Why The World’s Priciest Accordions Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2022
- Pigini accordions can have over 12,000 individual pieces, compared to the few hundred in a standard accordion. Each piece is installed by hand, which can take over a year. In that time, craftspeople build only 20 accordions from Pigini's most expensive model, the Pigini Nòva. And it can retail for almost 40,000 euros online. So what goes into making a Pigini accordion? And why are they so expensive?
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Why The World’s Priciest Accordions Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider - Hudba
I never knew just how complicated making one of these could be. It's amazing work, and beautiful too. I'm not surprised by the cost, the attention to detail is amazing.
For those wondering, the opening piece is Scarlatti: Sonata K.450.
Also, the definition of 'free bass' accordion isn't that there are buttons for the right hand; it's just whether the left hand bass buttons are Stradella or chromatic. The right hand can have a keyboard or button board.
(I'm a pianist and composer who has played some accordion and written for the instrument)
Also, as a pianist, no instrument seems expensive. Investing in a good piano is like mortgaging a home 😂
Not true, there are more than one type of free bass, the type they are speaking about is the chromatic button layout, but there are others, quint bass for instance. Free bass (in my understanding) is when you are able to play multiple octaves of single notes on the bass board. There are also accordions with both free bass and stradella at the same time, like some of the large 185 bass Hohner morino series.
@@pliat The video says that the type of bass determines what the right hand is playing. That's the inaccuracy I'm pointing out.
@@hanellipsis yes, and i was saying that there are types of free bass that are not in chromatic scale.
Well try tell this to someone who gets paid 700$ a month.
@@katsarosfiat I don't understand the point of that comment. People buy what they can afford. Someone who makes less than a livable wage wouldn't be in the market for something like this. You can also get a car for $500 or $1.2M. You can spend lots on food, or as little as possible on food. You could even afford something very nice in one market but be nowhere close to something else in another market.
How in the world did anyone get the idea to make an accordion?
Like most things, someone gets something, and gets irritated by shortcomings they improve upon. Actual ancestor of accordion was pretty crude and simple. Another early reed instrument not in mass production for well over 100 years and more like a harmonica was the Flutina that uses a single reed per tone. Accordion can easily have 4 reeds per tone for tremelo or sound "richness" and combinations switched in and out by register buttons. Early accordion advances were in Stradella Italy, stradella invention may have been by an Italian living in California USA, who sold idea to manufacturer in Stradella who filed European patent in his own name.
I often think this about bagpipes. Someone really wanted to play multiple pipes at once and had a spare sheep's stomach laying around.
same reason people made the otomatone and the melodica
A long history. Though it never started like this. It start very primitive and small being the diatonic accordion. Before that it was even more limited
my teacher told me it was created in china cuz they wanted music on the ships but getting a piano on one and playing it is a no go bcz of the space it required so they decided to make an instrument that could do all a piano could. so they made an accordion which originally had a piano keyboard on both sides but playing on a keyboard while controlling the air flow is nigh impossible so they instead added bass buttons instead.
Imagine how satisfying putting one of these together must be. With all the precise knowledge in your head of exactly where each tiny piece needs to go; it would be like putting together a beautiful 80,000 piece puzzle that functions as a work of art you can play music on. Fantastic workmanship, bravo.
No, it would be very tedious.
@copbabycombo1311 I bet #10-20 were satisfying and then it's tedious 😂
Beautiful put together production!
I'm 67 yrs old Rock and Metal musician and I've watched Mariachi and Cajun performers on this incredible sounding instrument even going back to the Lawrence Welk TV Show. What a concept! What a moving art! What workmanship! What genius!
Now I know how Les Paul got his glue for his guitars to get that glassy sound and made it clear that Leo Fender never find out what kind of glue was used on the Les Paul guitars. (However...Leo Fender made it clear as well that Fender guitars were made to be easily repaired even by a beginner or professional guitarist with no technical experience!)
I love this video...Peace be with you!
Norteno, and Ranchero is the Mexican music you love,,
at 2:50 I can’t believe that guy isn’t using a block of wood to push that piece of wood through the table saw, I guess he is just that confident. but woah
Great timing, i just bought a mint condition pigini ellegarde special 96 bass, c griff, with converter (handmade reeds too). It is practically new, it even had the plastic still on the bass strap, and i got it for £4000. Buying an equivalent new from the factory would be at least £8500. I had to make a trek up to Scotland to buy it though.
Amazing find, hope you enjoy!
👍👌👏 Congrats!
Best regards, luck, health and a lot of joy!
Mao photo 🤢💩
Congratulations, you were at the right place at the right time. I have to be happy with an older Giulietti, but they still sound ok. What's most important for me is the opportunity it gives me to play Baroque & classical music as the great composers wrote it, only it sounds much more beautiful with the accordion's "woodwind" texture.
Come to think about it, the accordion is like a portable organ. This so awesome. Thanks 😊
Yes, they both work by pushing air through reeds! Same with harmonicas too.
And it has stops too with different registers
It actually is a type of organ.
Fantastic documentary!! So interetining!
Wow, gotta appreciate the attention to detail Italians give to their products.
look at slovenian accordions look much better sound better...
@@juresem4006 hh
Beh siamo i migliori per un motivo
There is nothing good Italians can do
@@jaremakarwowski1574 lol, that's uncalled for. They make beautiful cars
Sounds beautiful 🕊
Hats off for this Beautiful accordion makers....RESPECT!!!.
Incredible reporting. The world must know! Amazing and ground breaking investigation. Thank you for the insight.
6:06 the visual is misleading, the narrator is discussing Stradella bass vs free bass systems, but the visualization shows a piano accordion vs a chromatic button accordion. You can actually have anything on the right hand side (piano keys, chromatic buttons, or diatonic buttons) that won’t determine whether it is a Stradella bass or free bass because the bass distinction is determined by what’s on the inside of the left hand side. They probably chose to show two different right hand sides (piano vs chromatic button) because there’s no guaranteed way to understand if an accordion is Stradella bass or free bass just by looking at it.
Considering all the work that goes into this accordion, I honestly think that it quite cheap for someone who has a passion for this particular instrument
*inexpensive
There are a lot of cheap accordions on eBay but to anyone thinking about buying one, the reeds will need rewaxing and retuning if it is 40+ years old and it is a LOT of work. There are so many other things that can go wrong with them- air leaks, below leaks, sticking keys, keys being uneven.. they're like old Rolls Royces- expensive when new and cheap when sold because they're so expensive and time consuming to repair to how they should be.
@@EndlessDelusion if you take care of an accordion, and you play it often, it will last for a very long time. But if unplayed, it will probably get mold and out of tune.
How much to get an accordion player to STOP. ?
40000$ cheap?
One square meter of cedar costs 5,000 euros?
I got to sell my closet!!!
Sounds crazy since in the USA we use 2" thick dedar boards for stuff like DECKS and planters! and I know it's nothing near that price. Cedar is very fast growing, very soft kind of "trashy" wood, Mohogany is a very pretty wood used for high quality furniture and things, but even that only costs around $20 a board foot, a meter is a little larger than a yard, so $20x9 is under $200 for a square yard of mohogany while ebony costs around $105 a board foot, but even that per sq yard would only be about $1,000, and maple which was also mentioned is commonly used for FLOORING in US homes, it's not a valuable wood either.
They may have meant per m3. That would make more sense.
@@metrodrumstv pretty sure that's it, there's no such thing as a square meter of a 3d object.
@@alessandrorossi1294 Board feet is how wood is usually sold.
Tone wood is special select. That’s why it is so expensive.
Before I clicked on the video, I knew it was a Pigini. They are some of the best acoustic accordions out there. Wish I could afford one, but I guess I'll just settle with my Roland FR-7B V-accordion.
I believe them that their process produces a better sound than other instruments. I just wish I was able to detect and appreciate that difference. (my hearing has shortcomings).
Most who take the time for ear training with a phone app are probably surprised to find thier hearing shortcomings, including professional musicians. Also ear wax, doesn't take much to reduce hearing, I don't know if there is any information on getting all of it out safely, without risking damage to hearing membrane.
Even with better hearing you'd never be able to appreciate the full sound by watching a CZcams video because of the compressio
The accordion is an amazing instrument!
It's ok, has its own place. I don't like it that much, it sounds somewhat trivial. For folk music I find it amusing and refreshing, other than that...not much in my list.
Awesome.i haven't seen in my life.
Very good 👍
Amazing Video
Facinating, When a video on the bandoneon?
Now THAT was amazing...............................................................
40,000 euros! I have a new appreciation for this instrument.
Hey BI team, can you do a high end hifi tube amplifier next time? Great video!
Nice video.
The best 👍👍👍
It takes exquisiteness like a doctor to make and play such instruments!
I've been learning guitar for a few months, I thought 6 strings was a little complicated at first... I wouldn't even know where to begin playing on an accordion. They look extremely complicated to use, so I got to push this button push this key too and squeeze it? I'll pass, I thought playing a drum set was hard. 😂
I have been playing for a year and it's not that hard actually. The buttons on the left hand seem hard but they become very simple after a short period of time. It's basically a portable piano.
Having more buttons actually makes it simpler. Each button makes a simple sound in an intuitive layout. If you think of a guitar like having 6 buttons that can each be pressed in 20+ different ways, that's actually a more complicated way of doing it.
@@thebaconmanthony I play the piano but I'm sure I would get lost very fast with an accordion, at least on the models without piano-like keys
Nice
Seems the answer is quite clear no? They are so expensive because they are of absolute high quality! Huge merit!
A square meter of cedar costs 5000 euros there??? WOW!! in the USA we use it for outdoor DECKS and planters! At work I'm building cedar swell shades for a pipe organ going to Sydney, we buy 2"x6"x 20 foot cedar boards to construct them and they don't cost anything remotely like 5,000 euros for one meter!
i think its the composite not the cedar alone as mentioned the wood used is composite combination or mahogany, cedar and maple and other secret woods
I think they misspoke and the cost is per meter cubed.
@@GerhardusGeldenhuis Yes I was thinking the same thing, I think it's per meter cubed.
different type of cedar
Ain’t no osha in Eeetahleee. That guy on the table saw was freaking me out dude
Accordions are amazing instruments! Pigini is one of the best brands! I think Hohner Gola is most expensive model, but they are all unique.
Hello James,
Nice to hear someone talk about the Hohner Gola. Yes, they are unique- and that's putting it mildly.
@@musamor75 I think pigini nova would be more expensive than hohner gola for the same configuration ?
Hohner is a dumb overrated accordion
7:55 Her hair gets stuck in the accordion
It happens to me all the time, hurts.
2:55 i think osha has somethig to say
It has the mother of pear, it got to be the mother of all accordions.
Good
😂 “free bass” accordion 😂
Rolls Royce of musical Instruments..
Even the manual guide may determine sounds quality output
obviously alot of things are used just to make it expensive. mother of pearl buttons is over the top and doesn't affect it
I'll be honest: it looks like that but the feeling is different, my piano (just because it's quite old) still has ivory keys and they feel quite different from the acrylic/plastic you find on the run of the mill modern instrument
@@XMarkxyz yes they do but don't affect the sound
@@christopherthomson1978 the experience of the artist can absolutely inform a performance
@Not Expat Joe surely there must be materials out there that mimic ivory close enough both look AND feel-wise
It's an art
Big Fan From Pakistan
A "standard accordion" cannot make do with a few hundred parts. Rather specific small diatonic accordions (like those used for Cajun) have a fighting chance to get away with so few parts. But a "standard accordion" nowadays (rather than 150 years ago) will run into thousands of parts easily.
Wait until you hear about Stradivari violins
Stradivari violas are even more expensive than Stradivari violins
"Slip like Freudian
Your first and last step to playin' yourself like accordion"
Daniel Dumile
noooo the buzzfeed unsolved royalty free track
Hohner Morino 7 with free bass 11 voice is also expensive.
Anyone else seeing only the top quarter of the video with the rest blurred out and with links to sign up for Business Insider membership plans ?
What a strange and wonderful instrument!
RAmón Ayala. El mejor
Me with my Settimio Soprani Ampliphonic Coletta 🧍♂️
Me with a Hohner panther
Good to see something out of Japan
Robot is from Japanese factory Denso...I work earlyer for this company. 🤔😉
@@deximilijanmalic4124 Domo origato, Mr. Roboto!
2:54 OSHA intensifies. Can he use a pusher?
He can and he should! 😨
For rookies only.
@@paulblichmann2791 How many fingers are you missing Mr. Expert?
Make one for gas. "Why gas is so expensive "
Great video - but the narration sounds quite muffled compared to what you usually produce. Other voices are ok.
Well to make easy the accordion is praticali a portable Piano . If are a good accordion player, take it with your hands & go play anywhere. I’m an accordion player I put it on my car & that’s it you don need a truck ciao 👋
I am not understanding why the blend of wood is secret. (reference 2:37 in the video). Wouldn't mass spectrometry describe the wood in detail?
Who's going to spend the money to do that?
Imagine dropping this.
How do I win one of these?
The labour that goes into making an accordion costs more than anything else. I know ….I repair them.
So many keys yet i never seem to hiyt a single one that makes me sound good
💀
Free bass accordian...let me get my candle and spoon...
5:10 로렌조..? 먼디 갑자깈ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 보다 놀랬넼ㅋㅋㅋ
I mean just look at it, it looks expensive!
2:50 😳
wow new upload
"the mother of pearl buttons cost €600: 4x as much as regular buttons, which is why these accordions can sell for nearly €40,000"
So I'd they used regular buttons: these would sell for €39550?
If you buy Pigini Nova (the highest model of the brand), the mother of pearl is already included. Lower models, even my Sirius Millenium, is already with "fake" pearl buttons but if I want same buttons as Nova has, I'll pay these 600€ on the top of the regular price. For example one multi chin register (the small button on the top of the instrument which you push by your chin during playing) can cost up to 1000€ and I have three of them besides regular chin registers. Also accessories can be "expensive" but the quality is the most important and if someone play many concerts or practise hours and hours... the instrument has to work perfectly.
@@AndreKartsi ok, thanks antiques roadshow.
Échese un corridazo belico compare
2:50 that is the most unsafe way of using a table saw.
Leave.
When you're that good, you can do it.
@@paulblichmann2791 only on YoudiditwrongTube
Ou trouver pièces d'accordéon
Where’s El Panter Belico?
Just wait til people find out about the price on a gabanelli accordion 😅😅
Those of you who think that this is complicated should learn about the mechanics of a pipe organ.
Does anyone know who the girl from 1:19 is? She is stunningly beautiful
2:50
DO YOU
WANT YOUR FINGERS?
These are a bargain compared to the cost of a car
1:02 Ummmm.... The accordion is upside down. 😅
I always thought it was the weirdest instrument
Nah man, they are sick. Go ahead and name another handheld instrument that can play multiple melodies at once
for those who do not know, its playing two entirely different instruments at once..
😀
Training our minds is
a self-motivated endeavour,
we cannot count on others to do this for us.
To succeed, we have to be
strong and determined.
👍👍👍👍🙏🙏
All these so expensive series....can be boiled down to hand made 99% of the time.
I swear by Bugari accordions
I have one but personally I much prefer my Vignoni Fisart concert converter free bass.... but Bugari makes very good accordions also....and frankly at same quality levels as Pigini. That one expensive Pigini only has made a few examples due to the difficulty of obtaining the reeds used. I have played several Piginis and frankly they are no better or worse than the same level version of other brands. People don't know unless you are an accordionist that every manufacturer has a range of models/costs.
The sound of this video is so faint that on full volume couldn't hear it on speaker.
PLAY AN ACCORDION GO TO JAIL HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
A concert grand piano does have a wider pitch range than Pigini and Jupiter's biggest bayans . . . but not by nearly as much as you'd think.
Especially considering that a piano isn't portable. A piano is furniture. A Pigini free bass chromatic button accordion can come with you anywhere.
Yes... range is in the case of Pigini Nova or Sirius Millenium (button version) always around 5 octaves of each side. It means with the 8 foot register it's E-g4 in right hand, E1-c#3 in left hand. With registers we can extend, move range which can become in the end E1-c#5 in both hands. Some instruments can also go in left hand down to C1. Without a few tones it's range of the piano in both hands with possibility also combine octaves same as organ or harmonium. :) I have 2nd highest accordion from Pigini. I love it. 😊
Pigini may be elite, but Weird Al plays a Roland, so I’ll defer to him.
The Roland is actually an over-priced accordion-shaped midi controller. Ballpark? No. Not even in the same solar system as a Pigini!
@@ryano.5149 I have both a Vignoni/Fisart converter free B system bass accordion with chin switches and 5 sets of treble Atonelli finest reeds.....and a Roland 8x Dalape digital accordion. Both are fantastic instruments. I have also played Pigninni accordions which are also very good but frankly this video was a bit of a sales promotionn for Piginni.. There are a few other companies that have top accordions in the same league as the Pigini. There are also some bits of misinformation in the video. The right hand of an accordion is the treble side and there are two basic configurations....piano keyboard and chromatic which is the rows of round buttons. Both have some advantages and some disadvantages but the choice is basically the player and country of origin. The bass side on the left is a bunch of buttons that looks the same but there are variations in the layout. Most common is Stradella which has two rows of single notes and 4 rows of chords. A free base is a chromatic arrangement similar to the chromatic arrangment on the right side of a chromatic keyboard accordion. There is duplication of notes but mostly three rows are used and the other two are used to minimize awkward jumps or better hand position. This is the same as the right side on a chromatic accordion. The layout of the free bass and right side of a chormaic accordion does have some variations depending on country or popularity but generally they are setup as what is known as a B system or C system.
The Roland and similar digital accordions have the same options for keyboards but allow for easy swapping of the free bass system to B or C system and the same for the chormatic right hand and also several other layouts other than standard stradella.
An acoustic accordion has switches that turn on and off different combinations of reeds to change the sound. A digital accordion has that also but in addition has complete sampled sounds from mulitple types of accordions with different tuning of the reeds. For example my Roland has about 50 different types of accordions such as German, French, Italian, Jazz, etc.
Beyond that the Roland has a huge number of additional non accordion tones such as trumpet, clarinet, violin, organ, etc. I how have over 300 different instrument tones/types beyond the accordion sounds. In the hands of a good accordionist this allows great combinations of those instruments and the accordion. Mine also has percussion so I can trigger that with my left hand in real time.
I am also a pipe organist both regular and theater organ. I also play electronic organ. But by far my favorite instument is accordion whether acoustic or digital. It is very portable of course compared to an organ. But in the hands of a good player an accordion has the dynamics and nuances that goes far beyond an organ. The bellows is the secret....it allow dynamics like you get with the bow of a violin or cello, and a wind instrument like flute. And unlike those insturments you can play accompaniment or the left hand of a piece as if you were playing a piano or organ. The free bass also allow for nearly the same range as a 88 key piano.
All accordion manufacturers have a range of models from the cheaper lower end to the top versions. Piginni is the same.....I have several friends that have their accordions ranging from the top concert model down to the lower end models. My Vignonni is the same...while it is the top model they also have other lower end models. The good thing about the digital accordions is that they don't require top craftsmen to build them as they are basically a case, keyboarards, and printed circuit boards, a battery and speakers. That means they can be sold for far less than one of those top acoustic accordion. For students that is a big factor in the choice of an instrument.
@@RobertKarlBerta I both play and repair accordions so I am intimately familiar with how they work. Also, I have never heard a convincing performance from a digital accordion. Not once. The technology and the sounds age like milk.
As far as cost goes, a new Roland is between $6000 and $9000, depending on where you go. I paid $450 for a flawless pre-owned Titano 120 bass not all that long ago, and people have practically given me 48 bass instruments. Therefore, I don't really see the argument about digital being somehow cheaper for students.
Look, do what you want with your money, but you couldn't pay me to take a digital accordion.
20 units only in a year?
From that specific model, yes
That’s just the nova’s. Their price is 33000€
They make cheaper ones for 26k,16k,10k and then smaller bass acc’s for cheaper.
Lorenzo is a kpop fan
Interesting, I wonder if Weird Al Yankovic has one of these?
He plays piano accordion but same difficulty level in principle. But skill level makes all the difference.
@@rkberta I know skill level is what really makes a good musician, I was just curious.
The price is up to 40k
reminded me of SpongeBob 😂
3rd of the cost of the accordion to play free bass.... just play a duet concertina!
Accordion free bass is bigger, you are far less limited. I dont see anyone playing Bach on the concertina. Also, much of the cost is for the mechanisms inside the accordion, the converter, that allows the accordion to go from free bass to stradella.
@@pliat That's right. I believe both Weltmeister and Scandelli make a free bass accordion that is not a converter and it is much cheaper, around the 3500 USD range
@@alessandrorossi1294 i dont know about scandalli, but i know hohner used to make the 185 bass morino 7 with both stradella and chromatic button free bass at the same time.
@The Chairman People definitely do play bach on the concertina and with the larger 82 button models you can get 3-4 octaves of range in both hands in what bach piece (except for organ pieces obviously) will you need more range than that? Not saying the concertina is better than the accordion by any means they obviously fulfill different niches but its not as if it has no advantages over the accordion (smaller, lighter, generally cheaper, easier to play)
Does weird Al play a Pigini?
Nope in the accordion world he’s just average
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