Hohner Imperator or Accordiola piano 5 deluxe

[wout]

Hello! So I decided to sell the Scandalli and use the money to buy a new accordion. Now my question is I can get both a Hohner Imperator and a Accordiola piano V grandeluxe for the same price. Now I don't neccesarely need a 5 reed instrument but I wonder what you guys opinion is on overall quality and what would be the better choice? The accordiola is a 5 voice instrument with typo a mano reeds inside. Please give me your opinions! Would help me a great deal in making the choice.

 

[wout]

and for both instruments i would pay 950 euro's

 

[maugein96]

Don't know much at all about PAs, but that's one hell of a lot of accordions for the money. Don't know where you are based but my guess is you couldn't buy half of either of those accordions in the UK for 950 Euro.

Hopefully somebody on the forum who knows these instruments will be able to help you make a choice, and I suppose the type of music you play will have some bearing on the final outcome. 5 voice might be a bit of a handful unless you're young and fit. 3 out of 4 of my accordions are 3 voice, and the 4th one only has 2 voices, but they are all CBA. Even then the three voice instruments are not exactly lightweight.

If I were being offered the two instruments concerned for that price, I would be inclined to grab them both, and hope that neither of them needed much remedial work. In the UK a full overhaul would typically work out about 750 Euro for each instrument, possibly more for the 5 voice Hohner.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

 

[Glenn]

Hi Wout.
I have a Piano V.
It is indeed large but considering the casotto and all those reeds it is not an impossible instrument to play. I love the tone of the bassoon reed and overall it is a well made instrument. The 950€ sounds rather low for such an instrument so check that there are no serious problems (Eg. mould or worn keyboard ).

 

[Soulsaver]

and for both instruments i would pay 950 euros

- I assume to be accurate OP means €950 for either.

I am located in Holland/Germany and there are plenty of good instruments here. However if you want to buy a decent cassotto accordions second hand its quite expensive

And cant be that bulky..

 

[wout]

yes its 950 per instrument and I spend loads and loads of time haggling and so on to find one I can afford because I am unfortunately not that rich. Yes the Piano V is quite bulky but I am just 27 so I can handle that

 

[Glenn]

Then you've got an excellent deal so buy them both...

 

[wout]

I wish I could but I can't afford both, so I have to make a choice

 

[nagant27]

There is an imperator v for sale fairly close to me in Niagara Falls I saw listed on ebay. Starting price is $499. I know very little about German made accordions, but this listing may be of interest to you. I don't know what it will sell for at the end, but its an auction, and I have no connection to it.

Are all imperators double tone chambers, and all v models have 5 reeds?

 

[Jibberin]

Hi
The Hohner apparently is a very difficult machine to repair/service.
The Imperator I tried had plastic piano keys which may not be to eveyones taste.

 

[Soulsaver]

Are all imperators double tone chambers, and all v models have 5 reeds?

Imperators were made in 4 voice as well, but all Vs are 5 - both double cassotto.
Imperator III made in 1936 was also 4 voice (just to confuse) but not cassotto, according to Hohner list

 

[nagant27]

Ok thank you Soul saver.

Also I have older imperator iv that has a few problems. I bought it cheap, really cheap a few years ago, and it is amazingly different than Italian made accordions. It does seem considerably harder to service compared to Italian made accordions. I also don't care for the keyboard being plastic. Its a much different feel than wood.

 

[wout]

Different in a good or bad way? Anyway I am going to check it out the 10th the Accordiola turned out to be an escrow fraud so I guess that the choice is made

 

[nagant27]

Its something I might just need to get used to if I played it much, which I really do not. But I prefer wood keys, much better feel in my opinion.

 

[wout]

I have to agree on that on my old crosio i got wooden keys and its a nicer feel But anyway, I have made my choice. I spend a long time visiting, examening and trying accordions out last week and I found an instrument I really liked. Its a scandalli cantore 96t I really liked the sounds of it and the keys (altho plastic) feel nice! I tried out the Hohner both iv and v and some other instruments but I decided I can survive without a cassotto since I found the weight, the feel and the sounds of the scandalli nicer. Only thing is I need to replace the pads on the treble side because theyre a bit worn but for the rest I'm happy!

Thanks for the help