Thoughts on the Petosa Americana P37?

[breezybellows]

Completely agree with everything you said. Half of the sounds are "unusable" to the OP, however, which is a tremendous detriment to owning that instrument for him/her. It wouldn't be much of a problem for me as I use a bassoon sound 95% of the time with occasional switch-over to the Master. Art Van Damme's accordions with only one playable register would suit me personally just fine.

90% of the time, I use 4 of the 11 sounds. Personally, I won't consider the 2 unusable registers as a deal breaker. It's more important to know how much I like the other sounds.

 

[Ffingers]

90% of the time, I use 4 of the 11 sounds. Personally, I won't consider the 2 unusable registers as a deal breaker. It's more important to know how much I like the other sounds.

...even more important, perhaps, is how the listeners like the sounds and/or how those sounds suit the particular music being played.
John Field's nocturnes sound distinctly odd played on a Scottish full musette

 

[OuijaBoard]

Well, I completely understand that if one does use all the voices they bought, they'd want to like all of them, certainly to like their favored, most-used ones. I was just noting that "unusable" to that individual based on tone taste, is different from "unusable" in the sense the term is more often understood.

 

[Ignacchitti]

of course there is no Giulietti signage on the Bugari building,
why would there be

the Giulietti family still own all rights to the brand name last i knew..
if their licensing arrangement with the Petosa company has indeed expired
and Mr Petosa has no plans to renew or order any more, then that's it
until and unless someone else makes a new licensing deal with the family
or outright offers to buy the brand name

One can purchase Giulietti models directly from Bugari.
A local store in my hometown does so every year, a representative travels to Italy to check the Giulietti models with Bugari and ships many over here.
I myself have exchanged emails with Bugari about it, they are happy to explain anything about their Giulietti models to you and to sell you one. Why the Giulietti brand is not advertised on any website (besides Petosa's website, where it is "out of stock") is a different story.

 

[Ignacchitti]

Any Giulietti-labeled accordion that's less than about 15 years ago (maybe even more) is not a "real" Giulietti "just something similar with a good sales pitch and shiny letters" indeed.

Which is not to say that it is bad, as most products coming out of Bugari's factory is high quality.
Also, as you mentioned before yourself Paul: one of the important factors behind a Giulietti sound is its grille (and that is retained in the Bugari-made Giulietti models). Besides Bugari's claim that they are producing the Giulietti models as close to the original ways, but of course they would say that...

A piece of trivia: The original Giuliettis for a long time had 10 black strips on the grille (5 on each side of the front face), and in the 21st century now have 8 only, because they no longer manufacture them and they lost part of the original strips (I heard it was the largest ones).

 

[debra]

Which is not to say that it is bad, as most products coming out of Bugari's factory is high quality.
Also, as you mentioned before yourself Paul: one of the important factors behind a Giulietti sound is its grille (and that is retained in the Bugari-made Giulietti models). Besides Bugari's claim that they are producing the Giulietti models as close to the original ways, but of course they would say that...

A piece of trivia: The original Giuliettis for a long time had 10 black strips on the grille (5 on each side of the front face), and in the 21st century now have 8 only, because they no longer manufacture them and they lost part of the original strips (I heard it was the largest ones).

For a long time now Zero Sette has become part of Bugari and Zero Sette was building the Giulietti accordions so obviously when Bugari now makes new Giulietti they must know how to do so. As long as they have the original grille design chances are they also have a sound close to what people expect from Giulietti. But I have seen some recent Giulietti accordions with a completely different grille...
I have seen Giulietti older accordions with 6, 8 and 10 black strips on the grille, which may in part be chosen relative to the size of the accordion (and especially its depth). The strips are only decorative.

 

[Ignacchitti]

For a long time now Zero Sette has become part of Bugari and Zero Sette was building the Giulietti accordions so obviously when Bugari now makes new Giulietti they must know how to do so. As long as they have the original grille design chances are they also have a sound close to what people expect from Giulietti. But I have seen some recent Giulietti accordions with a completely different grille...
I have seen Giulietti older accordions with 6, 8 and 10 black strips on the grille, which may in part be chosen relative to the size of the accordion (and especially its depth). The strips are only decorative.

The story about the number of black strips I heard on the following podcast. Apparently the same models that used to have 10 strips now have 8, though the number varied for other models.
For anyone interested, it's an almost 3-hour podcast about the history of Giulietti and their technical details, from someone who over time had in-person experience with Zero-Sette (similar to Sander Neijnens). Sadly for most, the podcast is in Portuguese.

 

[forró]

Completely agree with everything you said. Half of the sounds are "unusable" to the OP, however, which is a tremendous detriment to owning that instrument for him/her. It wouldn't be much of a problem for me as I use a bassoon sound 95% of the time with occasional switch-over to the Master. Art Van Damme's accordions with only one playable register would suit me personally just fine.

Well, the poster seems to be calling the two sounds "unusable" because they don't like the sound. That is a personal, subjective thing. The two treble settings aren't "unusable" in a true sense. There's another thread active right now about the Victoria Poeta with some commentary about how its characteristic dark, soft, refined voice personality suits some but not others. I don't think it's in doubt that the VP is anything but an exquisite premium instrument. It's just that its characteristic sound isn't a match for every player. Those Americanas have sold very well, and I suspect some might be delighted with their sound.

I would be curious to know which factory is doing them for Petosa. I don't believe it's Bugari/ZS.

Um, I said nothing of the sort.
I am the OP and have never played the Americana, or the Giulietti M37.
I said nothing about the sounds being 'unusable'; that was another poster.

 

[forró]

The old repair guy who taught me the first bits of accordion repair bought up several of the last unfinished Giulietti accordion bodies (pretty much finished but without reeds) when the Giulietti "operation closed up shop". He loved Giulietti (and even gave me the book "Het Giulietti Geluid" (meaning "The Giulietti Sound") by Sander Neijnens. The book describes the Giulietti history and includes quite a bit of Zero Sette history too.

Any Giulietti-labeled accordion that's less than about 15 years ago (maybe even more) is not a "real" Giulietti "just something similar with a good sales pitch and shiny letters" indeed.

Thanks for this information - I had no idea about that.

 

[Thomas N]

Um, I said nothing of the sort.
I am the OP and have never played the Americana, or the Giulietti M37.
I said nothing about the sounds being 'unusable'; that was another poster.

You're right. The gentleman that said that was in reply to you. I had noted his name at the top in your reply to him. My apologies. My opinion stands - but not directed at the OP.