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  1. Today
  2. Parker135
    Nabio, that's certainly a ringing endorsement of the Ceili. It will probably be between one of those or a Clover when the time comes. For now, I am really thankful to have the Stagi on loan to get me started. I probably would have bought a Wren or similar and then be wanting to trade up. Thanks for your comments.
  3. Chris Ghent
    Thats a sound that could easily be made by a valve but I have been fooled by this a couple of times with waxed-on reeds. They can be cracked in the wax and when you put pressure one way they work perfectly because the pressure holds the reed plate against the wood. The other way though the plate is pushed away from the wood however much the shape of the crack will allow and then they chatter. The ones I fixed I did by holding a hot solder iron close because I am not set up for waxing.
  4. Yesterday
  5. Don Taylor
    http://www.concertinaconnection.com/reed exchange instructions.htm
  6. Nabio
    Theo, I'm prepared mentally for further cracks in the wax. Though, having seen how simple it was to fix, I'm not as concerned. However, knowing what the problem is, I'm almost certain it's due to the last trip out, where it was in my luggage though left too long without climate control in freezing temperatures. I thought I'd given it ample time to adapt to room temperature (and maybe I did), but it's very possible it was the freezing ride it took on Quebec roads in January.. the roads are about as smooth as your average vaccine rollout. Parker, I started (not that long ago) on a Stagi (thanks to a very kind member of the community, thank you again), and the difference is night and day. You're actually better off learning on the Stagi, because if you can control your air on it then you'll find the Ceili always has more. The buttons themselves require much less effort/pressure to push which did take some time to get used to. Because it's so easy to play, you find yourself trying to catch up to it because of how responsive it is. In that sense, it takes almost a finer motor skill than the Stagi which is so fun to smash the buttons on. I think this will be the biggest difference, aside from the sound itself. The Ceili is much brighter, and louder (at least mine is). It also took some time for my ears to adapt to it, but when switching back to the Stagi, it's almost as if the sound is muffled in the latter. The appearance, weight, and size are also significantly better in the Ceili's favor. With that said, I love and play both for different reasons, but I'm very very happy to have found my Ceili (ahem, thanks again, you know who). Apologies for the typos, I've been using my phone to send these along. Cheers
  7. Parker135
    May have partially answered my own questions. I just looked at the process of changing accordion reeds on Concertina Connection, and it looks like wax is probably way easier and probably ensures a better seal. And it's probably been done that way for a hundred years on accordions.
  8. Parker135
    I've been following this discussion with interest, as a Ceili is on my short list to consider as an upgrade from the loaner Stagi I'm using for my beginning lessons. Is wax installation a common procedure for this class of concertina? Is it because the accordion reeds come mounted on the reed plates which are then installed with the wax? I'm curious why hot hide glue would not be suitable for this. The reed plates could still be removed if necessary with a little heat. With the uncertain future of new Cailis being made and serviced, should I be concerned about buying one? I assume other concertina repair services could do any necessary repairs, but I'm just not yet familiar enough know what I might be getting into.
  9. Geoff Geis started following Case for Maccann Duet?
  10. Geoff Geis
    Hi there, Thought I'd reach out to the brain trust, and I hope I in fact chose the best forum section to post this in. I have a 72-key Maccann Duet whose case appears to be original (96 years old) and in any ... case ... not up to snuff. I've reached out to a few different conch retailers on both sides of the Pond over the past two or three years. Those have led me to some individuals who, it turns out, no longer make custom cases themselves. I'm wondering if perhaps someone here has any direction they might point me in for a new custom case. I have had some suggestions, most constructively (sorry) for a Pelican or Pelican-style hardshell case. This would have been a winner (and I am actually using one currently), but the problem is that the case with the smallest acceptable dimensions still takes up well over double - almost triple - of the volume I actually require. I'm all about the robust construction - I am a sailor - but for the same reason, space is at a premium. The size and weight of the Pelican are not going to work for me. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be quite appreciative. Thanks! Best, Geoff
  11. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Yes, this is Fiberlogy Fiberwood filament, alcohol stained with a shellac finish. A very nice filament, one of my personal favourites.
  12. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Thank you! And here I thought that some of my levers are too short and the lever arrangement packed Very nice layout!
  13. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Those are PTFE, which from I can gather has an unlimited shelf life. With this curvature I suppose there won't be any serious wear on those. But if any part of the link breaks, it is simply push fit into the board with a little notch cut on the button side so it does not slide back in. To completely replace the whole assembly you just need an exacto knife and a piece of tube for the Bowden and a pair of pliers and a proper gauge spring wire for the actuator. I have actually replaced those a few times when I was working on them, since I made them too short the first time around and the resulting curvature was too tight. It took about 2 minutes to replace them.
  14. SIMON GABRIELOW
    I don't suppose that it is easy to absolutely prevent some air leaking on a concertina; my own has mild air leak, and very slowly gradually will close up if I leave it; however I have had my one for 23 years, and serviced it myself when required. In my case I could easily seal it up more, I suppose, but it really doesn't affect much in duration of tone produced [Anglo system]. It depends upon how I hold the instrument as well; when sitting with it on my lap I hold it differently than standing, and this also means bellow pressure is different too. However, I would agree with previous people, as yours is new; get it sorted out first, and don't attempt a repair as it will possibly void a warranty that may be on it.
  15. Pistachio Dreamer
    it did. I love your cable actuated action, what a result!
  16. dabbler
    Very nice linkage solution. I wonder what the lifespan of the Bowden cables is. I suppose they could be made replaceable if it is an issue. I'm also impressed with the finish on the handles. Is that stained wood-fill PLA? -George
  17. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Thanks! It was one of those "how have I not thought about it sooner" moments. I don't mind others taking up on this, as I don't see myself in a concertina building career anytime soon. Maaaybee some 3d printed 46 button Haydens if I ever design a travel box for myself.
  18. d.elliott
    this type of test is not much good as a bellows test, as it tests all the pads and end gaskets as well. However your test does show a problem with the instrument. I agree with Geoff, talk to the manufacturer. One would have hoped that the concertina had been checked over before they sold it to you. If not it says a lot about the manufacturer's customer care attitude.
  19. Don Taylor
    Brilliant! Simple and ingenious, using Bowden cables like this should be taken up by other makers.
  20. Łukasz Martynowicz
    He uses PLA for the box and reedpan and CF infused filament for all the moving parts.
  21. hjcjones
    I don't think it's often claimed that chords are straightforward. The more usual claim is that the instrument is very well-suited to playing an accompaniment (which is not quite the same). Within the 20 core buttons, holding down pretty much any combination of buttons on the same row will produce an acceptable harmony. It may not be the correct chord according to music theory, but it will do. No knowledge of chords or music theory required. Equally usefully, as long as you keep away from the accidental row, hitting a wrong button won't be a disaster as it will probably harmonise. It's quite hard to play a really wrong note. The Anglo is also well set up for playing in octaves. Admittedly things do get more complicated if you do want to play "proper" chords, and if you move away from the major home keys. Then you're in similar territory to duet concertinas, where it does require some effort to learn the different chords and some awareness of how chords are formed. Even on the Hayden the chord shapes may be fairly easy, and you only have to learn a few, but you do have to learn them.
  22. Łukasz Martynowicz
    As I wrote, Ed spent a whole year meticulously fine tuning the sound of it. Before he started making concertinas, he was an accordion tuner for more than a decade, so you can trust his expertise. But you don't have to rely on trust alone, he got some of the best UK players to "test drive" those. Also, the material of the concertina plays only a secondary role in the acoustics of it, sound reflections are the key. Now, on the unrelated topic, I have updated my thread with some pictures of the link mechanism: As to sharing my handle design, my ultimate goal is indeed to popularise this design, so I don't say no, but you will have to be patient just for a little bit longer. At this moment those are calibrated for my hand only and the proper calibration is key to this design. I'll have to come up with some sort of adjustable solution first before I can offer it to the public.
  23. Geoffrey Crabb
    As I have, amongst the plethora of old Crabb concertina stuff, the original metal template from which this fretwork design was copied and applied to the instruments prior to piercing, I believe that the tina is an early one, late 1860's early 1870's, by my great grandfather John Crabb 1826-1903. The B/F# was the most popular for many years as seen from the Sept.1889 - Dec.1891, period of the available sales/production records. Of the 114 Anglo concertinas made in the Crabb workshop during that period: 21 were C/G, 17 were Bb/F 75 were B/F#, and 1 was G/D, (The earliest recorded Crabb G/D, a 32 button, metal top, 08/11/1889)., B natural was also a known requested core key for some Crane duets up to the 1930's. I'll leave others to speculate why B/F# was so popular. Geoff
  24. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Oh wow, this is packed! It looks like it has some very short levers too?
  25. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Now on the second photo above one other feature can be seen - my air pad box. This is why it looks this way - my air lever. Because my "antlers" immobilise the thumb, I needed something different than a traditional air button. This can be operated by any of the four fingers and as such can be operated mid-phrase to close/open bellows faster. Though I only use it in one tune, because this beast have enormous air supply. Which points to a fun fact - with the bellows perfectly airtight, this box can play the lowest note, F2, continuously for 30 seconds. But because DIX reeds with the valves I use are so responsive and the bellows cross section is so large on this box, I actually had to introduce a controlled leak between the bellows and the reedpan to get a proper dynamic range for reeds above C4, because they were pretty much on-off with the slightest of the bellows move. The last update for now is my lap support. This ensures, that the LH side hand positioning stays absolute, as it eliminates any wobble around the vertical axis due to eccentricity of forces acting on the endplates on draw and anchores the LH side of the bellows. By the nature of my bellows (it is very rigid in both axis perpendicular to the bellows travel) it also stabilises the RH side, so this whole thing feels much more like playing on a static instrument like a piano rather than a concertina with a hand strap. It is a click-in mount, so there is only a little peg on the concertina itself.
  26. Dashy
    I actually came across it earlier today, it's really cool! I am curious about the acoustics, it sounds fine through video but acoustics is very hard. My brother and I actually have experience playing around with different materials and whatnot for some pretty involved 3D-printed headphones, PLA generally doesn't sound very good. Our best success was with PETG, and we haven't tried it yet but from my experience with other prints I think CF-filled materials are even better. Another material that comes to mind is woodfill (generally PLA-based), I'd love to try that with something like a concertina... Another consideration is the mechanical properties of the material. He says he uses PLA, which is generally fine, maybe a bit heavy but plenty stiff -just don't leave it in a hot car!
  27. Łukasz Martynowicz
    Hopefully, this is my penultimate post before completion, as the box is fully playable for a few months now and only bellows papers left to do. Playability is in fact the reason why it is not done yet - I prefer playing on her in my precious little time I can spare for concertina. So, to the point. In another thread I've mentioned, that I've solved the links problem. My first prototype link all those years ago involved traditional levers, but it has proven impossible to route direct levers through the array and routing them around required so many intermediaries, that there was just too much loss of travel and response. And then occurred to me, that I could go through the inside of the box for a direct route and this is how I did it. Those are for Ebs, and if I knew this will be my solution I would arrange a few reeds differently to accommodate Abs also (at this point I could readily make one Ab link, but I don't see the musical point of just one). Bowden setup has all the advantages I can think of - it is smooth, PTFE tube+spring wire have virtually no friction, so no additional spring is needed; button travel is exactly the same, because lever arm length is the sam for both buttons; and with my button-to-lever connection design, the "donor" button does not move when the receiving button is pressed; and last but not least, there are no meaningful button force differences, so linked buttons work pretty much exactly the same as the rest of the array. With careful planning of the reed placement, I could get full range of enharmonic duplicates this way. I guess this is a "to do" for my future full piano range box, somewhere in the next two decades
  28. Theo
    Be aware that wax problems like this may recur. The wax is (should be) all the same age. If one reed plate has come loose then others may do the same. You might be lucky, but if this happens again with a different reed then it will be worthwhile getting all the wax removed and replaced with fresh new wax. I do a lot of repairs and maintenance to waxed reeds and this advice is based on experience.
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