Trying out 2 Dallapes

[Simon Max]

Hi,
There are 2 Dalappes for sale around, both within an hours drive.
I have no idea if I want them, but since I sold my FR7b, I could argue that there is now place for another one.
One is a Super Maestro full cassoto for about 4500 USD, the second one is a little battered, doesn’t mention cassotto but has professional Mike built in, for about 2000 USD.
Which one would you go for?

 

[xocd]

How much do you like the cassotto sound? (I am a sucker for it )

 

[noelekal]

Well I'm jealous.

Thanks for the heads up and please tell us how the evaluations go.

 

[debra]

Unless you are a skilled repairer I would certainly not consider an accordion that looks "battered" because you don't know how battered it will be on the inside...

 

[Korana]

Hi,
There are 2 Dalappes for sale around, both within an hours drive.
I have no idea if I want them, but since I sold my FR7b, I could argue that there is now place for another one.
One is a Super Maestro full cassoto for about 4500 USD, the second one is a little battered, doesn’t mention cassotto but has professional Mike built in, for about 2000 USD.
Which one would you go for?

Are Dallape still for sale?

 

[Simon Max]

I believe they are. I tried out the cheaper one and didn't like it very much. If you would like, I'll try out the nicer one.

 

[simonmax]

Well I'm jealous.

Thanks for the heads up and please tell us how the evaluations go.

Hi,
The cheaper one was about 45 minutes out of the way, so I took the drive one day after work. Before traveling, I looked up the buyer on the net and found our friend Zevy Zions in his YouTube channel.
A pleasant retiree, who enjoyed my KLEZMER style of play. When I tried some Italian classic, he said "those I hear all the time, go ahead and stick to your specialty".

The accordion wasn't very in tune, had a pretty nice touch and sound but was without Musette. He advertised it with mikes, but said that they only work in conjunction with an external box which he uses with his second accordion. I would have to add another $200 to buy such a custom made box to get the mikes to work.
I might have bought it for half his asking price, but I'm glad that I didn't. He's asking for 2150 USD.
Simon

 

[noelekal]

Thanks for the update.

I was impressed with a Dallape I once was offered.

I regretted not taking advantage of it, I did read here on the Forum that Dallape accordions can be mechanical trouble.

I would still be interested in an example if it was a “real deal.”

 

[Simon Max]

I tried the second one, about a week ago. It is in good shape, feels very smooth and was a pleasure to play.
I am not crazy about cossoto, so I tried the other sounds. The master has a very nice full sound, but as I'm used to double and triple mussete for over thirty years, I would not buy this accordion.
The bass sounded very nice and deep.
I did record it, but as I was interrupted quite often, I'm not going to post it.
If anyone wants the recording, send me p.m. and I'll try to send it.
Simon