Post by ciao_accordionhi Ike,
Bugari's emblem is a tuning Fork, and they seem to have built
their reputation along the lines of "tone and precision"
one of our club members has a very very nice, high end late
model Bugari, and it clearly has "World class" tone while
the reeds start with a whisper of effort... he plays Jazz
and i've seen him fly on that box... has a cool retro-style
keyboard too - squared tips kinda like my FisItalia
they appear to be in good health as a business, with a fairly
broad line of high-end Accordions tailored to several categories,
and i believe they focus on Europe and Canada while having more or
less avoided the USA, or at least not counted on it much
i do not know if they make their own reeds, or if they just finish
them (there being so few actual reed-makers left) You could ask
Dale Weis if you run into him - though retired, after Guerrini
closed commercial operations, Dale got a dealership with Borsini
so he could continue offering nice accordions to his students etc.
that's about all i know, as i never visited their factory
ciao
Ventura
Thanks for that information. Phil!
Two reasons I asked, is that the late Meni-Ketti of the music store in
Oakland CA in 1979 nentioned to me that the players of his era, which
stretched back into the 1930's, often demanded Bugari reeds.
So that from that brief mention, I might surmise that Bugari was once a
reed-maker of note, and the fact that I have acquired an accordion
recently which had a printed card in the original case attesting to its
supposedly having Bugari reeds, and its vintage possibly being 1960's,
though I am slightly underwhelmed by its mechanical construction, though
I have seen worse Excelsiors (for reasons I will go into later), as I
said it seems that Bugari was a reed maker, though now a manufacturing
firm, with reed-makers unknown. And indeed that might be a guarded
secret asw to who the reed makers for them now is/are. In fact I think
in Meni-Ketti's time, he wondered what actual named person(s) was making
the best reeds, assuming he thought it was not someone named Bugari.
Now as to the construction of the Basili accordion, of which there are
actually two in my shop, maybe both having Bugari reeds, the one I am
restoring for the customer, is better made than the other one which I
haven't had a chance to play, and am working on now, instead of the all
wood traditional treble keys which I would have expected in a full size,
the lesser one has brass flanges astride the partitions in the keybed,
through which was threaded dual nickel 2mm diameter key spindles.
The brass was slowly eating up the nickel causing some friction to
occur, and the treble key-valves were covered in tiny nickel flakes,
which also permeated the surface of the key bed, and which I blew out
with compressed air. After a few days and inquiries trying to find the
appropriate diameter stainless steel spindles, which online were listed
in 900 mm size (to cut in half) as costing about $50 and up, primarily
for use by Hobbits (That's a joke's son) hobbyists building motors and
such, a certain supplier had the actual accordion ones for $14 each, and
another claimed not to have them and pretended not to know what they
were, I finally contacted a certain local guy whom I'm sure you know,
who sold me a pair very reasonably which were already beveled on the
tips, the right lengths and when duly installed and made a very positive
difference.
So now, Phil I have got your very interesting take on Bugari accordions
(of which I saw one recently listed on ebay with palpably dirty or rusty
reeds for about $5,000) What do you hear about Basili as a maker?
Ciao