Notemaker

Considering making a complete spare bellows. Looking at suppliers, I cannot find anything at all about the wee anchors built into my existing bellows end frames. Any suggestions? Thank you.

TBH I do not think it matters so much as to worry. I played ITM on the Chromatic Harmonica for a time. Then I quickly learned that somethings are completely home made to get around decorations. I don't bother too much with them on the Anglo, but have noticed those who do will use any note that works to achieve their goal. LHS G on the C row is topmost, so you'll probably want to try using the LHS G on the G row, and tickle the B - next button up from there. You mention Edel Fox. If you slow her down on YouTube you will find she uses notes far removed from the main one for her rolls/cuts/ etc. I have no idea what would work best for that. Curious, why did you move over to the box from the Flute? Edit: Just recalled that I use the LHS DRAW G outside row 2nd from top button. That will work with a DRAW A on either G or C row... :0)

Thanks for the quote. "Irish dance tunes are essentially fiddle tunes. " Imagine that! I am sorry you feel that way. Yet Internet scholarship is rather like cloud sculpture, it may, or may not, endure. Is this claim supported by any accredited scholarly work? I would be curious to know the answer, yet here in the forum is not a proper place for such, perhaps you might later like to PM me about it.

After reading Bob Tedrow's excellent webpage about it, http://hmi.homewood.net/ I began pricing the materials needed to make a bellows. Too, it is not clear which width of tape one should select. Judging from the size of his billets, after trimming, 1 1/8", I am guessing the tape size at 1 inch. But when I saw the price of the Bookbinders' tape Bob recoes, had to look further because I am not rotten rich with money, and, sure enough, on Amazon came up with an alternative. Bob's reco; from Talas https://www.talasonline.com/Gummed-Cambric-Tape?quantity=1&size=43 $28.00 What I found on Amazon; https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W2DLEX0/ref=twister_B00W2DLETE?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 $12.95 Too, considering most folks having a go at bellows making will be doing just one to start, 150 feet is way too much while 15 yards, 45 feet, is about right. I am curious, how do other makers deal with this issue? Do we go for the more expensive solution, or elect to follow a popular Bookbinder path? Thank you for your expert suggestions.

No! I think 30 tunes is far too much to be hanging on to. Instead work on mastering your instrument. Because tunes are not hard to image, while playing them in different keys on the Tina is. Too, our health can, and does, limit how we learn, or try to, and how much we can memorize. I have trouble with that as I grow older, my attention span shrinking with age. There is nothing that can be done for that except work with it! Though I am not a Concertinist, and have played Harmonica forever, today Tremolo, I recently returned to the hobby due to unexpectedly winning an Ebay auction for a vintage Crabb 30 BTN C/G Anglo, I got that for a song ...lol However, I do have a system for acquiring tunes to try on my vintage Crabb. (it has the most enchanting velvety sound). First of all I select simple tunes, the shorter the better. I find that besides simple songs, 'Popeye The Sailor Man' for example, Morris provides lovely and easily learned dance tunes, some with little lyrics which are very easy to remember. All the which gently teaches scale, breathing, and grows new nerve links in the ANS. My latest one is from Cotswold Morris. These are best memorized so one can humm them, or sing them. In my case I love to try them on the Harmonica, then the Tin-whistle, to see how close to 'Spongebob Square Pants' music I am. If I like the result I then set about electing a fingering on the Tina which delivers two principal things; 1 few, or no, air button - bellows helps, and, 2 retains the lilt of the tune. That is, while I do listen to Noel Hill, Edel Fox, and Caitlin McGowan, I don't want, nor IMHO, need to put that much into a tune. Besides I think the Anglo shines best in other types of music, so, IMHO, it is not a big oversight. Nevertheless, one needs to be aware that ITM, Irish folk dance music, hangs from just one instrument, and it is not the Fiddle, nor the Uilleann Pipes, nor the Harp, nor the Accordion, nor the Anglo Concertina, nor the Banjo, and so on. The entire tradition grew out of the humble Penny-Whistle. So, in order to get its embellishment near to the source, one should really learn to play that first. Because that is what all those famous people you are learning off of did, or it is from it most of their fiddledy embellishments come. https://www.facebook.com/noddy.mcnod/videos/10214835206974716/ Now some physiology. When we are learning a tune we internalize an aural image, rather like we become familiar with a picture, for example the 'Mona Lisa'. It is from an image we create our singing/humming/whistling, or in my case playing it on the Harmonica - because I have been playing it so long that it is almost as easy as singing. The next step will be putting it on your chosen instrument. There are several parameters converging which enable, or prevent, that happening. Those will have been addressed in your foundation course/s. For example, where is the 'C3' note, etc; and how to play a series of notes on a bellows push and pull to get the least air valve demand. These skills are management of another set of skills which you should be building, your motor skills. Those which control you fingers and arms when playing. From experience I found that it pays to perfect motor skills very early in the learning process. So I do a lot on scales, and different ways of playing the same scale on the Tina. It is just like Violin in that regard, one needs to be able to think of a variation in an aural, but not have to think about how to execute it; that is, have over developed motor skills so they become automatic. IOW the secondary ANS becomes a robot for the CNS, which is actually how our body works in mostly everything else. So playing an instrument is very un-natural. That's why when we goof up one note everything after it comes out all wrong. So, in short, work on the ANS stuff real hard, then the CNS stuff can get out of your TINA, and hopefully in a few different keys :0) Hope that helps.

Thank you. Well, touch wood, so far, I have not heard any need to have the reed adjusted. But then again, with the gString tuner app, did not measure its pitch before, or after. So you are probably correct but, at this time I cannot detect any difference in the sound I hear from it.

I misread your original question. Hope you get it resolved.

Here is something I actually know about ...lol Ok from a Teaching perspective, its easily fixed. Simply set your timer click slow, like 60 BPM. Then imagine yourself walking in step. Then drumming instep, then have a go with playing instep. There is one condition to this method, know the melody off well before you start, IOW know how to humm, whistle etc., the music without a score, which almost always means selecting something you already know well instead of the piece which gave rise to the need in the first place. Its a separate skill and needs developing outside of the reading music thing. Hope that helps.

Thanks. You may like to learn that removing a lot of rust from it may not impact the performance of a reed tongue. This one was brushed with a wee nylon bristle brush, then polished with a wee brass bristle brush. Following approval, from a steel expert, I gently painted over using a cotton swab with a drop of Mineral Spirits on it to finish off the treatment. There is NO noticeable difference in performance, and, surprisingly, no change in the tuning of the reed tongue. On my current bench ( Harmonica Tuning bench ), this is the only case which needed TLC. BTW not expecting to have to write a full report about it, I did not bother to make the 'after' macro shot, which, as you possibly can appreciate, is quite complex and time consuming.

Mentioning skiving, which kind of tool is best? https://www.amazon.com/YaeTek-Leather-Machine-Splitter-Skiving/dp/B07BJX9XC3/ref=sr_1_64?keywords=leather+skiving+tool&qid=1578689405&sr=8-64 Is this overkill ? Or would this be a better solution? https://www.amazon.com/MIUSIE-Leather-Comfortable-Convenient-Thinning/dp/B07FSFZL1Y/ref=pd_cp_201_2/140-2362937-5734634?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FSFZL1Y&pd_rd_r=805959ff-19fe-4d68-88f6-a96c6169fee6&pd_rd_w=lJoAO&pd_rd_wg=H0atg&pf_rd_p=d534d65f-a237-49e4-9070-a58a3a6b8ba4&pf_rd_r=PBAEMH2NVZMHECWXDX35&psc=1&refRID=PBAEMH2NVZMHECWXDX35 Thank you.

Ditto to not leaving any liquid deposit in the tongue after adjustment. But, and here I am asking, wouldn't a brass, or nylon, bristle brush be better for dealing with rust?

Thank you for the excellent expert replies. From those I managed to easily correct one out of tune reed - it had dropped over a few days - I used the diamond files recommended; 240 grit for a couple or licks got most of the work done, then 400 one lick a wee bit more, and a couple of licks of the 600 grit ; it moved but very little towards the accepted result. That was very close, tenths of a Hz below my comparison reed 'D 4' draw on the C row. D 4 Push LH side from 582.6 Hz to 585.5 H. using Android App Gstrings tuner.

Thanks for the replies and great information on this topic. I have to add that mostly, from photos seen, its rust that is more common than gunk. As posted turps appears to work but the oily residue must be removed afterwards. Too my own investigation taught me one severe lesson; be very careful when removing / replacing the shoe / reed assembly as any error of movement may disturb other things close by.

When after decades, or a century, of 'breathing' a component accumulates gunk, how it is removed? I read in one contribution here that turpentine is used to help remove gunk off of a vintage reed. I just wonder why not 'thinners'?. perhaps warm 'alcohol' as used in electronics for cleaning smoker's tar from circuit-boards? Too wondering what kind of gunk is found on them? Perhaps vapors from the bellows construction adhere to a warm reed, or perhaps kitchen-grease and smokers' tar from the air in Bars and homes? I guess this applies to Accordion reeds too?

I am the least qualified on this board to address your question. But; I followed a similar path to your son. Made/play PVC flutes, play ITM on things, but not solely, also love Morris played on Tina or Accordion. And my first Anglo had accordion reeds in it. As well I recently won, by Angelic intervention I now believe, a 30 button C/G Crabb Anglo. See " the instrument was made jointly by my late father Henry Joseph (1911-1981) and late brother Henry Neville (1938-1989) " My Tina Link from the thread about it here on CN. I am now revising my Anglo Tina skills on it. So I guess I am in a good position to relate useful review pointers. First things first, the Crabb, steel reeds and brass shoes, is another world entirely from my old Accordion reed Tina. The best way I can verbalize what is so different between them is with the words 'velvety' on the Crabb, as opposed to 'squingy squeaky' on my old Tina, especially on mid range to higher notes. IOW I do not need to back off bellows when in the low and high parts of tunes like 'The Siverspear' on the Crabb like I used have to do on my old box. OTOH I would not go as far as to say it 'honks' like some of the other Tinas I have heard. Somebody here used the word 'softer' about the Crabb, and I would agree, but it is most certainly not weaker in any way because of it. In fact in ITM it compliments very well Violin / Pipes - I have, and play a bit on both of those. It is just another, lovely yummie, flavor of Tina sound. Were I shopping with a fat wallet, 'action' would be my next consideration. Mine is 'hook-n-spring' type action, and it plays just fine. Modern hybrids tend to be 'riveted lever' type action. Read someplace that this type action is a tad quicker than mine. But I just don't know which is better for your son. Perhaps some of our members here, better informed than I, can address this side of it? Last issue. "New is better". Well as somebody else has pointed out, that is not really correct. Indeed, among ITM players, the opposite appears to be the rule. See Noel Hill for more on that one. So all in all I would go for the 1870 Crabb if I wanted to get that velvety sound, but if I wanted to get a modern hybrid I would begin to compare those. Because to buy that velvety sound new is a couple of thousand dollars more than you have to spend. Eg a Wally Carrol, $6250.00 or Suttner, $ 3942.00. However you should be aware that those retain their value very well and you may be able to sell either later for more than you paid for it. I see that Caitlin McGowan plays a Carrol model! Hope that helps you make a good choice.