snavoyosky
Member
from the ZERO SETTE Accordion Factory many years ago
Reeds are always a curious item for the player as being the epitome of life and so I've decided to submit this to you, so you have a better understanding about them.....in the past and in the present time when this letter was written by Alessio. Unless you read carefully you will never comprehend his comments and what they truly entail.....such as the term "handmade made today" after saying initially that "handmade reeds are not made anymore".
so this was the letter I received from Zero Sette explaining all this"
Steve Navoyosky....... to Accordionists Forum members:
Dear Friends ,
following to thequestions and requests we got from several fellows concerning reeds , I will post some information andfacts about the present situation .
The first thing tomention is that no Italian accordion manufacturing
company has anymore a reedmaker inside , and basically thisis a good thing .
Years ago, whenthe accordion was much more popular and thousands of instruments were exported every month from Castelfidardomany producers (not all !) were absolutely independent and made all parts forthe instruments inside the factory, including reeds.
At that time therewere factories employing up to 1.600 workers, now the biggest factories in Castelfidardo have max. 30 workersemployed and no-one is making anymore reeds inside the factories .
The same thinghappened with the bellows also .
REED QUALITY THROUGH THE YEARS
There are different opinions about this , but the fact isthat there used to be many special masters making reeds that had a veryspecial sound character, one of these was Mr. Elio Guidobaldi (if you shouldfind an instrument with his reeds, get it !)
In general there was much more skilled people , but thelimits were given by the quality of the raw material which was not always thesame, and the working conditions of the masters .
Most of the old reedmakers were delivering good to topquality depending on how much under pressure they were.Today the quality is more equal, in general.
REED MAKERS
There are 5 mainreed suppliers :
ANTONELLI (SIVA) : Full range off reeds, from machinemade to top quality hand made reeds (www.accordions.com/siva)
ARTIGIANA VOCI : Full range off reeds , from machine madeto top quality hand made reeds
CAGNONI : Full range off reeds, from machine made to topquality hand made reeds
SALPA : Full range off reeds, from machine made to topquality hand made reeds
BINCI : Specialized in the production of diatonic reeds ,they also supply reeds made with a brass plate (very heavy, but gives aspecial sound on diatonic instruments) .
Each of the abovementioned reed suppliers is normally producing all the parts for the reeds (the plate, the reed or tongue,etc.) and has several teams of reedmakers that are mounting (assembling) thereeds, each Team is specialized in a certain type of quality or reed (treblereeds, bass reeds, piccolo reeds, etc.) .
For this reason weconsider that it is a positive thing that accordion manufacturers can buy and get reed from externalsuppliers :
- There is a good choice
- The quality is good because they have several Teams andeach one is highly skilled for a certain type of reeds
- Reed suppliers can afford all the costs related toquality improvements, training of new people, and most of all they investmoney in the stock for finished products and materials . All this would be tooheavy for accordion manufacturing firms nowadays ...
TYPES OF REEDS
There are 3 mainreed qualities made in Italy :
MACHINE REEDS : This is the bottom line which is usedmainly for student instruments (usually very small instruments) and by somelow-cost accordion manufacturers even on full size instruments .
Some types of machine made reeds are not really good butare extremely cheap, but it is possible to get also very good types whichgive very good results .
TIPO A MANO (HANDFINISHED) REEDS : Here you can find thebiggest range of offer and the quality goes to normal (basically like a goodmachine made reeds) to top qualities that can be exactly as good as anaverage hand made reed .
Handfinished reeds are nowadays a very good optioncompared even to some type of hand made reeds because they offer the bestprice/quality relationship .
Unfortunately many people still throw a lot of money awayby buying accordions with bad hand made reeds (paying hefty pricesfor the "hand made" reed option) at some manufacturers , only because of apsycologic satisfaction (they're so happy when they say : "HANDMADE").
A MANO (HAND MADE) REEDS : This is the professionalproduct and in here there start to be quite big differences also between oneproducer and the other .
Having a hand made reed doesn't mean to have a topquality reed .
One of the particular features of a hand made reed is theabsolute precision and the very small tolerance between the reedplateopening and the reed (or tongue) .
Please note that the "art" needed to make agood hand made reed is to have the right tolerance as there is a limit (and goodreedmakers know it) ; if the tolerance is close to zero , the risk is that thereed will touch the top (or even the side) of the reedplate opening when theinstrument is played and the temperature has changed .
HOW MANUFACTURERS CHOOSE REEDS AND CHECK THE QUALITIES
Some of you have asked me how we decide where and what tobuy and also how we do check quality .
First of all it is important to say that the most skilledpeople when it comes to choose and to check reeds are the TUNERS andunfortunately not all producers have a tuner inside (and believe me thefreelance tuners available on the marker can be dangerous) .
Each producer has his own internal "rules" andtastes and is therefore opting for some manufacturer and some specific qualityfor each type of accordion .
All the above mentioned things are FACTS , the followingthings are related to our personal experience so please don't consider themas 100% objective, but just as the results of my own experience .
In general we prefer to invest a little more money on thereeds and on the reedwork than most of the other producers , this issimply because the results of this small amount of extra money spent is veryevident for a player and is determining the whole quality of theinstrument .
The reeds in an accordion are more or less the same asthe engine for a car, it's useless to have a Ferrari when you then put anormal engine inside just to save some money .
One of the thingswe pay attention for is to have different sizes of reeds so that we can use for each model the type and size ofreeds that is giving the best results .
Of course this iscosting a little more because the supplier is delivering customized reeds and in many sizes instead of a standardproduction .
Depending on themodel, the customer, and the destination area we ask also to suppliers to customize the manufacturing processof the reed (tongue) in order to have a louder sound, a more promptreed, etc.
The needs of ajazz player are quite different from a classical music player or a folk music player .
To choose theright kind of reeds for a certain instrument is not that easy, usually the best results can be had with a deepcooperation between professional players + accordion manufacturers (thetuner) + the reed maker.
To check thequality of the reeds we have our tuner checking them out immediately (visual and "mechanical" check) whenthey arrive, before handing them out for the pre-tuning .
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
One of the F.A.Q. is "how should we choose the typeof reeds ?", and it is difficult to give a simple answer .
Every player has his very own taste and needs .
If somebody suggests you some kind of reeds or a specificreedmaker it might often not be enough to reach a good result : the reedsmight be very good, but then the reedwork could be done with average qualityand the result can be average .
The reedwork (pre-tuning , mounting , waxing and tuning)is able to enhance the good qualities of a set of reeds or also to"destroy" them .
The only good way for you to judge is to test theinstrument which is the final result m there is no other way (besides being anexpert in reeds + reedwork + knowing the results in a certain accordion ...).
One of the biggestexperts for reeds and tuning I know is Mr. Torben Ejersbo from Denmark (the name of his workshop isProCordion , www.procordion.dk, in case some of you should have some very specific question about reeds or tuning, I am sure he could helpyou .
I hope I couldhelp some of you about this matter in spite of my poor English (sorry for the mistakes !) .
Have a nice day !
Alessio
ZERO SETTE Accordion Factory
60022 Castelfidardo - ITALY
Fax : +39 071 7822845
E-mail : ze...@tiscalinet.it
Reeds are always a curious item for the player as being the epitome of life and so I've decided to submit this to you, so you have a better understanding about them.....in the past and in the present time when this letter was written by Alessio. Unless you read carefully you will never comprehend his comments and what they truly entail.....such as the term "handmade made today" after saying initially that "handmade reeds are not made anymore".
so this was the letter I received from Zero Sette explaining all this"
Steve Navoyosky....... to Accordionists Forum members:
Dear Friends ,
following to thequestions and requests we got from several fellows concerning reeds , I will post some information andfacts about the present situation .
The first thing tomention is that no Italian accordion manufacturing
company has anymore a reedmaker inside , and basically thisis a good thing .
Years ago, whenthe accordion was much more popular and thousands of instruments were exported every month from Castelfidardomany producers (not all !) were absolutely independent and made all parts forthe instruments inside the factory, including reeds.
At that time therewere factories employing up to 1.600 workers, now the biggest factories in Castelfidardo have max. 30 workersemployed and no-one is making anymore reeds inside the factories .
The same thinghappened with the bellows also .
REED QUALITY THROUGH THE YEARS
There are different opinions about this , but the fact isthat there used to be many special masters making reeds that had a veryspecial sound character, one of these was Mr. Elio Guidobaldi (if you shouldfind an instrument with his reeds, get it !)
In general there was much more skilled people , but thelimits were given by the quality of the raw material which was not always thesame, and the working conditions of the masters .
Most of the old reedmakers were delivering good to topquality depending on how much under pressure they were.Today the quality is more equal, in general.
REED MAKERS
There are 5 mainreed suppliers :
ANTONELLI (SIVA) : Full range off reeds, from machinemade to top quality hand made reeds (www.accordions.com/siva)
ARTIGIANA VOCI : Full range off reeds , from machine madeto top quality hand made reeds
CAGNONI : Full range off reeds, from machine made to topquality hand made reeds
SALPA : Full range off reeds, from machine made to topquality hand made reeds
BINCI : Specialized in the production of diatonic reeds ,they also supply reeds made with a brass plate (very heavy, but gives aspecial sound on diatonic instruments) .
Each of the abovementioned reed suppliers is normally producing all the parts for the reeds (the plate, the reed or tongue,etc.) and has several teams of reedmakers that are mounting (assembling) thereeds, each Team is specialized in a certain type of quality or reed (treblereeds, bass reeds, piccolo reeds, etc.) .
For this reason weconsider that it is a positive thing that accordion manufacturers can buy and get reed from externalsuppliers :
- There is a good choice
- The quality is good because they have several Teams andeach one is highly skilled for a certain type of reeds
- Reed suppliers can afford all the costs related toquality improvements, training of new people, and most of all they investmoney in the stock for finished products and materials . All this would be tooheavy for accordion manufacturing firms nowadays ...
TYPES OF REEDS
There are 3 mainreed qualities made in Italy :
MACHINE REEDS : This is the bottom line which is usedmainly for student instruments (usually very small instruments) and by somelow-cost accordion manufacturers even on full size instruments .
Some types of machine made reeds are not really good butare extremely cheap, but it is possible to get also very good types whichgive very good results .
TIPO A MANO (HANDFINISHED) REEDS : Here you can find thebiggest range of offer and the quality goes to normal (basically like a goodmachine made reeds) to top qualities that can be exactly as good as anaverage hand made reed .
Handfinished reeds are nowadays a very good optioncompared even to some type of hand made reeds because they offer the bestprice/quality relationship .
Unfortunately many people still throw a lot of money awayby buying accordions with bad hand made reeds (paying hefty pricesfor the "hand made" reed option) at some manufacturers , only because of apsycologic satisfaction (they're so happy when they say : "HANDMADE").
A MANO (HAND MADE) REEDS : This is the professionalproduct and in here there start to be quite big differences also between oneproducer and the other .
Having a hand made reed doesn't mean to have a topquality reed .
One of the particular features of a hand made reed is theabsolute precision and the very small tolerance between the reedplateopening and the reed (or tongue) .
Please note that the "art" needed to make agood hand made reed is to have the right tolerance as there is a limit (and goodreedmakers know it) ; if the tolerance is close to zero , the risk is that thereed will touch the top (or even the side) of the reedplate opening when theinstrument is played and the temperature has changed .
HOW MANUFACTURERS CHOOSE REEDS AND CHECK THE QUALITIES
Some of you have asked me how we decide where and what tobuy and also how we do check quality .
First of all it is important to say that the most skilledpeople when it comes to choose and to check reeds are the TUNERS andunfortunately not all producers have a tuner inside (and believe me thefreelance tuners available on the marker can be dangerous) .
Each producer has his own internal "rules" andtastes and is therefore opting for some manufacturer and some specific qualityfor each type of accordion .
All the above mentioned things are FACTS , the followingthings are related to our personal experience so please don't consider themas 100% objective, but just as the results of my own experience .
In general we prefer to invest a little more money on thereeds and on the reedwork than most of the other producers , this issimply because the results of this small amount of extra money spent is veryevident for a player and is determining the whole quality of theinstrument .
The reeds in an accordion are more or less the same asthe engine for a car, it's useless to have a Ferrari when you then put anormal engine inside just to save some money .
One of the thingswe pay attention for is to have different sizes of reeds so that we can use for each model the type and size ofreeds that is giving the best results .
Of course this iscosting a little more because the supplier is delivering customized reeds and in many sizes instead of a standardproduction .
Depending on themodel, the customer, and the destination area we ask also to suppliers to customize the manufacturing processof the reed (tongue) in order to have a louder sound, a more promptreed, etc.
The needs of ajazz player are quite different from a classical music player or a folk music player .
To choose theright kind of reeds for a certain instrument is not that easy, usually the best results can be had with a deepcooperation between professional players + accordion manufacturers (thetuner) + the reed maker.
To check thequality of the reeds we have our tuner checking them out immediately (visual and "mechanical" check) whenthey arrive, before handing them out for the pre-tuning .
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
One of the F.A.Q. is "how should we choose the typeof reeds ?", and it is difficult to give a simple answer .
Every player has his very own taste and needs .
If somebody suggests you some kind of reeds or a specificreedmaker it might often not be enough to reach a good result : the reedsmight be very good, but then the reedwork could be done with average qualityand the result can be average .
The reedwork (pre-tuning , mounting , waxing and tuning)is able to enhance the good qualities of a set of reeds or also to"destroy" them .
The only good way for you to judge is to test theinstrument which is the final result m there is no other way (besides being anexpert in reeds + reedwork + knowing the results in a certain accordion ...).
One of the biggestexperts for reeds and tuning I know is Mr. Torben Ejersbo from Denmark (the name of his workshop isProCordion , www.procordion.dk, in case some of you should have some very specific question about reeds or tuning, I am sure he could helpyou .
I hope I couldhelp some of you about this matter in spite of my poor English (sorry for the mistakes !) .
Have a nice day !
Alessio
ZERO SETTE Accordion Factory
60022 Castelfidardo - ITALY
Fax : +39 071 7822845
E-mail : ze...@tiscalinet.it
