Titano facebook

[Valde002]

I thought the Titano company is no longer? I happened upon a link to the the Titano facebook site but am not a Facebook user, so I cannot post there. 

It looks like they make it appear as if it is an active company, and you can order custom accordions? And who is running that site? It's such a tease to see people playing the Emperor model when it is no longer available. Anyone know?

 

[JerryPH]

The company looks to be alive. I know that Guy Klucevik is a big Titano fan. I myself started with a tiny Titano.

https://www.facebook.com/titanoaccordions/

 

[JIM D.]

In the past the Titano brand of accordions were made by Victoria. Sold in the US as Titano and in Europe as Victoria.
In the past 50 years they have been made by Pigini.
Any Pigini Dealer can obtain you info or a new model.
They are really Pigini models with a Tittano grill & badge.

 

[debra]

In the past the Titano brand of accordions were made by Victoria. Sold in the US as Titano and in Europe as Victoria.
In the past 50 years they have been made by Pigini.
Any Pigini Dealer can obtain you info or a new model.
They are really Pigini models with a Tittano grill & badge.

Rumor has it that Victoria might start making Titano accordions again at some point in the future, so they may become great again.
I don't know whether this is related to Pigini being too busy, but it could well be. The lead time on newly ordered Pigini mostly ranges between 18 months and 2 years, and for many people that is not acceptable. (There is also no guarantee the accordion will finally be delivered for the price that was agreed upon ordering it either. This is totally unacceptable in my book.)

 

[JerryPH]

...but what a great "problem" to have for any accordion company... to actually be too busy. They just might need to get themselves in gear and expand. That is something that I do not think has happened since the hey-day of accordions!

 

[Tom]

Or maybe they are just incompetent....

 

[JerryPH]

Or maybe they are just incompetent....

ROFL!

 

[debra]

Or maybe they are just incompetent....

I would not say that but they are "in a hurry" and as a result many accordions that leave the factory need some aftercare. I heard from a Pigini expert (importing accordions in the Netherlands) that every (large) accordion they got came with something like 60 (minor) defects that needed to be corrected before giving the accordion to the customer. Even if this might be exaggerated (and I'm not saying it is) there is clearly not enough time to do proper quality control at the factory. Being very busy is a good thing, but letting problems slip through is not good for business in the long run.

 

[Ventura]

In the past the Titano brand of accordions were made by Victoria. Sold in the US as Titano and in Europe as Victoria.
In the past 50 years they have been made by Pigini.
Any Pigini Dealer can obtain you info or a new model.
They are really Pigini models with a Tittano grill & badge.

Rumor has it that Victoria might start making Titano accordions again at some point in the future, so they may become great again.

that rumour would be a lie..
simply explore the History to find where the E. Deffner company most vigorously AND successfully
defended their exclusive ownership and rights to the Titano Brand and patents against Victoria...
Similar to todays issues with Chinese disregard for intellectual Property rights, back in the day
several Italian Manufacturers had little or no regard for the Law.. Gabbanelli had to fight to shut
down a similar situation not that long ago.. and the "lookalike" excelsiors that were built up on
the hill in that Dungeon of a factory.. 

Victoria had to pay a heavy price, cease and desist as well as destroy inventory and 
pay restitution and fines.. this included their illegal backdoor selling of Free Bass
models under various names that (ab)used the Palmer and Titano patents.

The E. Deffner company continues to enjoy a long and unbroken history of
serving the Accordion market from it's current home in Virginia, where it
moved some years back when Faithe Deffner partnered with Frank Busso to
assure it's health into the Future. PanCordion, alive and well 
though obviously evolved from it's heydey  as a NewYork manufactured instrument,
and Titano,  are still owned in all aspects by the company.
Titano is readily available in the USA and Australia

in my opinion, it was the gravest mistake and miscalculation by the Victoria
management to operate in that manner, as it cost them a most lucrative
and long term contract and partnership which took them decades to recover from,
as well as the shame of having lost in their own (Italian) Courts of law
( American companies seldom prevailed in these lawsuits )

really cannot imagine them making the same mistake twice..
Ciao
Ventura

 

[debra]

simply explore the History to find where the E. Deffner company most vigorously AND successfully
defended their exclusive ownership and rights to the Titano Brand and patents against Victoria...
Similar to todays issues with Chinese disregard for intellectual Property rights, back in the day
several Italian Manufacturers had little or no regard for the Law.. Gabbanelli had to fight to shut
down a similar situation not that long ago.. and the "lookalike" excelsiors that were built up on
the hill in that Dungeon of a factory.. 
...

Details of history are always hard to recover, especially when the players each have a very different view on what actually happened. What I believe to know is that Victoria stopped making Titano accordions. I won't go into the details from the Victoria side as to why that was the case. (It is a different story than what you posted and I have no objective knowledge to choose which story may be more true than the other.)
I have never quite understood why people like or even prefer accordions with a brand name that does not correspond to the factory making the instrument. It happens a lot, for instance with Hohner, Piermaria and many others. IMC makes some of those but does not seem to be selling instruments under their own name...
For me knowing who makes an accordion is more important than the label on it. This is going to become even more important in the future, with Chinese or North Korean factories churning out instruments with fake labels, fake grills, etc. You can buy a "Bugari", a "Paolo Soprani", a "Ballone Burini", ... you name it, all really made there (mostly in North Korea) and sold for less than the real brand but more than they are really worth...
Back to Titano: what I do know is that people who want a Titano are much more interested in the older models made by Victoria than in the newer models made by Pigini. Which just shows that a brand that does not correspond to a single factory is not so desirable in general. The same happens with others. A "Rossini" or a "Kratt" can be a fine instrument or can be rubbish, depending on which factory they come from...

 

[Jim2010]

Here is the link
Here is a link to the Titano Accordion Company.
https://www.titano.com/
It is a basic site, but there is useful information. Looks like a wide range of instruments are or can be produced.

 

[Ventura]

simply explore the History to find where the E. Deffner company most vigorously AND successfully
defended their exclusive ownership and rights to the Titano Brand and patents against Victoria...
Similar to todays issues with Chinese disregard for intellectual Property rights, back in the day
several Italian Manufacturers had little or no regard for the Law.. Gabbanelli had to fight to shut
down a similar situation not that long ago.. and the lookalike excelsiors that were built up on
the hill in that Dungeon of a factory.. 
...

Back to Titano: what I do know is that people who want a Titano are much more interested in the older models made by Victoria 
that is kinda fun to think about, as the Titanos built for the Traficante family (the original creators/owners of the Titano brand) were those silly tube chamber models 

Under the Deffner ownership, Research and Development in the United Stated began to craft interesting refinements, specifications, and several patents (that are still incorporated today in current models, some of which were shared with PanCordion models)

while it is obviously true, many accordion names are mere faceplates dropped onto whatever physical model is available from a given supplier. it is also true that some Brands who maintain ownership and control of Specifications and development still have THEIR accordions built in a way that continues to make them unique. You cite PierMaria.. the ownership of which is still in France, and which were built in the SEM factory for a long period under close control (a PierMaria family member was on their Board and spend much of his time at the factory on the floor actually ) and when SEM was crushed into bankrupcy by other factors, a re-investement by the PierMaria ownership was instrumental in helping IMC get established. 
I personally am confident that a PierMaria accordion coming out of the (relatively) new factory is quite different than anything else coming off that same assembly line under a different brand name.

Sometimes the difference is in the reeds, the types of wood, the tuning especially.. most brands today being tuned against or by Computer and are very precisely ( but boringly at times ) tuned.. What if the original Provino were still in existence for a certain brand, and still used to set the temprament of the new models ? or what famed Provinos had been modeled and incorporated into the nuances of a programming miracle computer such as developed and used by FisItalia ?

yes, the sameness (except for [font=Roboto, Helvetica, sans-serif]swarovski[/font] Crystal Placement) of the Boutique accordions is enough to make anyone who has ever played or owned a true classic Accordion sad.. but there are a few places where accordion lovers are still in charge and make strong efforts to even continue to IMPROVE modern accordions
ciao
Ventura