Help With Reed Identification

[96Bass]

Even today, the highest quality Voci Armoniche reeds called Bluestar are not made from ribbon steel, they are made using the tipo a mano stamping process from a wide strip of steel. They are better than their regular hand made reeds...​

According to the Petosa website, Bluestar reeds are available exclusively in Petosa accordions.

 

[Ffingers]

This has been a most fascinating thread. Thank you all.

 

[Ventura]

there does not appear to be any patent activity surrounding this Bluestar reed,
which was my first guess as to how on earth a small company could afford
to have an "exclusive" reed made for them by an entirely separate and independent
manufacturer in Italy

second guess then is a marketing department creation to describe something
in a new and different way

certainly is a nice word and great graphics, logo, etc.

 

[96Bass]

there does not appear to be any patent activity surrounding this Bluestar reed,
which was my first guess as to how on earth a small company could afford
to have an "exclusive" reed made for them by an entirely separate and independent
manufacturer in Italy

second guess then is a marketing department creation to describe something
in a new and different way

certainly is a nice word and great graphics, logo, etc.

Perhaps Petosa "invented" the Bluestar, or it was their idea, and contracted Voci armoniche to manufacture the reeds.
Or maybe Voci armoniche has an agreement where they are selling this reed exclusively to Petosa.
There could possibly be a patent in either the USA or Italy?

 

[Ventura]

no patent nor patent pending anywhere

i mean Petosa has always used the best reeds available, they have
invested a lot of money over the years in reedset stock.. they wax them in
they finish them they tune them..

but you know how so many people are suckers for "brand name reeds"
and tipo this and mano that to a frenzy level sometimes

so sure the marketing dept. would want to take advantage of the inability
of so many (wealthy) casual accordion players to actually tell by playing and listening to their reeds

give them what they want..

some elaborate story they can proudly boast about for years to come

i am sure these bluestar reeds sound great
i am sure they will make a lot of money on them too

 

[Ffingers]

"Now available exclusively in petosa accordions"?

That may be construed to mean that petosa uses only BlueStar reads rather than that petosa is the only maker using them.

 

[Walker]

I believe the BlueStar reeds undergo thermal bluing - maybe that's why they are called Bluestar... Anyway, see this (long) interview to hear all about the reed. However, at around 1.33:25 to 1.40:10 (near the end of the interview) Lorenzo Antonelli is asked about his BlueStar reeds and he gives a full explanation of his philosophy of the reed.



He advises that we need to reconsider our notion of quality and remove the things that are irrelevant to quality (such as the use of ribbon steel over a wider sheet of the same steel). He believes the labels and blue edge theory currently used to identify reeds is outdated and insufficient.

He also chooses to work with accordion makers who are willing and able to redesign their reed blocks to maximise the greatest effect of the reeds - as the relationship between reed and reed block design and build is the key to the very best accordions of yesteryear.​

 

[debra]

According to the Petosa website, Bluestar reeds are available exclusively in Petosa accordions.

That's just marketing hype. Any accordion manufacturer can order Bluestar reeds from Voci Armoniche and I suspect some actually do. Anything to hype a new top-end accordion more and hike up the price (by much more than the price difference in the reeds). The Italians have their own interpretation of the word "exclusively". They have been willing to name vendors "exclusive distributor" for an accordion brand in a certain region and then happily let other vendors order the same brand directly from the factory and also get the accordions directly from the factory. Exclusive is just a meaningless title in Italy.

 

[96Bass]

That's just marketing hype. Any accordion manufacturer can order Bluestar reeds from Voci Armoniche and I suspect some actually do. Anything to hype a new top-end accordion more and hike up the price (by much more than the price difference in the reeds). The Italians have their own interpretation of the word "exclusively". They have been willing to name vendors "exclusive distributor" for an accordion brand in a certain region and then happily let other vendors order the same brand directly from the factory and also get the accordions directly from the factory. Exclusive is just a meaningless title in Italy.

Voci Armoniche states they are currently selling Bluestar reeds to manufacturers that have optimized their reed blocks for the Bluestar reed.

"In the early distribution phase the BlueStar® will be made available to our partner manufacturers who have adjusted their reed blocks to achieve the full expression of the sound potential offered by the new reeds, so adding value upon value."

https://www.vociarmoniche.it/en/news/bluestar-the-new-stars/

 

[dunlustin]

I'm a bit surprised that fine adjustment of reed blocks is so innovative.
Is it certain that accordion designers have never done this before?
Maybe it was discontinued as not cost effective.
Hohner diatonics can have odd accidentals at the far left of the treble keyboard and they usually sound 'off.'
I always thought this was down to the mismatch between chamber size and reed.
In mid nineteenth century, Wheatstone was aware of and allowed for the effect of reed chamber design on the reeds' performance in concertinas.