The aesthetic of the Poeta is a triumph of originality and familiarity. It's a look that proclaims it's an accordion-shaped violin. It's so exceptional that I seriously doubt the casing work was even made by an accordion builder's hand. I think they're the work of great luthiers somewhere in rural Italy... just too classically beautiful, and I can't think of any other accordion that comes close to that level of nobility.
And yet the accordion is the great leveller. When we sit for a while by the café window, and watch as others go by, we can see that nobody, but nobody, gets all the wins. We win some and we lose some. Now, sure we can ask for an accordion with every bell and every whistle, and when the order is fulfilled and we take our prized accordion out of the case to play, we will discover that all those reed-shaped bells and whistles add to the bulk and weight of the instrument. The more notes and the deeper the pitch of the low ones - this is where some of the drawbacks become apparent. That's life. But it goes the other way too... if we choose a stradella only or small quint-converter Poeta, the bulk and weight are reduced and the low notes will not bring lag, but they, conversely, have the drawback of a smaller compass. Like I say, no one gets all the wins.
The Poeta, for all it's fabulous flamemaple features, is a bit of an enigma to me. The instrument looks classical, yet the tone, to my ear, is more jazzy. It's dark, mellow and rich, but it's not a classical tone in the way a Dallape, Gola or a Super VI is. The Poeta may look like a violin, but doesn't have that crystalline tone one might expect - it's more like an American Excelsior Symphony Grand, a jazz-master, but dressed in renaissance garb.
If I were a collector... sure, I'd pick a Poeta for my collection. But I'm not, and sadly as the price of the Poeta has sharply increased in recent years I'd not be tempted by a custom order. But you never know, as McSqueeze and Piotr have discovered to their delight... if a preowned model were to find its way onto my path, it might be difficult to ignore.
