find attractive about the multi-reed sound in the Quint system?
@@deedpartle Hohner makes Funline Accordions which feature the 3*3 French Stradella Bass System which allows you to create more chord combinations. The Fun Power Piano Accordion with 41 Keys and 120 Bass has 4 Ranks of Reeds on Both Sides so it sounds more balanced
Hello from snowy Canada. I relate well to your perspectives, and have learned a lot from your videos - e.g. chord substitution, bends, the way our ears perceive the overtones. Your comments on chord voicing here was quite insightful - thanks again. I'm dissatisfied with stradella for bass lines and am considering a digital accordion, likely Proxima, in hopes of improving that. One question: any thoughts on using the quint bass solely for bass lines, and moving the chord work to the right hand? I realize that's pretty much a change in accordion philosophy, but the concept interests me.
I think the electronic instruments are great for letting you try out different layouts especially in the right hand button versions. For me the instruments have no soul so they don’t have the attributes that are really attractive about the accordion for me. Still if you want to control a large pallet of sounds they may be useful there. There are some advantages in the left hand for melody in that you can make greater octave jumps with less motion. So you may make that into a part of your style. It;s disadvantages are that you don’t have as much fluidity of motion because your arms in a leather sling pulling bellows, and the sound doesn’t project quite as well from that side and many makers don’t support as many reed combinations. Right hand Comping would also be difficult you could never do bass/chord comping, the Jumps would be impossible. However there’s a lot of other comping patterns you could do and if you mastered the technique you would certainly have a unique approach to the instrument that could be very special. Best wishes.
Wonderful musicianship! Have you tried CBA free bass rather than a quint converter? You can do your own voicings! Have even more than three octaves. Since you can play complex chord combos on a stradella, I’ll bet you can learn either C- or B-griff/system free bass in short order. It’s much easier than quint!
Sheer fear of playing without Stradella as a fall back has kept me from moving to another system. If I had another lifetime I'd play chromatic button righthand with freebass left. Short of that I still find surprises in Stradella . And the adage that constraint is a source of freedom seems to apply for me here.
@@deedpartle at age 81, with advancing osteoarthritis in my hands that prevents me from using my thumb, have had to switch to CBA. Have borrowed a friend's Roland Fr4xb, which is configured for B-system. If I can learn a new system, I'll bet you can too. BTW, that acoustic accordion has a great tone.