I have a lot of doubts/questions about this story...
Lispinini says he lives a 45 minutes drive from China.
Dear forum members, let's be aware of Chinese businessmen trying to take over the Italian accordion industry.
It's easy to accuse a Castelfidardo accordion maker, but can someone provide some proof? Before calling them "professional liars"??
I have serious doubts about the intentions and accusations in this topic.
Please read this again:
https://www.accordionists.info/thre...ano-accordion-opinions.5632/page-3#post-62086
quote:
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Chinese investors have shown their interest in acquiring Italian accordion makers for a long time, and one of their aims is to transfer the technology/ craftsmanship to the Chinese brands. Several big brands have been approached by the Chinese, but the Italians were very reluctant to hand over their business despite some brilliant offers. I was told by the owner of a reputable brand that the offer they got exceeded the profits they would be able to make in the whole century and it was the brand name that was worth the money. However, the offer was not attractive without a reason. Part of the deal was that the staff would have to stay in China for a period of time and teach them the proper way to do things, which was not that easy for Italians.
As for the quality of Chinese instruments, I would say I still wouldnt buy one. I have repaired quite a few recent Chinese makes ( less than 10 years old). A few were double cassotto models made for the conservatories. A brand new 120 stradella bass Chinese double cassotto piano accordion costs about 1800 Euros with authentic Cagnoni Tipo A Mano reeds. Yes, they do function well for the first few years, but it doesnt take long to see issues. My experience with some professional grade Chinese accordions is that they tend to adopt the features from different European makers. They wax the reed blocks as the Italians do. The pallets are held by plastic as in the French accordions. The reed blocks have the same rectangular shape as in the Russian bayans. They managed to do all these quite well. But when you look closely to how these accordions were made, you see some problems. For example, faux leather instead of leather is used in bellow corners. All treble valves on the reeds are plastic (including the lower notes). The reeds are tuned by machine gears so you see big dents on all of them, and of course- you dont expect great sound coming out of it. They also tend to have problems with the aluminium arms which hold the pallets. Some of them just keep causing air leaks. Some cassotto instruments have tightly sealed cassotto boxes and I had no idea how to open them for repair. A few manufacturers still havent learned that they need different springs for black vs white keys and cassotto vs non-cassotto instruments. There are also many minor problems such as fitting of felts, grill design etc which upset me enough.
I am lucky(unlucky) enough to live only 45 minutes away from China and it was easy to look for accordion parts. I used to have a suspicion that Carini in Italy bought many of their non-technical products from the Chinese factories, but if you look at something simple as a bass button in China, there is still a quality difference.
Also in China, it is not difficult to find a fake Pigini or a fake Bugari, but nothing inside the accordion is up to the standard.
Here is a Paolo Soprani with Bugari grill design. It has an Italian price tag (~3300 EUR), and an Italian flag on the accordion. You wont be able to find the Made in Italy tag on it because it isnt. The bass register is quite interesting as well.
https://world.taobao.com/item/585459904302.htm "