it is, of course, interesting in that the Quint system "lost" the battle of
the competing FreeBass concepts to the Giulietti backed "Bassetti" system.
and so more or less dissapeared along with BETAMAX and other
interesting but losing competing systems that lost market share leading to their demise.
There are, as a result, quite a large number of slightly overweight and bulky Quint system
accordions still available in the used marketspace, and many are Professional,
performance Level instruments with hand made or finished reeds
part of the reason for the long delay may be Patent permission, as well as
specifications and associated engineering, were developed in the USA
(and are still held by Titano/Busso.. successor to Titano/E.Deffner)
only a few Italian Accordion factories were ever capable of building the mechanism,
one burned to the ground... and whether the others who WERE capable retain any
of the special tooling or parts or documentation only GOD knows for sure...
the patents may be expired by now
certainly, most anything can be re-created with enough time and engineering chops
and a laser controlled Lathe but OMG if i received an order for such a beast of an instrument,
I would simply find one of the long forgotten leftovers for sale somewhere in the world and
take the entire Mechanical Quint Bass section, shine and lube it up, and install it into
the new Accordion (far far easier than trying to craft one from scratch i imagine)
Here in the Mid-Atlantic we see plenty of old Titano's with both versions of Quint
(160 and 120) and the several knock-offs branded NOBLE or some other jobber label
that came out the back door of the Factory... there is actually one for sale on the
Craigslist in the New York area but it is rather overpriced
the reason so many of these sit unused, is that any equally built professional
accordion is lighter in weight and more reliable in mechanism than the same (sic) model...
actually i wouldn't be surprised that most have been butchered for their reeds...
also, nowadays, anyone curious about learning Freebass has the option of a Roland, which
can give you the fun of experimenting with various 120 Bass layouts without having to find
and spend money on "one of each" (though the 160 is still unique to a traditional accordion)
nevetheless, i wish you all the best with getting your special accordion built and finished and delivered...
it is quite likely it will be the LAST quint 160 ever built on earth, unless somehow you personally
fire up the interest of the Accordion World and inspire acolytes to follow in your footsteps !
ciao
Ventura