Łukasz Martynowicz

A very brief occurence in S01E8 of HBO's "Warrior" series, played. Seems to me like one of the octagonal Wakker Anglos.

Buy some cheap, crafts EVA foam (2mm thick) and stuff it into fretwork in an almost airtight manner. Leave only couple of square mm of gaps. The concertina should be 15-20dB quieter and this whole procedure us entirely reversible due to push-fit nature of it. If there is enough room under the fretwork you my simply glue a foam cutout under the entire fretwork (you have to have a glue seam all around though, including around buttons) and then poke some holes in it until reeds start speaking freely.

I’ve once built a MIDI Hayden for exact same reasons. With bellows and some bells and whistles like selectable pressure response curve, alternative piano mode, where bellows controlled velocity instead of volume, and both Hayden and (only partially working) Anglo modes. You only need a differential pressure sensor hooked to an analog input and link it to volume channel. The main problem is not in pressure sensitivity, it’s in buttons. You really need levers for Hayden MIDI, as there is no way to fit durable and responsive off the shelf switches. So all the typical concertina innards except for reedpan and reeds.

It is possible to lower the volume of a concertina with baffles. My Elise has been toned down from peak 105dB to peak 90dB, and my current box is set at comfortable peak 80dB. But not with felt. With EVA foam or solid baffles. In order to lower the volume the open area of the fretwork must be reduced, and it has to be reduced substantially. Original Elise „fretwork” had to be closed almost entirely - the area left open, so that the reeds could speak freely, was measured in square milimeters. My current concertina has two layers of fretwork. Outer, aesthetic wood one is very open and as a result piercingly bright and loud. The final tone is shaped by a second layer of 3D printed hard baffle, which both mellows the tone and decreases volume. The overal volume can also be lowered significantly by decreasing chamber holes aperture, and is typically used to balance relative reeds volumes. This can be done in a reversible way by ring inserts and can lower the volume by 10-20dB, but has a serious impact on response and pitch stability of lower notes. Other than that, I can indeed confirm, that a closet with a lot of clothes on hangers is a great practice and recording space. I have one just like that and it can dampen clarinet, concertina, loud city noises and mobile air conditioning unit. Mine has about 10sq meters aperture of open hangers and shelves, which easily translates to dozens if not low hundreds sq meters of total sound dampening surface area. Combined, my reduced volume boxes played in said closet are silent enough to not dominate over typical household sounds, normal music/movie/gaming volume etc.

Mostly because bellows is less affected by fingering. On light instruments I always have this feeling, that endplates try to escape from under my fingers. On a heavy instrument much less so. Rotation is way more related to button array and handrail/handstrap positions than weight. First iteration of Ed’s Hayden, with a central array and a handrail very far to the back is very wobbly. That is why there is the rectangular version now with more proper array/handrest positions.

Exactly why I designed those: The thumb is only inserted as deep as the first joint, like in a thimble, and the antler-anvil combination immobilise the thumb only along the bellows axis, leaving all other degrees of freedom unaffected. This works similarly to what Didie explained, but in a completely passive manner.

My wooden 66b with brass shoed reeds, which are heavier than aluminum ones, weights 2.4kg. IIRC more than half of this weight comes from the reeds, with a significant contribution from brass action and a bit too thick button caps. My 3D printed 45b with oversized aluminum reeds and repurposed Elise bellows that has huge wooden frames weights 1.4kg. Here, most of this weight comes from the reeds and IIRC all plastic parts were about half of spool, so not more than 0,5kg. As to plastic vs wood - 3D printed parts have 1-1.5 mm thick walls and typically 85% of the part’s volume is just air, making prints of anything, not just concertinas, lighter than those same parts made traditionally from other materials bar some lightest woods. In a lot of cases parts actually have to be additionally weighted with steel inserts. Now about the weight of duets overall - both me and Didie actually prefer heavier instruments (outside of traveling purposes) and Didie contemplated adding weights to his Beaumont. This is because playing accompaniment on a heavy and thus more stable box is way easier. You also most probably play such instrument seated, so there is no shoulder fatigue problem, and you do not work the bellows in bisonoric style, so there is no innertia problem.

To make cheap sterilising solution, that is safe to use on skin. Just add water to dilute it to 70% and voila. It is the cheapest option I have found and have been using it throughout the entire COVID period. It is 3x cheaper than buying branded solutions like Skinman etc…

Interesting. I didn’t realise, that readily available 99.9% Ethyl is problematic to get in some countries. Here in Poland you can get it in specialised art/renovation supply shops. I don’t know if they deliver outside of Poland, but I guess there might be a chance for EU delivery from here: https://www.art-konserwacja.pl/produkty-pomocnicze-149/

A boring story of a google search for me, when I tried to figure out notes arrangement on my cheapest ebay DDR 20b Anglo. That was 2009. But it was only years later that I actively joined this site. It is typical for me to first lurk forums for a year or two before wanting to post anything and having to create an account.

Exactly my experience with making bellows that are attached to the frames - you only need the jig size to be exact and frames mounted dead center - folds space out evenly by themselves. I used simple octagonal prism cut from MDF. I can’t be sure, but I suppose that „Wakker bellows” are made with similar „freeform” setups.

He’s active on facebook concertina groups, you can try there. And I can very much recommend his Haydens - I helped him develop them He is currently working on extending the range of his Bandotin down to F2 (current iteration goes down only to A2, which is greatly limiting accompaniment capabilities).

As to my personal slant/no slant preference. I have a couple of years of slanted experience on Elise vs current no slant 66b and I vastly prefer no slant. Especially on RH, where it greatly increases pinky usability. Overall ease of navigation is also increased due to symmetrical vertical alignment of rows.

Apart from the difference in fingering, mirrored layout also changes bellows behaviour, so there is that to consider. As to my to-be instrument: 6 1/4 or 6 1/3”, square, 3D printed, harmonikas.cz brass DIX reeds (accordion style), probably three options - 40, 46 and 50b in the same box (upgradeable later on). 40b version will have RH Troubadour layout and the same repeated for the LH (octave lower of course), 46 is „standard” and 50 will extend the standard down to Bb key (however, there will be mixed Eb/D# positions due to lever routing restrictions in such a small box, so it won’t be easy-peasy key). No slant, non-mirrored (however mirrored could probably be made to order, as it doesn’t require any layout redesign). Prices yet to be established, but somewhere between Stagi and Troubadour probably.

There will be no slant if that is what you ask. Original Wicki layout also had mirrored fingering.