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How Difficult Is It To Add An Extra Button


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how hard is it for a concertina tech to add an extra button to a 20 key anglo?

 

Id like to add an extra one (or two) to a 20 key.

 

 

this would be most likely on a jones or lachenal to upgrade.

 

 

I'm Just curious if this would be too cost prohibitive to go that route... with standard tech charges of $50+ an hour.

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I have no idea how much it would cost, but I'm pretty sure it would be more than the difference in price between say a 20 and 26/30 button anglo - and with the later you'd have 6/10 extras!

 

It started me wondering what the first extras notes would be on a 22 button? A C# push and Bb pull on both sides?

 

Adrian

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I've seen a vintage 20 button turned into a 21 by Dipper, where the added button (right side) was C# both directions. (At least, I'm pretty sure it was a Dipper modification...)

 

I thrice added a left-thumb button to an already-built Morse, which is a "relatively easy" thing to do -- twice for my own two Morse Ceilis and once for a customer. This took a lot of time the first time I did it, on my own for one of mine, in which I was figuring it out as I went along. Once I'd done that, subsequent operations were simpler but probably still took 4-6 hours? This is relatively easy in that the Morse design is such that potential for a left-thumb button is planned for in the design -- there's space left in the reedpan for the reed, space left in the action for the button, and the fretwork has the buttonhole already. Still, it's a fair bit of surgery to do the job.

 

I once added a right-hand button to a Morse anglo, as a personal project. It was a huge job. Probably took 30 hours, including the planning, making a breadboard mockup, designing some jigs, and particularly doing CAD drawing to carefully cut out a section of fretwork, create a new piece that exactly fits in, and then finishing that so it (mostly) matches and blends in with the rest of the instrument. Adrian's right, the cost would likely equal or exceed the difference in cost between a 20 and 26/30 button instrument.

Edited by wayman
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