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A little more bit of history

JIM D.

JIM D.

Been here for ages!
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Interesting site, thanks Jim! Glad to see Paul McCartney among the 50 greatest accordionists of history (# 20, right above Dick Contino), and Ottavianelli among the best accordions made.
 
In all seriousness and respect to Sir Paul, if he was sat down next to the 49 greatest accordionists in the world, I doubt he would be #50... lol

At best he dabbled on the accordion, and Hohner, as a promotional piece, sent him a Gola 414 which he took a single promotional photo with and as far as we know, it was played once and never again. :)

There are some interesting articles, but there is a LOT of opinion mixed in to look like facts provided on that site. :)
 
It is a cool site, none the less, got my big grain of salt going. 😄😄
 
There is opinion and then there is just incorrect information. The web site contains some of the latter.

But what I find most disappointing is his topic on best accordions. Included BTER, Baronelli, Rossetti, and several other brands most will never have heard of. Some of which are cheap Chinese brands. Not included in the list were Petosa, Bugari, Pigini. Beltuna appears to be listed as a brand no longer in business.
 
mtj said:
Beltuna appears to be listed as a brand no longer in business.
Click to expand...
Goodness... the company that has released THE most technologically advanced acoustic accordion in the WORLD, and he misses that one, but hey... as I said... his site (sight too?) seems quite limited.

As I said earlier, it's his site, and he lives with his "accordion life" in a certain manner, in a way that we all do to some extent more or less, so I am not really blaming him, but wish that he kinda opened up his eyes and looked beyond the tip of his nose and stopped pushing opinion as fact.
 
JerryPH said:
Goodness... the company that has released THE most technologically advanced acoustic accordion in the WORLD, and he misses that one, but hey... as I said... his site (sight too?) seems quite limited.

As I said earlier, it's his site, and he lives with his "accordion life" in a certain manner, in a way that we all do to some extent more or less, so I am not really blaming him, but wish that he kinda opened up his eyes and looked beyond the tip of his nose and stopped pushing opinion as fact.
Click to expand...
Re: https://accordionistscentral.com/best-accordion-brands/#Classic_accordion_brands
---
Classic accordion brands
As early as the 20th century, many accordion makers have earned a stellar reputation and enduring legacy for their groundbreaking accordions. Although several of them are no longer manufacturing their products, you may still be lucky to find one of these best brands being sold in good used condition.

BELTUNA ACCORDIONS
Beltuna accordions brand review
The town and commune of Castelfidardo, Italy, is home to the world’s best accordion brands, one of them is Beltuna, or “beautiful tune.” Founded in 1982 by two experienced craftsmen named Arnaldo Mengascini and Elio Baldoni, Beltuna accordions grew in popularity in Italy and many countries.
Dual face tuning is one of the brand’s innovations, which allows the user to play multiple musical genres. Their use of steel reeds in accordions is a major selling point since they prove to be thicker and more elastic than most. The result is a best accordion sound so alive as if you could reach out and grab it.

The Beltuna Spirit Black V Classic piano accordion has 4-12 treble registers and 120 bass buttons. With its great tones, it is certainly one of the best piano accordions you will find on the market if you’re fortunate enough to stumble upon a reseller.
---
 
JerryPH said:
Goodness... the company that has released THE most technologically advanced acoustic accordion in the WORLD... But is it an accordion or an EWI (electronic wind instrument) shaped like an accordion?

... I am not really blaming him, but wish that he ... stopped pushing opinion as fact.
Click to expand...
Up front my apologies for inserting editing into JPH's wording.

Given that I believe that there is surely room for modern manufacturing combined with craftmanship to equal or surpas past efforts (though I'm not at all convinced that any significant quantity of people will pay the costs in man hours for skilled labor and the costs for design and subsequent equipment/plant overhead for such instruments- well in to five digits in US dollars for certain) I none the less am leery of morphing accordions, or saxophones, or other instruments into tone generators masquerading behind seemingly traditional interfaces. Something gaines, but surely something lost.

On pushing opinion as fact; were that to stop most of the internet would wither and blow away...
 
henry d said:
Up front my apologies for inserting editing into JPH's wording.

Given that I believe that there is surely room for modern manufacturing combined with craftmanship to equal or surpas past efforts (though I'm not at all convinced that any significant quantity of people will pay the costs in man hours for skilled labor and the costs for design and subsequent equipment/plant overhead for such instruments- well in to five digits in US dollars for certain) I none the less am leery of morphing accordions, or saxophones, or other instruments into tone generators masquerading behind seemingly traditional interfaces. Something gaines, but surely something lost.

On pushing opinion as fact; were that to stop most of the internet would wither and blow away...
Click to expand...
Just to make sure we have a common understanding. The Beltuna Matrix referenced in JerryPHs post is not a tone generator. The sound is completely acoustic with the same reeds. The difference is that solenoids are used to electromechanically open the values on the bass side. The sound is generated exactly the same same as with their standard accordions. The value of this is that it makes a converter lighter and have more options (Stradella, C griff, B griff, and quint and since it's software controlled potentially any other system someone might create).

The only potential difference would be in the way the buttons actuate the values, maybe that it plays a little differently. But when I played it I didn't notice any difference.
 
mtj said:
The Beltuna Matrix referenced in JerryPHs post is not a tone generator. The sound is completely acoustic with the same reeds.
Click to expand...
Which is why I referred to it as the most advanced acoustic on planet earth... at this time, tomorrow Pigini may reveal something "better"... lol.
Battery powered solenoids may frighten the vast majority of elder accordionists, but it will likely make some kind of a hit with the younger crowd.
 
JerryPH said:
Which is why I referred to it as the most advanced acoustic on planet earth... at this time, tomorrow Pigini may reveal something "better"... lol.
Battery powered solenoids may frighten the vast majority of elder accordionists, but it will likely make some kind of a hit with the younger crowd.
Click to expand...
And I was dead wrong in referring to it as an EWI in that case. I plead an overly cursory glance at the your-tube link in the thread.

Changing the mechanical mechanisms as described is absolutely within the bounds of evolving the accordion rather than labelling an accordion shaped synth as a full accordion. (There are, of course, hybrids and more power to them)
 
yeah but

i would want a seriously and widely beneficial new ability or possibility
for the Accordion world to justify such a radical change

ferr-instance

take a Roland, give it the solenoid operated Bass, give it just enough reeds
to cover the scale for freebass.. take the room you saved in the
Bass compartment to re-orient the circuit-boards so that..

there is now room in the Treble section for not only a normal Acoustic Accordion Action,
and dual top-hat electronic triggers, but a tone chamber with 2 reedblocks (L+M) as well
(leaving the other 2 reedblock areas free to re-orient dual oval speakers and a soft dome tweeter)
one speaker fires into the Tone Chamber, the other straight out the grill

(excelsior had a Cosmo OrganAccordion model similar, with a TC and one each L and M reedset)

the Roland soundset could be re-configured to give 2 completely configurable complimentary
reeds from various reed families, and the box could continue to enjoy orchestral substitutes

so ok, i am against the solenoids for 2 reasons, they pose a great danger of reliability,
and they do not give us any new capabil;ity really
(since Roland accordions have already given the world of accordionists configurable
and switchable Bass configurations)
therefore
software and app configured solenoids do not significantly contribute to the advancement
of the species enough (IMHO) to justify the risk and investment and maintenance cost

in other words the EVO shoulda coulda been a marriage of the Roland and an Acoustic..

touch.. squeeze.. tone.. as you have always experienced accordions..
yet fully flexible and modern electronically and digitally

the new Beltuna Evolve will be the best of both worlds
 
Wasn’t Beltuna rhe first company to experiment with carbon fiber body parts and grilles? The company is still very much alive, contrary to what was said on that website. The guy behind that website also considered several other brands as “good values.” But if you check carefully, you will find that some of them are on our well-researched list of Chinese brands.

Hmmm.
 
Ventura said:
so ok, i am against the solenoids for 2 reasons, they pose a great danger of reliability,
and they do not give us any new capabil;ity really
Click to expand...

Well, not quite, there is currently no pure acoustic accordion that can switch from Quint to minor thirds Free Bass with the flick of a register or chin switch, also, you cannot re-program the bass notes to play when pressing the treble keyboard (pure bass accordion anyone?). There is also no acoustic where you can split the keyboard and have a quint sound on the bottom half and standard (any register you want) layout on the upper half. Those solenoids do offer a real advantage. Longevity, is a big vast unknown, though. :)
 
Alan Sharkis said:
Wasn’t Beltuna rhe first company to experiment with carbon fiber body parts and grilles? The company is still very much alive, contrary to what was said on that website. The guy behind that website also considered several other brands as “good values.” But if you check carefully, you will find that some of them are on our well-researched list of Chinese brands.
Click to expand...
Yes of course you are right, it was their FLY line that had that.
Ohh wellll.
 
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