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[ju]

I just bought a vintage Castagnari Tato  in D . Same size as the Max . Lovely fast and responsive with a punchy sound . The previous owner had had it 20 odd years from the old Crawley Hobgoblin .
 As it is the bass is in D/G , so I need to get that tuned D/A . Now I have zero musical theory  knowledge , I just press the buttons  so here’s my question .
The helper row is currently  E/D. G/F#. B/A  .i was wondering  what the ideal helper row would be ? Changes to make ? I normally play just one row  boxes playing  Québécois / French /English/ Cajun and anything else I like the sound of . Any advice welcome .

[ju]

Better picture without the edges cut off

[Winston Smith]

Although the organetto I had was a 4 helper/4 bass job, and I liked it a lot, it didn't have anywhere near the same sort of sound as a more normal melodeon. I found it quite unsuitable for most of the types of music I play. And, it took a while to unload it, even at a price which I wasn't very happy with!
I hope you have better luck with yours.

[ju]

I love it . I won’t be selling this one 🥰

[Stiamh]

For québécois music I would recommend push G# in both octaves and a C-natural pull in the first octave. The C-natural should also be very useful for English stuff. For French I think you'd want F-natural in both octaves. Cajun, no idea.

As a C#/D player I'd be tempted to skip the F naturals and put pull F#s with the push G#s. The F# reversal is incredibly useful for playing in D, G, Em, Bm, the lot really.

So I would suggest G#/F# C#/C G#/F#. Maybe even C/C for the middle button. But a key point is the location of the helper buttons relative to the main scale. They look a bit too close to the knee for optimal positioning of my suggestions. On what button is your start (lower octave push D)?

[ju]

2nd button start .  Oh and of course - loads of Irish music

[Stiamh]

2nd button start, hmm. Based on that, the lowest (chinmost) of the helper buttons would be ideally placed for a C-nat pull. The highest (kneemost) of the helper buttons would be ideally placed for a high G# push.

What you would do with all the other options would be a bit of a puzzle. G# on the lowest button would be a bit out of the way, but usable I suppose. (And still lot less out of the way than accidentals on many D/G systems!)

You could pair a pull F-nat or F# nicely with the push G# on the highest button. What you would do with the middle button I don't know. Maybe E/D as handy reversals.

Or go with my original suggestion and put up with the fact that the notes on the lowest two buttons at least would not be ideally positioned.

Maybe someone else has some ideas!

BTW for Irish music, the most useful single note is the C-nat. Then it'd be a toss-up between F-nat and G#, depending on whether you would prefer to be able to play tunes in Dm/Gmix or A major respectively. Playing in A major would definitely be the easier choice, trust me