Paolo Soprani Today

Demand for the Soprani company's products declined in the late 1970's, production dropped off and some say quality started to suffer. From 1982 or thereabouts their boxes were made under licence by Dino Bafetti, who also markets good button-boxes under his own name, and by Menghini. Baffetti originally bought the Soprani brand name, but later sold it - not to Menghini but to another company SEM, who have their instruments made by Menghini. Recently SEM was absorbed into CEMEX (Excelsior) who now own the brand names Soprani and Scandalli and who will now be the only accordion factory in Italy who can produce a whole top-class accordion in-house. It is expected that bodies for other 'Italian' accordions will be sourced in China from now on. The industry is serviced by specialist reed-makers who use imported Swedish steel and hardly any accordion factories have an in-house reed maker or even a tuner. Reeds are at the heart of a good instrument and they come in various grades: hand-made (mano - the best), tipo-a-mano (hand-finished or second-grade) and "export" (basic quality). Unfortunately the quality varies from one workshop to another and one man's tipo-a-mano may be another's mano. There are still many good Italian accordion factories but they must all now rely on outside suppliers for some of the semi-finished and finished parts and assemblies that they use in their products…….all the 'boxperts' say, especially regarding Paolos: "If you want a good one, look for an old one"

The Boxeen (Jim Coogan)

Irish-American box-player Jim Coogan has been importing into the US from Italy a custom-made Paolo Soprani look-alike accordion under the brand name "Boxeen", which has found favour with players who prefer an older-style box. In 2004 the Dublin accordion dealer Sean Garvey introduced a replica 1950's aluminium grill Paolo Soprani which is being sold as the "Jubilee Model". The jury is still out as to the reletive merits of these re-incarnations of the classic boxes.    NEXT >>

The Jubilee Model (Sean Garvey)