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New Sonola SS4 • Interesting design

Sadly it's not possible to hear how much volume this accordion still produces. The construction seems to be such that the sound has trouble coming out. Even more so with the sordino closed... The constant struggle of accordion makers is how to create a mellow but at the same time powerful tone. A cassotto helps to make the tone more mellow and powerful at the same time. But anything that is blocking the "exit" of the cassotto reduces the volume again. (People still love the sound of the old Morino IV M because the register placement is such that nothing, also not the registers, is blocking the sound that comes out of the cassotto.)
 
Two reeds treble section. One basson and one clarinet reed that are both in the tone chamber.
Mechanical shutter.
Sounds nice!

My Menghini in my avatar is designed the same way. My previous Menghini which got stolen, had three reeds (two low) all in the chamber.
 
for all we actually know they could be sourcing his signature Sonola line
through Victoria

they are still one of the (few) sources for private brand, high end accordions, right ?

maxim's has to source them from somewhere, and what better way to get all
parties onboard for the new line and promotional focus than to keep all
affected parties happy and part of the (profit) scheme

obviously, Victoria has severe limitations for promotional and customer facing
interaction by their nature, so why not let Maxim's do all the sparkly fancy stuff
and just be behind the scene as a partner

i am assuming Mr. Galliano has some loyalty, and a solution that includes
his old friends would have gone a long way toward talking him into this

thing is, we may never know for sure where these new Sonola's are physically built
 
for all we actually know they could be sourcing his signature Sonola line
through Victoria
...
Not sure what you are trying to say here. Maxims group is an accordion factory that makes accordions sold under a number of different brand names, including Sonola, Piermaria, Settimo Soprani... I can never remember which others... I don't believe they make accordions for Victoria, nor that Victoria would make them for Maxims. Everyone is on speaking terms, and perhaps even willing to help each other when needed (like when a big storm hit Castelfidardo some years ago).
What I suspect is going on is that Richard Galliano's Victoria is getting old and he is looking around for new things, looking not only at Victoria but also at other manufacturers. But of course I don't have a direct source of information about this.
 
Maxim's has always been about marketing.. i do not believe they
have ever actually built anything, though they did a lot of retrofitting
over the decades as the public facing arm of MASTERsound

their accordions were sourced from Polverini for a long time,
but i believe that factory ran into trouble

for a short (very short) time they had something going with the
people who tried to appropriate the Gabbanelli brand, but that
place obviously was short lived and has closed

so where do the actual Settimo's and Sonola's and possibly Frontalini
models come from now ?

actually, i suspect the Frontalini part is just left up as a tribute to
the old Castlefidardo Busker

max will always be the idea man.. the dreamer.. the designer..
he may be able to demand a high level of perfection from his sources
and even make believers of them (which would help the end product quality)
but he must have someone like Victoria or Serenelli to do the actual crafting

in my opinion

ps: Piermaria was a big part of setting up the new(ish) International Music Company
factory, and as far as i knew that is where their forms and proprietary tooling
and manufacturing was re-located after SEM's dismemberment.. Piermaria is still
owned and held by the original French Family as far as i know
 
...

ps: Piermaria was a big part of setting up the new(ish) International Music Company
factory, and as far as i knew that is where their forms and proprietary tooling
and manufacturing was re-located after SEM's dismemberment.. Piermaria is still
owned and held by the original French Family as far as i know
Sorry for that. I always get confused which brand names are associated with IMC and which with Maxim's... The accordion universe is so complex nowadays... Nothing is what it seems...
 
Maxim's has always been about marketing.. i do not believe they
have ever actually built anything, though they did a lot of retrofitting
over the decades as the public facing arm of MASTERsound

their accordions were sourced from Polverini for a long time,
but i believe that factory ran into trouble

for a short (very short) time they had something going with the
people who tried to appropriate the Gabbanelli brand, but that
place obviously was short lived and has closed

so where do the actual Settimo's and Sonola's and possibly Frontalini
models come from now ?

actually, i suspect the Frontalini part is just left up as a tribute to
the old Castlefidardo Busker

max will always be the idea man.. the dreamer.. the designer..
he may be able to demand a high level of perfection from his sources
and even make believers of them (which would help the end product quality)
but he must have someone like Victoria or Serenelli to do the actual crafting

in my opinion

ps: Piermaria was a big part of setting up the new(ish) International Music Company
factory, and as far as i knew that is where their forms and proprietary tooling
and manufacturing was re-located after SEM's dismemberment.. Piermaria is still
owned and held by the original French Family as far as i know
Serenelli isn't that a Chinese knock off? Could you mean Serenellini?

And for a place all about marketing they have an abysmal web site ... https://www.sonola.it/Gallery/Gallery.html broken links etc.
 
Wow, are Borsini making accordions again? I thought they closed down some years ago.
I am also surprised by this statement. Borsini did go bankrupt, and there was even a story on this forum about someone who sent his new Borsini back to the factory for some warranty-repair and never got it back as the bankruptcy happened exactly while his accordion was there.
Of course the Borsini name may have been taken over by someone else.
 
well they got pretty good for a smaller outfit making really nice accordions
and they had a unique flair for style that set them a bit apart it seemed,

but accordion manufacturing has continued to shrink.. Fantini.. Borsini..
Polverini.. and Zero nearly so and who knows where the next market
adjustment will be.. the companies and industry are so close lipped
the customer base has never a real clue and disinformation smoke and mirrors
has always been the only thing we could count on from them..

the recently successful companies are ones who have literally changed their
"spots" every half dozen years with whatever better old brand name they could
buy or lease .. just using google earth over time it is hilarious how often the corner
of a notorious building gets a new "factory marquee" class sign or how often
the stencil name on a certain "window" on Cristofori street is changed to the
flavor of the year

we are lucky to still have scads of old accordions in renewable condition
available to us here in the USA
 
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