Cavagnolo: presence in United States?

[Alan Sharkis]

From what little i’ve seen of the Cavagnolo Air line, including the arranger, I’m very impressed by these digital accordions. Yet, I see no evidence of a source of them in the U. S., or even a dealer network anywhere outside of France. Can anyone tell me why this is so?

 

[jozz]

interesting, a language issue?

they have mostly distributors in the French speaking regions of several EUR countries

 

[Ventura]

when Cav had the Odyssee reedless, Faith Deffner made a formal
deal with them to be the USA distributor/Dealer, and she imported
an order of them to start

that model lapsed around 2010, and the relationship was not
formally renewed by Frank, Busso, though he offered support
and was willing to act as a go-between for anyone wishing to
deal with Cav in future

and again some time has passed since that conversation

occasionally someone hears of the Odyssee still here in the USA and is curious,
they should never have changed the "name" of the reedless IMHO
as it was perfect and always attracted notice

typically, because of the many limitations of communication with
Cav, used models seem to take forever and constant discounting
to sell.. there is not even a courtesy link on their website to
old owners/user manuals (for example)
can you imagine trying to get a PART or SCHEMATIC when they
can't seem to even get instructions for turning one on out to the
general curious public

Faithe said they sounded amazing and played nicely, but i never got
to try one

ciao

 

[Alan Sharkis]

when Cav had the Odyssee reedless, Faith Deffner made a formal
deal with them to be the USA distributor/Dealer, and she imported
an order of them to start

that model lapsed around 2010, and the relationship was not
formally renewed by Frank, Busso, though he offered support
and was willing to act as a go-between for anyone wishing to
deal with Cav in future

and again some time has passed since that conversation

occasionally someone hears of the Odyssee still here in the USA and is curious,
they should never have changed the "name" of the reedless IMHO
as it was perfect and always attracted notice

typically, because of the many limitations of communication with
Cav, used models seem to take forever and constant discounting
to sell.. there is not even a courtesy link on their website to
old owners/user manuals (for example)
can you imagine trying to get a PART or SCHEMATIC when they
can't seem to even get instructions for turning one on out to the
general curious public

Faithe said they sounded amazing and played nicely, but i never got
to try one

ciao

As I stated before, I spoke to one dealer who found it difficult to work with them. But their new line, the Digit AiR, at least on their website, looks impressive, and now includes an arranger module that’s also very interesting. But when you look at the distributor map, there’s a large cluster of dealers in Continental Europe, most of those in France and one dialer in, IIRC, Hong Kong. There are no distributors in Great Britain or Ireland, none in Australia, and none in the Americas. Although you can choose to have much of their website in English, if you drill down within it, you’ll eventually come across French language pages. Theree’s no attempt to translate into other European languages, even though Cavagnolo has distributors in Spain, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, Most of their Youtube demo videos are in French. On the surface, that’s all as it should be — after all, Cavagnolo is a French company with a relatively new (2007, I believe) factory in France. But with Roland digital accordions in obvious decline and Proxima not doing well, Cavagnolo may be missing an opportunity.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

As I stated before, I spoke to one dealer who found it difficult to work with them. But their new line, the Digit AiR, at least on their website, looks impressive, and now includes an arranger module that’s also very interesting. But when you look at the distributor map, there’s a large cluster of dealers in Continental Europe, most of those in France and one dialer in, IIRC, Hong Kong. There are no distributors in Great Britain or Ireland, none in Australia, and none in the Americas. Although you can choose to have much of their website in English, if you drill down within it, you’ll eventually come across French language pages. Theree’s no attempt to translate into other European languages, even though Cavagnolo has distributors in Spain, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, Most of their Youtube demo videos are in French. On the surface, that’s all as it should be — after all, Cavagnolo is a French company with a relatively new (2007, I believe) factory in France. But with Roland digital accordions in obvious decline and Proxima not doing well, Cavagnolo may be missing an opportunity.

I guess I ran out of space in that last message. The flip side of what I was expressing is the simple fact that before a company decides to expand, it must Have a pretty good idea that the cost of the expansion will be exceeded by new sales. In the U. S. , for example, Cavagnolo would need to know if the digital market is already saturated by Roland and if potential competitors, for example Concerto, haven’t priced themselves too high. Then, they’d have to figure out the cost of setting up a distributorship, say, in or near an East Coast transportation hub, with a staff that’s fluent in French and English, including an upgrade and repair facility. If I were making that business decision for Cavagnolo given all that research re: a potential U. S. market, my answer would be, “Stay put.”

I like the concept of digital accordions. I’d like it to remain viable for some time to come. At age 82 I doubt very much that I’d buy another one, but like you, Ventura, I also think that acoustic accordions with midi are a great alternative.

 

[Ventura]

hey Alan,

i agree, they are missing an opportunity, but sadly they are unresponsive
either from laisse fere or from a staffing shortage..

one would think a company capable of this level of tech would
also have some website skills, an ability to convert support documents to PDF,
an employee who can respond to queries in English

but they apparently do not

oh well !

 

[Ben-jammin]

We can only speculate, but I would really question how are they currently able to support the demand/user base in their existing primary market? If the answer isn’t really well, then expanding their market is a poor decision. Low volume niche electronics like this can be risky for a company. If there are bugs that require a lot of warranty work it’s really easy to get red balance sheets as well as damage to the brands reputation.

There’s also a world wide shortage of certain semiconductors and this very well could be impacting them.

 

[Valski]

I'm planning a trip to France and hope to check out the Cavagnolo Accordions. Specifically I'm looking at the digital versions even though my FR8X suits me very well at this moment. Websites and brochures are fine and dandy, however I think that you need to examine the actual instrument. How does their accordion feel and function? Their digital accordions seem to be very much like the Roland line and there is a Paris dealer who carries both brands so it should be easier to compare them. The arranger looks interesting but ease of use and availability of styles will play a role.

A lot of product specifications are purposely vague so I think that you need handle the product before arriving at an opinion. At this time the digital models seem quite similar to the Roland however there does seem to be a wider choice in colours and grills especially in the CBA versions. From the web brochures they also appear to be lighter in weight but there is no information on batteries and internal speakers and also how loudly can you play before connecting to an amplifier. It does seem a little pricey, perhaps because the orchestra module comes with an IPad.

It's quite strange but I was planning to post my own questions regarding this intriguing line of instruments.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

I live on the East Coast of the US, Long Island, specifically. I was curious about the Bugari Evo and how it compared to the Roland 8x. About three years ago, my wife and I had an opportunity to be in the Seattle area on our way to an Alaskan cruise, so we visited Petosa accordions so I had a chance to compare the two. I bought neither at that time, but at least I had a very good idea of the pros and cons of each. That’s a very important part of the process. Good luck in your quest.