JimD?
Ventura?
Anyone?
With no-one knowledgeable within reach in my remote location I am frustrated in my search to find an approximate date of manufacture for this instrument.
Please, help !
Birthdate still not known
- Thread starter Ffingers
- Start date
JimD?
Ventura?
Anyone?
With no-one knowledgeable within reach in my remote location I am frustrated in my search to find an approximate date of manufacture for this instrument.
Please, help !
Jose EB5AGV
Always learning!
I asked yesterday an AI about the same thing on my future PS Professionale IV, and among other things, it said:
Check inside the accordion (e.g., under the grill or near the keyboard) for a serial number. Some Paolo Soprani models from this era have serials that can be cross-referenced with production records.
- Contact the **Paolo Soprani company** directly (they maintain historical archives) or consult specialized accordion forums/collectors for help.
Maybe this is true?
Check inside the accordion (e.g., under the grill or near the keyboard) for a serial number. Some Paolo Soprani models from this era have serials that can be cross-referenced with production records.
- Contact the **Paolo Soprani company** directly (they maintain historical archives) or consult specialized accordion forums/collectors for help.
Maybe this is true?
Ventura
Been here for ages!
i doubt it
sadly, the primary focus in Italy as the great names
came crashing down in the cataclysm of the end of
the "Golden age" was to pretend nothing had ever
happened.. most of the buyers were in far away places
and had little or no clue about any reality regarding
the industry and the movers and shakers behind it.
Normal business practices of competition, quality,
brand, features, went out the window and were replaced
by rumor, innuendo, legend, vague gossip about reeds
and such.
Paolo Soprani was perhaps the most viciously and frequently
abused and re-used brand name on the planet for Accordions,
as the company literally disappeared overnight.. everything was
thrown out, trashed, paper records burned.. the empty shell of
the factory loomed over the citta like a mammoth skeleton.. it
could not be avoided.. you look up the hill you walk toward the
old citadel, you see it.. a dark empty shell for nearly half a century..
the "rights" to Paolo were at times passed between different
handlers as often as every few years
there has never been to this day another actual individual and unique
building/factory/warehouse or sales organization dedicated
exclusively to the Paolo brand
God only knows who made what when with the name Paolo on it
you can only evaluate each individual modern looking Paolo
on it's own merits, you can only do that by physically inspecting
it CLOSELY
sleek looking modern era accordions are mostly NOT from the original
company.. Paolo accordions were voluptuous in shape and contour..
they were colorful and distinctive looking.. they were heavy..
they had great sound with reeds made in the factory exclusively
used in Paolo Soprani accordions built in that same factory
the smaller legendary "little red's" were in a different class, and
had their own look and feel and were only great when there was a
Great Man running the place dedicated to MAKING them great
because he loved the little ones too
so i apologize to Fingers and Scuro and Jose and
all of you who still love the brand.. but there is
absolutely zero need to date a post-factory Paolo
simply because there has never been a period of
consistent quality since, though there may be accordions
of quite decent value found with the Paolo name on them
the reasons for what accordion bodies had the name hung on them
were based on what the handlers thought they could sell/market at
any given moment.. models mean nothing.. no-one was designing
anything to "be" a Paolo or to carry the brand's legend forward
if you want a NEW or modern accordion to even attempt to
sound like a Soprani, go buy a big old 40's 50's junker and harvest
those old reeds and clean them up and put them into something good
then paint "Paolo" on the front of it.. you will be closer to a real Paolo
than anything ANYTHING that has been sold at retail with the
Paolo name for at LEAST the last 45 years
again.. apologies..
the King is dead, he has been for a very very long time
sadly, the primary focus in Italy as the great names
came crashing down in the cataclysm of the end of
the "Golden age" was to pretend nothing had ever
happened.. most of the buyers were in far away places
and had little or no clue about any reality regarding
the industry and the movers and shakers behind it.
Normal business practices of competition, quality,
brand, features, went out the window and were replaced
by rumor, innuendo, legend, vague gossip about reeds
and such.
Paolo Soprani was perhaps the most viciously and frequently
abused and re-used brand name on the planet for Accordions,
as the company literally disappeared overnight.. everything was
thrown out, trashed, paper records burned.. the empty shell of
the factory loomed over the citta like a mammoth skeleton.. it
could not be avoided.. you look up the hill you walk toward the
old citadel, you see it.. a dark empty shell for nearly half a century..
the "rights" to Paolo were at times passed between different
handlers as often as every few years
there has never been to this day another actual individual and unique
building/factory/warehouse or sales organization dedicated
exclusively to the Paolo brand
God only knows who made what when with the name Paolo on it
you can only evaluate each individual modern looking Paolo
on it's own merits, you can only do that by physically inspecting
it CLOSELY
sleek looking modern era accordions are mostly NOT from the original
company.. Paolo accordions were voluptuous in shape and contour..
they were colorful and distinctive looking.. they were heavy..
they had great sound with reeds made in the factory exclusively
used in Paolo Soprani accordions built in that same factory
the smaller legendary "little red's" were in a different class, and
had their own look and feel and were only great when there was a
Great Man running the place dedicated to MAKING them great
because he loved the little ones too
so i apologize to Fingers and Scuro and Jose and
all of you who still love the brand.. but there is
absolutely zero need to date a post-factory Paolo
simply because there has never been a period of
consistent quality since, though there may be accordions
of quite decent value found with the Paolo name on them
the reasons for what accordion bodies had the name hung on them
were based on what the handlers thought they could sell/market at
any given moment.. models mean nothing.. no-one was designing
anything to "be" a Paolo or to carry the brand's legend forward
if you want a NEW or modern accordion to even attempt to
sound like a Soprani, go buy a big old 40's 50's junker and harvest
those old reeds and clean them up and put them into something good
then paint "Paolo" on the front of it.. you will be closer to a real Paolo
than anything ANYTHING that has been sold at retail with the
Paolo name for at LEAST the last 45 years
again.. apologies..
the King is dead, he has been for a very very long time
Jose EB5AGV
Always learning!
I am feeling quite depressed right now 
This AI stuff is tricky. I heard (on the radio yesterday) something that terrifies me. Thank goodness, I won't be around when this happens, but I think it will happen -- someday. Today, when you contact a smart/intellectual "human" for an answer to a question, you usually get a good solid answer. However, what some people are doing to get their answer, is, they compare it to what they can get on AI. A lot of them like the "deep thinking" that AI goes into and they like the AI answer better.
S-o-o-o, who has the best answer for the question you need an answer to? The answer, we want is the "best of both worlds". To get this (in the future), there will be a "chip", implanted in our body, that will communicate to our brain. Our brain will have the capability, to communicate to AI and also our own human "creative" thoughts. Supposedly, we will have the final decision with the answer -- I hope?
The technology is here now. The paralysis that Christopher Reeves and Joni Erickson Toda had with their neck/spine injury is now fixable by implanting a chip in their brain that can communicate to their lower body (bypassing the non functioning nerve control) extremities so they can control movement in their hands, legs, etc.
This chip can communicate to our brain, and our human brain thoughts can be combined with information that is coming through on AI. I guess we will have control of what our brain final output is. -- maybe not???
A little scary for me. Anyone remember George Orwell's book "1984" -- (big brother Is watching you)? He wrote his book in 1949! I remember back then, I thought this will never happen -- well we have it now --in "Spades".
Edit: I realize my reply is "Off Topic", but the mention of AI got me going.
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Dingo40
Been here for ages!
Judging by the increasingly diminishing standard of written English found in the media these days, much of it must already be produced by AI: the steadily growing incidence of "schoolboy howlers" is a sure giveaway!
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You are spot-on Ventura. Very sad indeed.
I had an old (genuine) Paolo from the early ‘60s, and a new one bought in 2021. And I can confirm that their sound is quite different. The main thing I notice is that the low-end frequencies on both the right hand side and the left hand side were much deeper and more authoritative on the older one, and its overall timbre conveys a much more textured presence as well. Sadly, when I retired and relocated to a smaller house, I had to give one of them up. Given all the tradeoffs, I ended up choosing to keep the newer one.
Fortunately my brother still has our grandfather’s Paolo that he hand-carried on the ship from Italy back in the’50s, so I get to enjoy that one whenever I visit him!
I had an old (genuine) Paolo from the early ‘60s, and a new one bought in 2021. And I can confirm that their sound is quite different. The main thing I notice is that the low-end frequencies on both the right hand side and the left hand side were much deeper and more authoritative on the older one, and its overall timbre conveys a much more textured presence as well. Sadly, when I retired and relocated to a smaller house, I had to give one of them up. Given all the tradeoffs, I ended up choosing to keep the newer one.
Fortunately my brother still has our grandfather’s Paolo that he hand-carried on the ship from Italy back in the’50s, so I get to enjoy that one whenever I visit him!
Ventura
Been here for ages!
WoW
so your whole Family has Paolo Soprani as an important part
of your history.. no wonder you are partial to and still fond of them
plus your ear is educated to the real thing,, i bet you can stil tell a
Vintage Paolo in a blind test from the next room over
yeah that last one i grabbed was an old monster from the 50's
some kid dragged off a trashpile in Harrisburg.. i thanked him
for saving it from the fire and made his day with a crisp $100
the reeds were the only thing salvageable...
so your whole Family has Paolo Soprani as an important part
of your history.. no wonder you are partial to and still fond of them
plus your ear is educated to the real thing,, i bet you can stil tell a
Vintage Paolo in a blind test from the next room over
yeah that last one i grabbed was an old monster from the 50's
some kid dragged off a trashpile in Harrisburg.. i thanked him
for saving it from the fire and made his day with a crisp $100
the reeds were the only thing salvageable...
"Oh, I already sleep-walked you to the polling booth this morning and filled in your ballot. No need to wake you up for that. You are welcome." Of course like all dystopian scenarios this suffers from the simple problem that being in control of people's information channels is enough to control their genuine desire to do whatever you want. People will install triple security locks on a door to a house of paper walls.
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