Doubts about Sano Stereo Sixty - Concert Master Piano Accordion LMMH

[Fredson96]

I believe this accordion model needs no introduction. There are quite a few of them on the market, and apparently this has been the case for the last few years. It's seemingly a great cost-benefit professional model with double tone chamber from a reputable brand. Despite this, however, it's quite difficult to gather some important info about it. Therefore, I decided to create this discussion in hopes of finding people that know it and can provide some quality info. Any piece of knowledge would be immensly appreciated

I believe the most important questions are the following:

During which period accordions of this model were produced (e.g., 60's, 70's)? Sano was a brand recognized for its quality in this period?

Are these accordions of this model well built? Are the materials used of good quality? Are they well assembled?

Why it seems to be so many of them in the market? Did Sano build that many of them, or they just have high rotation (i.e., people purchase them, hold to them a little and sell them shortly after)?

A quantitative, albeit subjective inquirement: what would you consider a reasonable price tag for a well-conserved, gently used accordion of this model? For example: is it worth $4000/$5000k (as of current date of post)? Or this amount would be better spent on another accordion?

I tried to condence the questions as much as possible. Thanks in advance for all the information that may be provided on the topic

 

[Ventura]

"Circa 1940, Joe Zonfrilli, Sr., founded music schools called Major Music, in Irvington New Jersey. At some point near 1950, an accordion player named Nicholas Sano, wanted a pickup for his accordion, and Joe designed and patented one of the first pickups for what had until then been a purely acoustic instrument. With the pickup came the need for an amplifier, and so in 1951 came the first Sano amps."

to me, Sano was way more famous for their Mic systems, which had the
lions share of the market for quite awhile (OEM also) and their Amps
were well priced and popular with Pro Guitar and Accordion players alike

so the Sano brand was mainly an electronics company for awhile,
they imported Guitars and Accordions
for the music schools and eventually branded them SANO as well

at some point they saw the Cordovox create a new market and decided
to jump in with the SANOVox, and by then were coming up with
accordions for Professionals to use with their electronics "factory installed"
with some models having custom grills that held the mics in a chamber

i have no idea what factory in Italy they sourced from, and as far
as i could tell, Sano accordions stayed a regional brand
(which, hey, the New York / Philly region marketplace was huge
while the SANOVox and their Mic systems had a national presence

i would say they were competitive in all aspects, so you may find
all quality levels of their accordion models, and really each will
need to be vetted on a case by case basis as to current value.

IMHO $4000 - $5000 there are a ton of accordions available out there
including new ones so personally probably wouldn't even look twice at a SANO
unless it started under $2000.. but hey, one might BE worth $5000
and worth having

 

[djpFR7x]

I've owned SANO accordions most of my life, everything from a SANO Zon-Rio, to a Stereo-50 Concert Master. As a youngster growing up in NJ my father would take me to the SANO shop located in Irvington NJ where I marveled at the assembly of SANO accordions and development of new concepts. Professionally I played a SANO Stereo-30 that was musette tuned, the low-A growl of the basses was most impressive.

Recently (several months ago) I sold my Stereo-50 Concert Master (the one in my picture) for $2,500 and replaced it with a Serenellini which is adorned with rhine-stones. I also have a Roland FR7x which I've enjoyed but at this point it's time to pass it along to someone else.

Wishing you the best with your SANO, unfortunately I don't have a suggested price for you. I'd consider a starting point to see how the market responds. Also, you may want to contact Liberty Bellows for some input/guidance.

Liberty Bellows Accordion Shop​

www.libertybellows.com
614 S 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19147
(267) 815-4407