Thank you Debra, are there different grades/qualities of Catraro reeds? When did these reed maker stop making these reeds? Is there a "best" in hand made reeds from the classic accordions? Probably subjective.
The best reeds in my subjective opinion are found in high-end accordions from the 1960s. I certainly have not worked on enough accordions to have encountered all possible reed makers... But the very best that I have seen are hand-made Taborro reeds (some marked Taborrov but the v may not be part of the name). They have the best sound and they are very strong, so the are not easily degrading in quality due to scratching and filing in the tuning process.
What accordions offered these reeds? In your opinion where do the Catraro reeds rank? Is the Titano Royal a top 1960's accordion? Or are there others much better?...again probably subjective
How about a Virtuoso?
The accordions I found Tabboro reeds in were Guerrini. But as I said, I have not seen enough accordions to know all reed brands and which manufacturer used which reeds.
Excellent reeds, but no cassotto in this particular one...
I have a Virtuoso free bass with a chamber, I'm surprised they used hand finished, instead of hand made reeds in it. I'm not sure what brand of reeds it has.
I'm not too familiar with the Titano models, but the Virtuoso isn't the top model as far as I know, so the lack of hand made reeds may account for that (leaving something better for the top models).
