during the period where major corporate "conglomerates" became enamored of buying
up Musiccal Instrument Manufacturers (the profit ratio looked so enticing)
CBS took Fender, Norlin took Chicago Music, Lear Sieglar grabbed Farfisa et al..
these corporations took over making marketing decisions and looked for
ways to maximize profits and cut costs. they did not know or see or care about
the "big picture" (which is necessary to do in the Music industry and Farming)
things started to seriously deteriorate for many such vassal buisinesses
now run by distant Overlords.
For a time, if any of you have Castiglione's old catalog/mailer still in your files,
you would note that suddenly all the high end model Scandalli's had
a duplicate identical looking Farfisa model at a much lower price. Much
in the way of "Quality" got watered down to take advantage of percieved
Value by the consumer, and contributed to Scandalli's ultimate bankrupcy
and dissolution and the complete loss of the great Factory to existence..
(Fender ALMOST was lost but saved at the last minute)
once a formerly huge company reaches the bank asset auction stage
typicallly the day to day operations had been suspended for a year
or more and all material value has been sold off or scrapped..
real estate assets are usually liquidated as soon as they are cleared..
(no-one even wanted the sprawling Farfisa factory lot and it was
abandoned as was SEM as was ELKA as was HAMMOND)
only actual "value" left is intellectual assets (brand names, contracts)
this is why i argue there is no continuance of Hammond, of Scandalli, of SEM,
because all these once mighty entities were fully reduced by the time
the NAME got bought by some new company
and so while the Lear Siegler Super VI obviously "slipped" during their
period of ownership, the drop in quality was nothing like when the
dirty little remote Bontiempi accordion factory, previously known mostly for it's
supplying Sears and Roebucks with beginner and intermeriate instruments,
suddenly began making the first of many "look alikes" under the name
Scandalli
and they managed to milk it for a very long time indeed
as is common with these sorts of things, (also evidenced with Paolo;s
downward spiral of quality) once one group feels they have "bled"
a name to the point of diminished returns, they sell the brand name
off to someone who has (usually) even lower expectations until they
reach their percieved "dimished" business point and they sell off the
name to some other entity who..
occasionally, you find someone who percieves the true value is to
bring the brand BACK to quality, which is where you see also
the comparison to Paolo, who is still being bld to dimished returns,
while the prople now behind Scandalli, Settimo, Sonola, are investing
time, effort, and Euro's into Future returns on investment through Quality
but again, without the original forms, tooling, etc. there is really no way
to re-create those classics truly in any sane cost effective manner.
i mean, the tech certainly exists to scan the molecules of a true Super Vl from
Camerano, you might even roto mold the case components exactly
or computer control a carbon fibre exact match body but then what do you
think the finished product would cost ?
(they did scan several Strad violins and one Guarnieri to the atoms,
but still can't figure out what made them so special)
how much can a reedmaker afford to sacrifice to perfection when they must
make their reeds sized to fit the existing accordion reed-blocks commonly being
used which are all based on the same scheme for sizing now because
WHO COULD POSSIBLY AFFORD to size reeds TO a unique accordion design
now that no manufacturer has an in house reedmaking dept ?
how much more would you have to spend on reeds for YOUR competitive
market accordion if you asked a reedmaker to please make each reed
a different length, sized to make the steel and the pitch as close to the
natural mathematical order of the universe as possible ?
Today you can buy a Hammond Organ, or a Stratocaster, that
are very good indeed, but there are other brands who also
offer a "Hammond" or "Strat" that are arguably perhaps even better
or more authentic.. a group has been trying to re-esatblish the actual tine based
Rhodes stage piano.. ALL of these people rely upon the same data and
history and the same limitations of reverse engineering and R&D costs
whether they currently "Own" the brand names or not
added to this is the inbred "Disinformation" that has been
a hallmark of the accordion industry post WW2.. and the single thing
that i personally found the most objectionable,, how the owners of
an American brand accordion would tell you to your face
"our factory in Italy..."
when NONE of them had a factory in Italy
and the waste of time brainstroming and then marketing something
"new" and "Exclusive" that is really just a new way of stringing words
together to describe the same old reeds but with a different color
or perfume ?
oh well.. my pet peeve'z are revealed
