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Voci Armoniche BLUESTAR

96Bass

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According to the Voci Armoniche website the BLUESTAR is their top of the line reed, rated above their handmade reeds. Does anyone have any first-hand experience with these reeds. I see that they come standard in Petosa's higher end models. Do any other manufacturers include these as standard in any of their models, or offer them as an option?

 
don't know but they sound great:

If you read their VA's website regarding these reeds, it comes to mind these are a precision milled, gun-blued version of their TAM reeds. Ultimately cheaper to make, but more expensive than their A mano reeds??
 
That is interesting. Your sense is that they are machine made reeds?
It makes sense that with modern manufacturing techniques that it is possible to make reeds with higher tolerances and less variations.
Voci Armoniche grades them above their own hand made reeds.
 
That is interesting. Your sense is that they are machine made reeds?
It makes sense that with modern manufacturing techniques that it is possible to make reeds with higher tolerances and less variations.
Voci Armoniche grades them above their own hand made reeds.
i'm guessing here but:

a video shows them CNC milling the reedplates

spec sheet
states the tongues come from a sheet like TAM instead of a nastrino (a mano) indicating that step is machined (laser cut perhaps?)

then the photos show the Bluestar tongue at the base has intricate corners, as opposed to the a mano, which are square. i suppose they dont corner that by hand

fitting tongue to gap, supposedly is handy work again
 

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The main thing that distinguishes Bluestar from other reeds is that after the reed is cut to size, which also involves filing/sanding the top to approximate the desired tuning, the reeds go through another heat cycle which renders the shiny surface blue again (from the shock cooling).
I'm sure the now hardened top surface makes a difference for the sound.
 
Voci Armoniche make excellent reeds. It is easy to believe that because a reed is shaped from a narrow ribbon of steel with a blue edge, this makes it superior to the hand-finished reed that is cut from a wider piece of steel, and therefore does not have a blue edge. Maybe we should consider though, that both types of reed tongue are made from the same type of steel, certainly with Voci Armoniche reeds.

Perhaps, what makes many hand made reeds better is really the amount of time taken - to make, assemble and finish (and match the tonal quality of each reed in a given set) by hand - it's the subtle skill, precision and artisan techniques. However, I think we can sometimes overstate the excellence of the hand made reed. I have played plently of average accordions with hand made reeds. Indeed, some hand-finished reeds are very, very good. Many people believe musette accordions and hand-finished reeds make for a better tonal match.

The great reeds are more than ribbon steel cut in a certain shape. In 1956 when Giovanni Gola was establishing his new accordion model - what did he do? He contacted a great reed worker from his old employer, Dallape, and brought him to Hohner. Pietro Fillipazzi was given the task of working the reeds so the final result was the reeds responded to air pressure evenly across the range of notes. Also, the reeds were tuned with emery paper to give a more refined finish to the reeds.

Thermal bluing seems to be the hallmark of the Bluestar reed, and is a sign of the extra time and dedication taken in the making of the reed. This process might well have an effect on the overall sound of the reed. The fact that this artisan type reed is not made from nastrino appears to be irrelevant to the quality of the final product. It also serves as one example of an exceptional reed that does not conform to the normal rules of the hand crafted voice (i.e. with blue edge). It is not the only example!

There seems to be a trend these days to create hand-made-plus reeds. So many premium accordion manufacturers now use extra-special grade reeds in their top instruments - whether it's GHV reeds, Turbo reeds, Bluestar or double riveted etc. Some makers like Siwa & Figli deserve great credit for starting to bring elements of the reed making process back in-house. I visited their factory a couple of years ago and they were assembling proprietary reeds, and implementing new patented rivet-head technologies (again not conforming to the usual voci a mano rules). They were going back to the old Dallape way of producing their own special reeds. I also noticed the use of beautifully varnished stecca a biliardo reed blocks, which is very rare nowadays. This was more usually found in high quality Guerrini and Titano instruments of yesteryear.

If we are keen on the standard rules of thumb - such as 'hand made reeds have a blue edge near the rivet because they are cut from ribbon steel'. This works fine in most situations, but not all.

Well here's another useful general rule... Keep a close watch at what accordions the good Balkan musicians like to choose - they often make excellent choices!
 
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There are echos here of the entry into watchmaking of the mechanised Japanese processes which: "...would never be able to compete with the accuracy and longevity of our handmade Swiss mechanisms."
Seiko, anyone??
 
I have a "Citizen" brand solar battery wristwatch that has kept perfect time for approximately 20 years and never needs resetting apart from changes in daylight saving time.
I would never consider going back to a wind up watch again!?
 
Not going back, wilddog, just reminiscing on the fallacy of a mano versus machine.
I rarely wear a watch - my occasional need for timekeeping is sufficiently catered for by a 'smart' phone which is, like the Paolo Soprani 'Super Organ' monster which I'm about to buy, total overkill for my needs. (Sometimes, as in the case of the accordion, beggars can't be choosers.)
 
There are echos here of the entry into watchmaking of the mechanised Japanese processes which: "...would never be able to compete with the accuracy and longevity of our handmade Swiss mechanisms."
Seiko, anyone??
Hi Ffingers and Dingo40,

Seiko and the so-called Quartz Crisis, certainly shook the establishment of the mechanical watch industry at the time... Quartz is very accurate and inexpensive. Though, like Dingo40 I am more of a Citizen Eco Drive fan than Seiko - but that is beside the point.

I think there is a place for all three reed types;

the hand-finished reed
the hand made reed
the artisan reed (not the best name - but helps distinguish it from common-or-garden a mano voices)

Often there is not a big price difference in 'upgrading' from hand-finished reeds to hand made reeds on a custom order. However, humans love to categorise artifacts. The problem occurs after the passing of time, when a interested individual wants to satisfy their curiosity that they really do have hand made 'grail' reeds. However, after sixty or seventy years, there is no 'box and papers' to use a horological phrase. They might occasionally find that the accordion they play which sounds amazing and is clearly a Rolls Royce accordion, does not appear to fit some visual expectations... What I am saying is, there comes a point when we need to disentangle ouselves from the strict categorisations.

The blunt reality may be that the three types of reed named above are on a continuum - each is part of the same spectrum. No accordion reeds in this day and age are completely hand made, but some are certainly more hand made than others.

I would never consider going back to a wind up watch again!
Dingo40, I would love a manual wind watch! An Omega Speedmaster 321, a nice Jaeger Le-Coultre, or if I were a millionaire, maybe a Patek Philippe... I could look at these all day long and never once try to tell the time?
 
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Dingo40, I would love a manual wind watch! An Omega Speedmaster 321, a nice Jaeger Le-Coultre, or if I were a miillionaire, maybe a Patek Philippe... I could look at these all day long and never once try to tell the time?
Walker,
I'm not so discerning: as long as it tells the time!!?
 
Walker,
I'm not so discerning: as long as it tells the time!!?
I bought an Atlantic Worldmaster watch in excess of 60 years ago when I was a police officer in central London. It cost me three pounds two and six
(Pre decimal) and has worked perfectly ever since. As can be imagined it had plenty of knocks in the early days. Never been serviced or cleaned. the only thing changed was the winder button which wore out through constant winding. It's still my go to watch if I (rarely) need to wear one.
 
Here is Lorenzo Antonelli (Voci Armoniche) speaking about reed research and acoustic potential:


Other parts of the video are also quite interesting and concerned about scientific approach to reeds and sound production.

(found at Melodeon.net)
 
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