Borsini Brands of the Past
Updated 08/08/13
Arpeggio
Bell
Biasco
Donelli
Enrico Roselli
Gentile
Modern
Monarch
Rembrandt
Rubens
Back in the day when the accordion was big and information about how they were built was scarce, everybody and their mother had their own accordion brand. The age old method of selling accordions was to work through accordion teachers and schools. Unsuspecting students would listen to and buy whatever accordion their teacher told them to buy. And of course, the teacher was getting a piece of the action by selling one brand of accordion to all of their students. And all of the teachers and schools didn't want to compete with each other for accordion sales so everybody started creating these various accordion "brands" for themselves. Most of these accordions were built by the same people and they just put a different name on the front of the accordion. You'd be surprised to know who's actually building your famous brand names today.
In many cases, this was a good idea because the teacher could continue to teach and suppliment his income with some accordion sales on the side. Some teachers focused on the quality of the accordion while others were focused on making a buck for themselves. If the accordion was of good quality such as the Borsini, the factory, the teacher, AND the student were able to benefit. In other cases, teachers would sell cheaply built accordions for big profits which benefits the factory and the teacher ONLY. Even today there exists accordion schools and professors in various parts of the world that control accordion sales to the point of refusing students unless they play a certain BRAND of accordion. If you see a number of students playing only ONE brand of accordion, this is no accident. When you see an accordion orchestra which is dominated by one brand of accordion, especially in the front chairs, this is no accident either.
Today we are living in a society of information. As information becomes more plentiful, accordion players are seeing that they have a choice in life. And as the light continues to shine on the industry, accordion companies must begin to price their products according to what they're building (or not building) or they will quickly find themselves as an old retired brand name inside the accordion museum.
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