legendary accordions are in a class by themselves,
there simply is no comparison
the legendary period was powered by Empiric design, which meant
masters in their houses and fanatic close friends and co-workers
time and again trying new ideas and constantly tweaking old ones
many of those skills, insights, and the finesse that were gained from
these efforts are now LOST as well as the machines and resources are
no longer available due to loss of Scale in Manufacturing and raw material depletion.
example: Giovanni Gola's reeds, and their installation and fine tuning...
only Silvio ever managed to match his temper (meaning custom temper of the steel)
and even at that, only Gola mastered the equalization of reedsets L vs M vs H
no-one before or since has ever matched his reedwork.. therefore no other
accordion nor a new one bearing his name can even be compared in the same breath
example: the last independant accordion factory that owned and operated a working Kiln
was CEMEX/Excelsior... this factory was also capable of making every EVERY part of an
accordion from RAW MATERIALS on premises
EVERY single tiny PART
this gave an incredible manufacturing advantage that they did not squander... it allowed them
to control quality like no-one else... it afforded them the luxury of always being able to use
the optimum type of wood ar other material for each design need
(there are up to 28 types of wood in a Pro line excelsior from this period)
Excelsoir even had it's own electronics design and manufacturing department, which
is why you will find Excelsior Bass mechanisms had small switching actuators built in to
the aluminum parts before assembly (all other accordions had to have actuators glued
on to some part of their mechanism)
also one thing shared by Scandalli and and Excelsior... they enjoyed
MORE THAN ONE period of "legendary" production
in Scandalli's case, two generations of Factory Masters who exerted a dedication
and control and gifted understanding of accordion design. This resulted in the
Super Six, which was merely the confluence of everything Scandalli ever learned
during one moment in time and one perfect scale design
anyone who has ever had a True Super Six from the legendary period would
laugh at the comparison to a AM1100 or any Modern Boutique brand of accordion
and there are a LOT of not really quite Super Sixes out there, including the Settimo
and the American Brands fulfilled under private branding contracts...
a Scandalli Super Six was uniquely finished and owed a part of it's
oersonality to the Master Provino to which it was FIRST TUNED, and to
it's hand finishing and final inspection BY THE MASTER before delivery
the Settimo version was built by a different set of workers on the overnight shift
and who were managed by the S Soprani organization (originally)
and of course after the LEAR SIEGLER ownership period, the Camerano
Factory as well as the new Farfisa Factory were totally abandoned, and all the
machines were left to rust and rot... once BonTiempi purchased the
brand name and rights all production was moved and merely "look alike"
Super Sixes have existed since then and to this day... there being no
physical connection whatsoever to any of the elements of Scandalli
that made what was "Legendary" possible
and for my money, even fewer Italian Accordions could ever quite match
some of the New York Legends like the Rocker Excelsior, or the
ORIGINAL PanCordion built for Myron Floren and produced for
awhile in New York ( look closely at the vuluptuous shaped Grillework
and you can tell them apart from an Italian Built later model )
no.. sorry boys and girls.. if you want a true Legendary Level accordion you will
need to SEARCH for one likely ReFurbish it to some extent and also be
quite lucky in the first place to even get the opportunity
or you can settle for something nice, quite good, and new
but lets not pretend they are anywhere near the same
ciao
Ventura
