Brand Preferences and Why

[RYLUNDO]

Since all brands of accordion have their own unique sound, everyone seems to have a brand preference. What is your preferred brand and why? I now have 6 accordions and most definitely prefer my Hlavacek's sound. I feel it is a little more musette than my other accordions and I love how the bass sounds.

 

[Thomas N]

Always has been Excelsior for me. That's based on where I grew up and my instructor for 10 years when I was young and impressionable. He always played Excelsiors, and had a ton of them and as I graduated into larger accordions it was always an Excelsior he had in the back room. Then throw in that Art Van Damme played one, even though I discovered him years and years later, it was a done deal. Every major accordionist in my area played an Excelsior and if you watch any of them today on YouTube, yep, still Excelsiors!

I have my Excelsior 930 from the 1980's and commissioned a brand new Excelsior customized 960 in 2003. I really love those accordions.

But I have no experience with other brands and I know there are far better accordions out there now. Bugari, Victoria, Pigini, Petosa (maybe?) etc.

At some point I'll get another high-end acoustic and it most likely won't be an Excelsior because I think everything that made them great and unique back in the day has been negated through mergers and acquisitions.

 

[RYLUNDO]

Both of my first two accordions were both Hlavacek so I'm definitely biased as well. That seems like a similar situation to Hlavacek. Mine is supposedly from the 1990s and the more modern versions aren't nearly as good because of the partnership with Delicia. The sound is completely different but to be fair, I have never played a Delicia myself so maybe I'm being harsh. There are much higher-level brands than Hlavacek that are currently in production like Strasser but Hlavacek will always be special to me.

I've heard the brand name Excelsior but I'm not sure if I have ever heard one. It seems like it would be a reliable brand because that name circulates through the forum quite a lot. I'm going to go look up a couple of videos to hear what it sounds like.

 

[Tom]

I don’t really have a single brand preference. I have traveled through many accordions and have kept the ones I like best, the criteria being sound, availability, playability and price. The brands I have settled on are Della Noce (organetto), Piatanesi and Lira (piano, stradella), and Hohner (corona). If someone today told me I had to ditch all but one it would probably be the Della Noce.

 

[dak]

Started with PA with a Capriole (pre-Harmona GDR instrument) of good quality 4/5 37/96. An "upgrade" to a 4/4 41/120 "Universum Elegance" (GDR export junk with plastic reed blocks and tinny sound) was abandoned quite soon. The Capriole is still in the hands of a niece who played pretty thoroughly. Next PA keeper (until I abandoned PA altogether) was a 3/4 41/120 Contello (export brand from Italy to U.S.). That was a really sweet sounding thing. My current CBA is an older button Morino (similar to Artiste but custom-built for a reputed player) with additional free bass. As small instrument I have a 2/4 46/80 (or something like that) 3-row Maugein. I am not much of a Hohner fan, but Venanzio Morino ticks my boxes. But he wasn't responsible for small instruments.

So there is not much of a brand coherence in what I am playing, or in what I found tempting to play.

 

[murathan]

I m a Hohner guy. First bought brand new Hohner bravo 3/96 (2013) then brand new Amica 4/120 (2017). Hohner is a good brand with a good price at that times in Turkey. I like to use brand new instruments although they are Chinese made. It doesnt matter, both have good sounds to me and others here. Had small issues like any other instrument but generally no major problems through the years since 2013.

 

[debra]

Brand preferences come down to a few key properties of an accordion: 1) how it sounds, 2) how it feels to play and 3) how well it's made. (Some people also take "how it looks" into account as well.
To make a long story short, sound is very much a matter of personal preference and although there are differences between models of the same brand, there are commonalities that cause people to talk about the "signature sound" of a certain brand. But built quality and absence of flaws are aspects that are often overlooked. In my experience design and manufacturing flaws are more common in accordions from small manufacturers than in the largest ones like Bugari and Pigini. The larger the company the more specialized each worker is and the less likely (s)he will make mistakes. Of course this doesn't matter when you buy just one accordion and get potential flaws corrected under warranty so you can enjoy it without problems for decades. Also, don't be fooled by large famous brand names that ceased operation and their brand name is now used by other manufacturers who do not offer the same quality and do not produce the same sound either.

 

[Caps]

I like Sonola, Pancordeon, Excelsior. I had a excelsior midivox and hated it. Galanti was ok, Strativari was ok as well. Cordovox was ok but very heavy and lacking as an acoustic accordion without the sound modules. Had a hohner and hated it - the sound was too strident for me but the guy I sold it to, loved it. So it is really just a matter of what you are comfortable with and what you expect of the sound. Different models of the same brand can be very different in feel and sound.

 

[tcabot]

Brand itself is useless.
I have the flagship Excelsior from the 80s. I don't know how many of them were made - probably measured in dozens rather than hundreds. I reckon that's the same class as concert Jupiters etc.
I also have an Excelsior made in China about 15 years later.

There's not much in common between them, despite the brand.

Hohners? What Hohners? Pre-war ones with Hohner reeds? Pre-war with Italian reeds? 1950's German-built stuff with Artiste reeds? post 1960s "Hohner"-badged excelsiors? Modern China-made Hohners?

 

[Ventura]

Excalibur was the Chinese brand often mis-interpreted as an excelcior,
and of course you can have al kinds of fake rip-off's sporting a brand name
but there has never been a Chinese legit Excelsior imported or sold through
CEMEX

and i cannot imagine, after Pigini paid a ton to acquire the brand and facory,
that they would have risked their investment by authorizing a Chinese Excelsior

 

[tcabot]

Entry-level, small-sized boxes. Quite well built by Chinese standards. If you're going for a rip-off, why build them much better than average noname stuff from the same factory? And why rip off something relatively little-known like Excelsior when you can rip off Scandallis, Hohners, Paolo Sopranis and other really big brands? Excelsior might have been huge in the US, but not that big in Europe and almost unheard of in post Soviet space.

After a 100-year brand history of being at the cutting edge of accordion development, who would have thought that Hohner would make their boxes in Chinese factories too?

It's all about the yankee dollar. Or in this case, Chinese yuan.