It's a little hard to tell being new reeds comparing to old well broken in reeds, but they definitely have strong hints of the sound I was hoping for. They have a nice punch and good volume, absolutely on par with premium Italian reeds. I feel a very slight hesitation in response, which I'm hoping the #1's do not have.
If you're in La, the accordion with the #3 (a mano professional) reeds is on display at SOLA in Lafayette, Anya Burgess' violin store. I left it there for people to try out and give me feedback. I'd really appreciate anyone's opinion.
I think the side on both Harmonikas sets I've tried are good. They have a bigger big base reed, which gives it a little more honk. The hallmark sound of the old German boxes that I love so much is the chords, which are small chord reeds on a single plate. I wasn't able to get Harmonikas to understand what I wanted, or they just didn't want to, on ordering the chord reeds like that. So I have been attaching the chord reeds together to try to capture that sound. It is close but not quite the same. I also have been using 4 chord reeds instead of 3.
What about the Sappo and the Antenelli reeds? Are they still available? I had old Master accordions with them at one time. The best tone I ever had was my first Sydney Brown with the Hohner tupelo reeds but I broke several at every gig. My Bincis in my Falcon are the workhorses but lack the clarity and brightness.
Salpa reeds are not available anymore. Antonelli are, that's what Elton Doucet puts in most, if not all, of his. I think the Ciccarelli are close to Salpa, but he's become very unreliable.
Somewhat of false advertising. I buy parts from FRM. I asked Frank about his advertised Salpa reeds. He said they're not Salpa, but the company who took them over, which I believe is Voci Armoniche.
I just had an accordion made for me by Vignoni in Castelfidardo and it has Binci reeds. I was very disappointed. The sound is not exceptional, and the voicing is terrible. The bassoon is sluggish, the piccolo and high clarinet notes are weak, and response is unreliable. When playing in 2 or more registers, notes start sounding at different pressures.