Ventura
Been here for ages!
he works for a Russian accordion maker and wants to get you to wait awhile
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Bugari Prime or Pigini Nova?
- Thread starter Miroslav1806
- Start date
Walker
🪗
If someone will not be open with you about their cryptic comments there is little point guessing.
However, I know many people are disappointed about Bugari no longer being a fully Italian owned accordion manufacturer after the international investors arrived in 2019. Hey, that's life. Still good instruments, but I am not so keen on the carbon fibre focus just now.
However, I know many people are disappointed about Bugari no longer being a fully Italian owned accordion manufacturer after the international investors arrived in 2019. Hey, that's life. Still good instruments, but I am not so keen on the carbon fibre focus just now.
Bugari attracted some investors from "the east" and that made some people believe that quality would go down. But so far the quality remains the same. A friend of mine recently bought a new Bugari 289/ARS/C (a very popular model around here) and it is every bit as good as those from "yesteryear". (And I have worked on several of those as well.)
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I'd have taken investment from one of the world's two biggest economies to be a positive sign! Certainly in the UK a vast proportion of our core infrastructure is foreign owned.
Miroslav1806
Member
bought a Nova!
Congratulations!
You mean "ordered" (with a long wait to come) or actually found the instrument "in stock" somewhere?
Miroslav1806
Member
thank you Paul, yes i ordered it. The delivery time says: 'as soon as possible', but it will probably take more than a year before I can take it into my hands
With Pigini a lead time of two years is about average, not just for the Nova. And a local store keeper started being reluctant to sell Pigini when they refused to write up contracts for a fixed price. People here expect to order an accordion at a fixed price, meaning that the price at the time of ordering is the price at delivery. Pigini changed this a few years ago: when you order you have to guarantee how much the accordion is going to cost when it is delivered. Our local vendor finds this unacceptable, and frankly, so do I. They now sell mostly Bugari, Mengascini and some other brands, all of which honor the agreed-upon price when you order.
So, do you have a fixed-price contract? Or is it still a guess what the accordion will cost when it's ready?
Miroslav1806
Member
wow that's the first I hear about it, I've been in contact with some people who just got a new pigini (like the sirius millenium) and they didn't warn me about it. I ordered it from a well-known dealer in Belgium. The price he forwarded was 28100 euros including taxes. We still have to pay an advance of 1400 and then it is official. 700 euros will also be deducted because I will be renting a prestige junior from them during the delivery time. I will definitely ask again about this issue. Thank you Paul
Miroslav1806
Member
It is a fixed price with contract luckily
Maybe they have seen the errors of their ways... possibly because of lost sales by not giving a fixed price in the recent past...
In any case, although it would not have been my choice I'm sure you will be very happy with the Nova, whenever it arrives... and you will also be a lot poorer...
Miroslav1806
Member
Indeed I will be a lot poorer, but I am positive about the future I will look for a job to pay off the loan and play on the street regularly. And with that I can still earn about 40-60 euros an hour on good days. I plan to make my life with classical accordion and in my opinion the Nova has the most versatile in sound and I think that's an advantage when you give concerts. Bugari also sounds really beautiful, but it doesn't have such an objective sound. I once took friends to the exams of the conservatory students and they agreed that bugari had a characterful sound and would be perfect for baroque and eastern european folk music (the student played a russian waltz by semionov on an Bugari 2RC i think). About pigini they found that it had a soft but also extended sound (the student played the Sirius Millenium. According to my research, the nova has a wider dynamic range. Also, the basses are more responsive and louder which I think is an advantage for bayan literature that I really enjoy playing.
Miroslav1806
Member
but ' des goûts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas' as we say here
Why did you not ask them what they meant? If they cannot give their opinion (and 99% of the time, that is how you SHOULD be taking this... because this is a decision you should NOT be asking anyone else but doing the research yourself because for you, your opinion should hold the highest value), then maybe they were just chin wagging.
I also read your earlier comment that you really need a very expensive (i.e. top of the line) instrument for your studies. I find this puzzling. I always recall that Alexander Skliarov won the coupe mondiale long ago, playing a 3 row russian bayan. And I know people around here who finished their studies at the highest level, playing either a Bugari 289/ARS/C4 (piano accordion) or a Pigini Sirius (button accordion). And the teacher from the conservatory (now retires) I know quite well switched from PA to CBA many years ago and he plays a Bugari 580/ARS/C, so quite far from the top of the line. And he never asked students to buy more expensive instruments. So the most expensive accordion should not be needed to finish accordion studies at the highest level. (And if they are at "your" school, something is wrong about the school or the teachers.) The top of the line accordions offer still more refined mechanics (lighter to the touch) and the most expensive reeds with supposedly more dynamic range (although it's still very hard to build accordions so that the combination of reeds plus valves give a constant frequency over a very large dynamic range). I did try a Sirius (Millenium) and Nova side by side and you feel the difference in the mechanics. But that doesn't imply the Sirius is bad in any way.
Rest assured, if you can play everything on one of the "mid class" instruments you can play it on the top class as well, and with less effort. But you don't really need top instruments. To prove my point, watch this video below. Hard to believe that a "lowly" Jupiter bayan can even make the mechanics go this fast...
aviator_pl
Newbie
I have tried sirius and nova but unfortunately not side by side, and i remember that there are very similar mechanics feeling (if not the same). I don’t know if there are any differences in mechanics. There was difference in sound- nova has more complex sound than Sirius, and there is big difference in button feeling (standard vs mother of pearl). Can you describe what differences in mechanics did u feel? It’s a pity that manufacturers don’t write exactly about differences with some photos and advantages of higher models. As I’m engineer I would like to know what I’m paying for I know that for musician more important that just specification and technicalities is feeling of the instrument, quality of reeds and sound but these things are hard to measure.
I know that for musician more important that just specification and technicalities is feeling of the instrument, quality of reeds and sound but these things are hard to measure.
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forró
Member
Thanks for posting this, I really enjoyed his playing, someone new (for me) to follow.
A friend of mine and I tried both the Sirius and Nova side by side at the Frankfurter Musikmesse in 2019. The Nova feels lighter to the touch, so it must have just slightly lighter spring tension (and only need that lighter tension). When I was studying the piano it was always best to practice on a piano with more key resistance and then perform on one that was lighter to the touch. With accordions it is a bit different because you practice and perform on your own instrument, so you don't have to anticipate what the "performance instrument" will be. (Very high end pianists do transport their own piano for performances...) The sound of the Sirius and Nova isn't quite the same, but which is better is more a matter of taste.I have tried sirius and nova but unfortunately not side by side, and i remember that there are very similar mechanics feeling (if not the same). I don’t know if there are any differences in mechanics. There was difference in sound- nova has more complex sound than Sirius, and there is big difference in button feeling (standard vs mother of pearl). Can you describe what differences in mechanics did u feel? It’s a pity that manufacturers don’t write exactly about differences with some photos and advantages of higher models. As I’m engineer I would like to know what I’m paying for
Hard to say which to prefer with such completely different performances in different settings with different music.
The only thing I hear is that in the second video (the Pigini) the high F is horribly out of tune. For me that makes it hard to enjoy it... (but that's just me).
aviator_pl
Newbie
That can be true, because I don’t think that any manufacturer would develop different mechanism only for one model, especially if they produce 10-20 per year. It’s interesting about spring tension, because in Sirius/nova there is heavier (in my opinion) right hand keyboard than in my Pigini Bayan, but I like Sirius/Nova more because it is more responsive. I feel I can play faster on these keyboards. There is difference in sound because other type of wood used. What is interesting you can order a wooden grille for Sirius/Nova (and probably other models, so the Pigini can sound warmer, close to Bugari. I’m waiting for comparison between nova standard grille and wooden.
