Guerrini Oxford 3: Sell or re-tune?

[Soulsaver]

Ok all welcome to chip in.

Background: I have several decent quality accordions, not top of the range but 'decent'.
And I have other models not relevant to the discussion, other than showing that finding the ideal is proving difficult.

So in the 'mix' is the following (all LMMM musette, different wets, all 34/96, all in near new condition) an Excelsior 1304 French, Paolo Soprani Pro 1A Italian & Guerrini Oxford 3 Scottish. They are all good, but my favourite to play is the Guerrini .. but it is tuned Scottish Plus! .. and, to my sassanach(?) ears, not nice! I play with the mild reed combos selected and avoid the 'grating' to me, wilder middle reeds.

So - would you sell it? And get into the Excelsior/Soprani?
Or would you think have it retuned to a milder musette and keep the preferred action?

 

[JIM D.]

The Guerrini is a well made and nice handling box. I would keep it and have one of your M reed sets tuned a little more dry. The Paolo is also a well made box, and in my opinion the Excelsior would come in 3rd. I'm an Excelsior fan but only for models made before 1970. The newer Excelsiors (Pigini made) are nice accordions but, "They just don't make em like they used to!!!" If I were in your situation I would sell the Excelsior and use the funds to re-tune the Guerrini. Of course this is only my opinion and my reasoning here is that the Guerrini with it's excellent construction will mellow in tone and volume with age. A quality Italian made accordion will tend to "wear in' verses "wear out" with age. If you are already enamored with the Guerrini's action, weight, size, and playability a few bucks invested in tuning could very possibly make it become your "Main Squeeze" and improve with age.

 

[Soulsaver]

Thanks Jim. It's a shame we didn't get a few more views.. bit more debate... or someone saying '...no, no I want a Scottish plus Oxford 3...'.

Of my older insrtruments, I've got a 120 bass Excelsior 320 LMMM muti musette , too, which is quite wet. I tried it again today, lovely tone, great keyboard but feels too big for me - made my shoulder ache.
It's got a 'de commissioned' wrist coupler that I may get round to try and reinstate. I don't know what would be involved as I haven't taken the back off to have a look. I'm guessing it stopped working at some stage to warrant decommissioning. Probably worth an new thread?

 

[JIM D.]

Hi Ed; I'm sure I can help you with the wrist shift on your 320. Start a new thread in the "How Do I --" Topic in the forum and we can expand from there.

 

[goldtopia]

I note what JimD. says that Exselsiors are Pigini made. Does that mean they are pretty much the same or that they are seperate companies with an agrreement between them. It seems older accordions have more wood in them that mellows with age and much later accordions tend to be lighter with less wood so don't mellow but do improve in some way with age maybe just the reeds settiling in. This is something I don't know much about. I think there is the desire among a lot of players for a more mellow sound but without so much wood because of the weight, hence the interest in smaller accordions, particularly 72 bass. It would be nice to have the cassotto sound without the weight and muffled sound of the cassetto.

 

[Soulsaver]

Well I thought maybe the older models were just better made - but I wasn't paying attention for 40+ years, so I think I have to accept the voices of experience that tell us that the sound has matured... maybe 'as well as' better made in the time before value engineering introduced a 'cost down' culture and the traditional skills were more readily available. Where will the hand made reed skills come from in the X-factor generation?
The other bad news for the likes of us, Bill, is that the best tone comes from not only older, but BIGGER accordions, too.

 

[JIM D.]

Todays Excelsior branded accordions are made by a branch of Pigini and are of a good quality, but in no way equal to the quality of Excelsiors made before the 70's.

 

[Ben_H]

Just seen this. I would love an Oxford 3, but not Scottish tuned. I've had my eye on one for ages but nothing has been available within my price range.

 

[Soulsaver]

Do you mean you want LMMH Ben? Or you want LMMM but not Scottish wet? They make c£900 -1200 usually for nice ones.

 

[Ben_H]

I've looked at a couple in shops, around the £1700 mark, tuned LMMM musette. I'm assuming that musette is drier than scottish wet?

 

[Soulsaver]

As you prob know, musette comes in various degrees of 'wet' - depending how wide apart the mddle reeds are tuned. Scottish is arguably (with what used to be Irish) the wettest - preceded by French, Italian, American etc.
All (that's not many..) of the musette Oxfords 3s I've heard are Scottish but I have seen LMMH.
To my ears, mine feels to be Scottish plus, maybe Irish. But, whilst I haven't had it quoted yet, I know I can get it the 2 raucus reeds toned down.

 

[Soulsaver]

This is pretty much how mine sounds. I cant play reels as well as Charles does; hes playing MMM for most if not all of the clip...