well, you see the obvious difference between the "teardrop" shifts and the more squared style
it seems the teardrops were used on a lot of high end excelsiors way back, but
later on the teardrops were only used on "export" and student line accordions, as
they were a purchased item from a vendor while they made the rectangle shift tops
themselves in the factory
this was because after a certain point, CEMEX worked toward a point of pride
in Manufacturing, being that (similar to the NewYork Factory before WW2) 100%
of the professional accordions were made from scratch, from base materials, on premises
period
and that again became true of Excelsior under CEMEX after sometime in the 1980's i guess
and until Pigini bought the brand
and i mean EVERYTHING from scratch... raw resin and plastic making expertise
a dedicated Electronics department... Excelsior NewYork even made their earliest Cellulose
sheets from scratch... bass buttons mechanicals for shifts and actions, all Millwork
and of course making their own reeds
the level of vertical integration and control Excelsior held over their Manfacturing
Process was absolutely the pinnacle of Accordion Manufacture, and will
never be seen again under one roof
and that is the difference between the Teardrops and the Rectangles