Orm

Forgive me if this was discussed before, but I couldn't find a thread about it. Looking at different concertinas online I can't stop but wonder - how unique are concertina ends? In particular, I look at higher end Lachenal anglos with certain features - ebonized ends, inset metal ends. As far as I know, the dimensions of such concertinas are (mostly?) standard - 6 1/4 across flats. Still, I see quite a difference in the fretwork. It could be, of course, explained by production date difference - maybe they were making different ends during different years? But I just thought I'd ask - I'm quite sure there is a knowledgeable person here who knows everything about it. For the reference I can add pictures of my 32-buttons Lachenal anglo:

Hi, After long pause in my concertina playing (COVID, and I also played much more mandolin and banjo), I'm thinking about getting back to it. I have a very nice metal-ended Lachenal concertina, but it requires some work on it - I'd like it to be checked both for functional and aesthetic purposes (clean / polish the ends, buttons, probably new bellows / bellow papers etc). Could you suggest some good person to do this in the Netherlands area? I remember I was advised to contact Jurgen Suttner, and it's a possibility - not sure how easy is to get his time though. But maybe there are others? Or should I just send it to UK / Ireland? I had quite a bad experience finding a luthier for my vintage Gibson mandolin here in NL and I'd prefer to ship instrument somewhere but be sure that person is knowledgable. Best, Roman

Great Adrian, thanks a lot!

Hi all, I've searched already several times but I cannot find a definitive answer. My question is - are there any 'default' or 'standard' 30+ buttons layouts. I can imagine Jeffries and Wheatstone/Lachenal did things differently, but apart from one diagram of 40 buttons wheatstone layout I cannot find any good source of how exactly these buttons are/were tuned. My question comes from my 32 buttons Lachenal. I have extra buttons on it tuned to (pull) E3 / (push) B4 on LH and (pull) C6 / (push) A#6 on RH. I find LH one quite handy for irish tunes, havent' used RH one much yet. But I'm not sure that these reeds are original. So did I miss some informative threads somewhere on c.net? Or wasn't it discussed much yet?

oh my of course I didn´t mean that, thanks for correcting me, and I´m sorry. I didn't want to insult anyone. Should have learned English language better. What I wanted to say - I am from Eastern Europe myself and it does look a bit suspicious to me. Not giving the telephone number but asking for one, for example. Also it's unclear how exactly this concertina ended up in the hands of the owner. But of course everybody can decide for himself. If such a remark shouldn't exist in the sale thread I can remove my comments. Best, Roman

It looks like a scum to me

Well, I'd not say this is concertina - buttons seem to be positioned as on an accordion. And he doesn't sing "I'm playing a concertina". He sings about "гармошка", which translates as, probably, "harmonica". This term is usually used for Russian button accordions. Sorry to disappoint. It's a great kid's animation, though, and book on which it's based is very good as well.

Oops, I thought I added some text to it but it looks like I didn't. Thanks for noticing! What I was going to say - I'm still searching for one, and I wanted to bump my post up in case somebody has one for sale. I agree with you that this task is close to impossible, but it's not exactly impossible. I know that at least one 31 buttons Lachenal of smaller size with inset metal ended style exists (the one I've missed in the Dublin store). I also recall I seen a post once on c.net about selling smaller size 32 buttons Lachenal, although I'm not sure if it was metal ended one. But anyway, my quest continues

PM sent

Still looking

Forgive me if this was already asked, but I haven't found this information on the forum. What are the standard sizes of different brand's anglos? From my (limited) knowledge Lachenals are usually 6 1/4'' AF, while Jeffries are a bit smaller (6'' if I'm not mistaken), is it correct? And what about others?

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What about usual post? I've recently shipped concertina from NL to UK by usual post.nl and I've used an option of insuring it (up to € 5000 if I'm not mistaken). Luckily all went well, the cost of delivery was € 30 with box.

Thanks, this matches with info I have, do you, by chance, have any recordings / sound files?