Wheatstone Miniature 16 Button Anglo?

[Doug Barr]

Just throwing this out there.

 

I am trying to trace the history of this miniature concertina. It is a Wheatstone 16 button anglo, serial #54553. I am its' new proud owner. I do know that it was owned by the late Howie Leifer of NYC. I don't know when Howie came into possession of this instrument. I asked his brother but he didn't know or have any documentation.

 

I was wondering if anyone here had any knowledge of the instrument. Do you know who the previous owner or maybe you saw this instrument in action. Maybe you owned it for a while.

 

Again just trying to build some history for my own knowledge and entertainment. I'm sure they didn't make too many of these and somebody might know something.

 

Thanks Doug

[Chris Ghent]

Hi Doig,

 

Lovely, and intriguing too. How big is it..?

[Doug Barr]

Hi Chris, it is 3 1/2 inches across the flat. It has a nice strong sound and action as fast as a whip. I can't put it down and I'm driving every in the house nuts.....

[Chris Ghent]

Doug,

 

Thanks for the info, a couple more, is it in the standard octave? And what are the keys and range?

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[Doug Barr]

Hi Christ, if I can I will attach the button layout

[Doug Barr]

Hi Christ, if I can I will attach the button layout

mini notes.pdf

[Chris Ghent]

Doug,

 

Thanks, very interesting, how do you interpret this? The bottom row looks like a D row, but how would one categorise the top row?

 

Chris

[Paul Groff]

Chris,

 

Except for the E/G# buttons on each side, the layout is what you would expect from the top 4 buttons on each side of the middle row + the outside row of a 30-key, 3-row D/A anglo in Wheatstone layout.

 

Thus, imagine a 30 key anglo concertina with no "inside row." For simplicity's sake you can imagine that it's a C/G.

 

If you can play settings of tunes using the C row + accidental row of a Wheatstone-layout C/G concertina, many of those settings will finger similarly on the 2 rows of this miniature (but transposed up a step, or more likely here a step plus an octave). On a 30-key C/G anglo, the F# note tends to be the one note that's only found on the G row. Transposed up a step, that F# becomes G#. Places were found for that note, in 2 octaves, on the draw on the outermost buttons of the outside row of this miniature. The 2 octaves of E on that outside row are duplicates of the notes on the main D row, in reversed bellows directions.

 

A clever system to maximize the fully chromatic range of a small instrument, while still overlapping with part of a familiar anglo layout. To make a miniature feel more familiar for many traditional styles of music, some players might prefer instead to have a different subset of the layout of the traditional anglo included -- to have more of the two inside rows (the C and G rows of a C/G, or the D and A rows of a D/A) available -- but that would result in more duplicate notes and less chromatic range. Either way makes perfect sense depending on the player and his or her intended use of the instrument.

 

PG

Edited November 23, 2013 by Paul Groff

[Chris Ghent]

Paul,

 

that makes sense. I would be interested to hear if it is an octave up; with no low reeds, the pitch up two semitones and perhaps scaled reed lengths it might just be possible to fit standard octave reeds in. Is it in standard pitch or an octave higher Doug?

 

Chris

[Doug Barr]

It is an octave higher

[darticus]

How much money does something like that cost? Real nice! Is the the only make that was made? I LIKE IT! Thanks Ron