Concertina Weights

Or, "It's a nice concertina, but a bit heavy..."

While at the East Coast 2000 Noel Hill Irish Concertina School, we discovered that our gracious and patient host Pete Gibbons had an accurate postal scale, and so we set to work weighing all our concertinas. It was good fun and everyone helped out, and I apologize now for taking such a long time to post this on the site!

Ah, if I had a dime for every time I've heard "it's a bit heavy" said of a concertina!! Yep, I'd probably have at least a dollar or so now. So now here's your chance to get the real scoop on the weight of the various concertinas out there. No, it's not a complete list, but it's kind of interesting anyway. Try to keep in mind that this is just for your information and does NOT imply that any one concertina is better than another just because it's lighter. A heavy concertina with great action and reeds and superb sound will still be "better" than a light concertina that plays poorly and sounds terrible. So take it all with a grain of salt... What is interesting is that despite my joking about the comments people tend to make, the general impression of some of the modern concertinas being a bit heavier than their older counterparts (Jeffries, Wheatstone) seems to be true. Still, they're certainly close, so don't read too much into this. Given a few months of practice, you'll get used to the weight and action of your own concertina. Note also though that even among the vintage models (look at all the Jeffries) there is a great variation, with metal keys adding to the weight compared to wood and bone keys.

Note: some 30-key models may in fact have 31 keys -- I did not count the drone key on some older concertinas. Instruments are C/G unless otherwise noted (and noticed when weighing).

The old great Wheatstones usually have wooden keys capped in metal, so they're light. The Dipper keys on my C/G Jeffries are delrin with metal caps and so are also very light. Jeffries are usually solid metal and heavier, or bone (like many Lachenals) and so quite light.

Where there are question marks, I'm not sure of the stated value.

Thanks to Jürgen Suttner of Suttner Concertinas for the parts weights.