Thanks but I believe it's more than the old grey Paolo - it's his style of playing like there's a kind of pulsing, tension to his playing. I can't put it into words but it's not something I've heard from other old greys - I'd like to know how he does it, must be in the way he's pushing and pulling the bellows I guess.
OK, I guess you mean his dynamic control of the box then? My old (c.1954) Paolo Soprani "pepperpot" has a most astonishing dynamic range in it - it'll play at anything from a whisper, up to screaming and shouting...
I always wondered why Billy had new reeds put in his old grey?
I must admit I was remembering how that box used to sound, but it's a good few years since I last saw Billy and heard him play it. I've been checking out some more recent YouTube clips of him in the meantime and I'm afraid I don't much like the hard sound it has now.
But it has had an awful lot of playing in its life and I guess it was starting to get rather "tired" because it seems he was trying to "restore" it. There were problems with the mechanism that he got fixed by (pipes maker) Benedict Koehler, and he got Martin Connolly to replace the reeds, so they're probably Binci now, but expensive handmade reeds don't necessarily produce the best results in any given box.
But hey, I'm somebody who prefers the more lively sound of Castagnaris with cheaper "export" reeds in them, instead of dearer tipo a mano...