alex_holden

I disagree; the low-end Crabb end plates are simple but elegant and crisply cut, obviously the work of a skilled professional. This one has a very crude amateur feel.

I was just looking closely at it, and it's very similar but I don't think it's the same one. It has seven fold bellows (which look original) and the one in the photo appears to have eight; also the shape of the pierced area on the right hand end plate is a bit different.

It's short low-pitched reeds that are slower to start and more prone to bending flat, because they need a heavy weight at the tip to pull the pitch down and that gives it a lot of inertia. Note that a heavily weighted reed takes a while to start up "from cold" but will also keep vibrating for a second or two after you release the button, so if you play the note twice in quick succession (in the same direction) it will sound much more quickly the second time.

They may have used the Victorian equivalent of one of these: https://www.customstampsonline.com/product/6-band-line-numberer To get a more authentic look, you might separate out the digits and jiggle them up and down a tiny bit so they aren't perfectly on the baseline.

I'm not sure it's fair to compare a duet to an Anglo. Some players simply find it easier to learn an instrument that plays the same note in both directions and doesn't jump left and right like an English. It is fair to ask what is the minimum useful number of buttons on a beginner duet. The 34 button CC Elise seems to be popular despite its limitations. An instrument doesn't need to be able to handle an advanced player's entire repertoire to be a useful learning tool.

Not me, I'm busy enough already. Where I'm coming from is that I'd like to see more options for beginners to start out on a wider range of duet systems.

Apparently you would have to eat quite a lot of rhubarb leaves at one sitting to get a lethal dose, though you might feel unwell from a more moderate amount.

I wonder if any of the current makers of budget concertinas with beginner-friendly price tags have considered offering models with duet keyboard layouts other than Hayden/Wicki? I am thinking of the Crane system in particular, which seems to be having a bit of a revival in popularity lately, but there might also be a market for new Maccanns or even less-common systems like Jeffries. The standard advice is to buy a vintage Lachenal or similar, but it can be difficult and time consuming to find a playable one at a moderate price, and beginners often just want to start on something ch

You also need to be very careful with oxalic acid as it is poisonous.

Maybe try contacting the factory directly? They probably inherited the design from the previous owner and may not be aware that the Stagi keyboard dimensions are non-standard and the earlier Bastari model was better. Perhaps you could replace the bellows pins with smaller ones: http://www.cgmmusical.co.uk/CGM_Musical_Services/Bellow_Pins.html

Here's a question I've just been trying to figure out: If a non-VAT-registered entity (e.g. a private seller or a small business with low turnover) located in Great Britain (England, Wales or Scotland) sells an item worth more than £135 to a private individual in Northern Ireland, will the buyer have to pay VAT? Apparently the NI Protocol means that NI is effectively still part of the EU for VAT accounting purposes, even though the revenue generated goes to the UK government, so moving goods from GB to NI now counts as an export? 🤔 Frustratingly pretty much all the advi

If it's been stored somewhere damp enough to badly rust the reeds, the woodwork may be in a mess too.

The factory has an Instagram channel: https://www.instagram.com/fabbricaconcertineitaliasrls/

What's with the odd thumb strap and angle plate arrangement (more visible in the other photos on the eBay listing)? Were they ever built like that or is it a user modification?

A client sent me a traditional international bank transfer last year, and they charged both him to send it and me to receive it. Not an insignificant amount either. By the way, I just found out that Transferwise has recently changed their name to 'Wise'.