Łukasz Martynowicz

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.

If you're not in too much hurry, I may be releasing 40-50b 3D printed Hayden later this year (late fall probably). The higher button count variant will cover similar range as Beaumont.

Waiting for the reeds to arrive I started renovating my workshop and it prooved more labourous than I thought (115 years old building is full of surprises). The concept phase is done however, I just can’t start printing it for another month or so. But while my schedule is delayed, my goal stands firm.

I’m really interested in hearing what you came up with, as this piece covers pretty much an entire range of my 66b. Even the melody part stretches over the whole RH… You should hovever be able to play the third part in full IIRC. Given it is similar to the first part, you can skip the range problem by playing the end of the third part in place of the ending of the first part. I sometimes do this by mistake if I’m not focussed enough. There is no way however to play the middle part on anything smaller than 46 „standard” and it still requires crossing to the LH with the melody.

There is always an option to be "bilingual"

As you probably figured out by now, playing on a Hayden is all about geometry, not note names. So if you decipher the series of finger movements in one key, the same series of finger movements apply in any other key. If you’re just beginning learning dots you may want to look at a specific alternative notation system, Parncut 6-6 Tetragram. It has a „built in” reference to Hayden rows layout and is way easier to sight read than traditional dots.

Why exactly you need any written transposition to transpose on a Hayden? Simply „relabel” buttons mentally to „shift” the layout to a desired key and play. Geometry of the music stays the same, unless you’re aiming at a „wrap around” key. This is one of the main features of all isomorphic layouts.

Well, I’ve designed unique handles if that counts. The benefit is decoupling the wrist while retaining bellows control, and anchoring the hand firmly, so I don’t get lost on 66b Hayden. I never got along with hand straps, as I have really long fingers.

Given the goal of this excercise, I would skip it entirely. As Alex wrote, replacing accordion style reedpan for flat mounted one means you have to replace entire interior. With your listed workshop capabilities, I would save only the bellows and made entire new endboxes+innards from scratch. This way you can continue to play this instrument while you’re building the new one. You then switch the bellows and reeds to the new one and start building yet another instrument. This time around entirely from scratch and less bad, since you will now have enough knowledge about concertina building basics, to at least know what you are doing An old quote from the first Matrix movie is very adequate here: „Everybody fails the first time”

It is basically a guitar version of a Janko piano layout, with just a slight skew of the unisons line. This layout is very straightforward to play on for Hayden player. I've recently designed a 3D printable piano-to-Janko conversion set for M-Audio digital piano, and I think I might look into expanding to Harpeji next

My guess would be, that either reed frames are made from aluminum instead of traditional zinc, and/or that they are in individual frames instead of on common plate. Didie, do you know what reeds are installed in your bandotin?

I can recommend Harmonikas, especially their DIX range, which not only sound great, but are also easier to work with than italian reeds, as they are slightly shorter but also slightly wider for the same size, so can have larger clearance between the inner valve and the chamber wall. They do sell single sets and even single reeds. They also do have „concertina” range, though those are semi-traditional only, as they still have accordion style trapezoid tongues. However, their current lead time is around 12 weeks.

Instruments in different temperaments were played together since the very invention of temperaments in Renaissance, as lutes were usually tuned in equal temperament and keyboard instruments were not. However, how badly out of tune with each other instruments in such ensembles sound depends very much on the tune itself - how melody and harmony interact, which intervals are used, which key the tune is in, how modern the tune is etc. It also depends very much on which temperaments are clashed together. Go on YT and search for videos illustrating different temperaments and listen to differences, "side by side" comparisons etc. And if you're interested in some most extreme musical experience, search for microtonal music in -TETs larger than 12-TET (the common equal temperament). Personally, I can't stand microtonal music other than traditional music from India, as everything sounds false all the time to me. When clashing two different temperaments together, you can get the same "microtonal" quality to resulting music.

Same here

If there is another instrument with similar timbre and in tune with your box, then you might "not hear yourself" because you're blending in perfectly. Try to play to concertina recording at matching volume to hear what I mean. If you're hearing yourself clearly, then you're missing the rhythm or your concertina is out of tune. It is exactly the same as playing two reeds with the same pitch - you should only hear the increased volume and very little else, unless they are deliberately tuned in musette. When I'm learning a tune via play along to say, a bandoneon recording or Musescore with proper concertina sound font, then not hearing myself is a proof, that I'm doing well.

Yes, I know. Alex Holden and Flying Duck Concertinas also made some boxes with Allen screws. If I read it right and those notes are in reversed, descensing order, then you’ll be dissappointed by such substitutions in terms of response, pitch stability and timbre, more and more as you go further down from F. Lowest of those may even not speak at all. It’s because you need increasingly larger chambers as you go further down from C3.