What exactly did you order, and how much of a down payment have you paid?
Hi, Thank you for this feedback. At firm it was supposed to be the Piano, Professional, 120 bass with the cut back to Master lever to the right of the keys, tuning was to be LMMH, I wanted a jazz blues & French/Italian all in one. Lol. He has a $300 deposit at this point.
I thought there was an older thread claiming that at least one of the Excalibur accordions was a rebadged Chinese-built E. Soprani, but I am not able to find it
I’m not sure that your requirements will be met with this accordion. Most players of jazz would want a cassotto, and the Professionale models do not have that. For French/Italian folk music on a LMMH, in my opinion you would want to be sure that the detuned M is 8-15 cents sharp, but for jazz, you would probably want the detuning to be much more subtle—maybe 2 or 3 cents at most.
Thank you for the feedback. I think I'm done. I'm going to tell him again that the deal is off. It's a total scam.
Thank you for your comments.
Anyone reading the severity of many of the reviews of Jim Laabs would be well-advised to be cautious when dealing with them. In my case, I had initially been planning to buy from Castiglione Accordion, which I knew was a legitimate source. I took so long to save the money and make a decision that, in the meantime, Castiglione closed its doors. So I emailed Pasco Italia (the factory which currently manufactures accordions in Castelfidardo with the Paolo Soprani name) to ask them for the names of Paolo Soprani dealers in the US. I exchanged emails directly with Sig. Giansandro Breccia, president of Pasco Italia, and he gave me one name only: Jim Laabs.
www.pascoitalia.com
www.google.com
Like you I am finding the economical E.Soprani Circus Line CBA ($1,300 at Liberty Bellows) to be an excellent student instrument for learning the CBA. I've had mine a month less than you, but I am already pleased with what I have learned to play so far in that short time. As I progress I am beginning to perceive some of its limitations. For example, I find it difficult to achieve good dynamic expression compared to previous, higher quality accordions that I have owned. When the sheet music specifies to play "piano" or "pianissimo", I find that with lighter bellows pressure some of the reeds on the E.Soprani do not respond as well. Occasionally some of the notes don't work at all unless I push a little harder on the bellows. It seems that some of the reeds have a more difficult time activating when the bellows pressure is very light. I'm supposing that that is a consequence of the instrument's lower quality reeds. Still, at the beginner level the E.Soprani is certainly adequate and cost effective for learning the chromatic system, which by the way I am finding to be much easier than most people claim. Like you, I figure that if I ever get good at the CBA, I'll eventually upgrade to a better instrument, but I'll have no regrets about buying the E.Soprani as a starter instrument. Or, if in the end I give up on the CBA, I won't feel that I have wasted a lot of money.
How fast reeds respond with low bellows pressure depends on the voicing. If the gap between the tip of the reed and the reed plate gets smaller the reed will respond faster in pianissimo. But sadly the reed will choke on forte. When you have stronger steel the reed can be voiced to respond fast at pianissimo and not choke at fortissimo. And when the voicing is done carefully you can even get all the reeds to respond equally fast. But that means work, and work equals money, so cheap accordions always have sloppy voicing.
Thank you for explaining this. Makes sense that better responding reeds inherently cost more.
