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Author Topic: Stagi mistake  (Read 3677 times)

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Kimric Smythe

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Stagi mistake
« on: January 17, 2013, 04:01:39 AM »

 ??? Sold a Stagi concertina that has been on the shelf for about 9 yrs. It sat there because it had several reeds in backwards from the factory, it was a sort of reminder of why I stopped carrying them.
As it turns out it was way more wacked than I thought. Took me about 20 min to figure out that one entire row was backwards on each side (not the same row mind you) but better yet it is the first Bd/Ed two row anglo concertina I have ever seen...WTF?! also had to re attach the reed plate to the handle, screws stripped out of wood.
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pgroff

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2013, 07:20:11 AM »

??? Sold a Stagi concertina that has been on the shelf for about 9 yrs. It sat there because it had several reeds in backwards from the factory, it was a sort of reminder of why I stopped carrying them.
As it turns out it was way more wacked than I thought. Took me about 20 min to figure out that one entire row was backwards on each side (not the same row mind you) but better yet it is the first Bd/Ed two row anglo concertina I have ever seen...WTF?! also had to re attach the reed plate to the handle, screws stripped out of wood.

Kimric,

Is it possible you are dealing with an instrument meant for export to Africa?  See this article on the layout for "squashbox:"

http://www.concertina.org/ica/index.php/pica/subject-index/38-articles/86-the-black-concertina-tradition-of-south-africa

PG
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Mike Hirst

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2013, 08:22:10 AM »

sounds like a squashbox layout to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az8HJ-0snyI
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Adam-T

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2013, 08:46:39 AM »

Just goes to show that Italian isn`t always synonymous with quality in squeezeboxes
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deltasalmon

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2013, 01:52:39 PM »

Just goes to show that Italian isn`t always synonymous with quality in squeezeboxes

Stagi certainly isn't synonymous with quality...
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Kimric Smythe

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2013, 05:00:44 PM »

Thanks Pgroff!

That appears to be exactly what I had. Good article too.
I have had so many problems with Stagi over the years  that I assumed that this was just one more. Still had to fix all the stripped screws in the handle. Why the shipped it to me is a mystery.

Kimric
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pgroff

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2013, 05:18:13 PM »

Hi Kimric,

It's a great "instrument evolution story" starting with a variant that was then reproduced and became sort of a new species.

Next thing you know someone will show up wanting you to convert a "standard" Stagi to squashbox layout.   ;)

Weird factory mistakes definitely happen.  Once someone found, and traded in to me, a never-played but 30-year old Baldoni that I'm sure was a  construction fail.  The melody side was a 4 voice D/C# layout, but the bass side had a standard B/C "Paolo Soprani" layout.  So there wasn't a D chord on the press, the one chord used most often by D/C# players -- press was C, C, G, E . . .   Any of the guys who played D/C# in the 1960s would have gone nuts trying to play this thing.  A misbegotten chimera of 2 different kinds of "Irish accordion" being made at that time in Italy for export to New York.

PG



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Adam-T

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2013, 09:13:35 PM »

This is a Stagi Inside - more reminiscent of Italian Button boxes of the 50s and 60s than modern times - I have to say that the worst Chinese ones look better inside than this --

BUT, despite the rough wood and slipshod build, the Stagi was very playable and the action was reliable whereas the Scarlatti`s action was made from the thinnest alloy possible and the pallets were always jamming open . both sounded good.

This box was virtually new, it`s not a beater
« Last Edit: January 18, 2013, 09:15:21 PM by Adam-T »
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Kimric Smythe

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2013, 05:07:07 PM »

There is one chinese concertina that I get that has removable reed blocks (way easier to tune) and steel key arms.
Makes for a better instrument for beginners.
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Adam-T

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2013, 05:17:32 PM »

The Key arms were the bad point of the Scarlatti - the aluminium is that thin and bendy and the buttons/bushes/holes so poor that they used to cause the (hardboard) Pallets to stick open .. with a steel action it would have been a servicable 'tina, it was far better made than the Stagi ..

Scarlatti`s ghastly lever action and Hardboard (cardboard?) pallets..... also the reedblock side - as you can see far better made than the Stagi - though with the typically naff chinese leather valves . this box was new as well

« Last Edit: January 20, 2013, 05:20:01 PM by Adam-T »
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forrest

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Re: Stagi mistake
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2013, 06:06:21 PM »

Thanks Pgroff!

That appears to be exactly what I had. Good article too.
I have had so many problems with Stagi over the years  that I assumed that this was just one more. Still had to fix all the stripped screws in the handle. Why the shipped it to me is a mystery.

Kimric

Hmmm...seems to me that I encountered a similar Stagi many years ago at the Dusty Strings shop in Seattle, could not make heads nor tails of it. I thought the same as Kimric, maybe a "Monday morning" box with flipped reeds. Mystery solved  (:)
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