Graham S

Quite right, Lester; the two I've played were Black Pearl IIIs, which are 21-button. and both were bought new by their respective owners with 4th button start. It failed to register with me that the 2-voice model in only 19 buttons. Graham

And the Dutch "w", I'm told (by a friend who studied in the Netherlands), is neither the English "w" nor the English "v", but somewhere in between. Quite correct. A Dutch friend of mine says Dutch isn't so much a language as a congenital laryngeal affliction. Quite a few letter combinations in Dutch don't sound as you'd expect - for example "huis" (house) is pronounced "house", and "koeken" (cakes) is pronounced "kooken" - the origiin of "cookies" in the US.

I find it interesting that you describe it as "standard layout, 3rd button start", I admit I've only ever played two Black Pearls (very nice too) and they were both factory-spec 4th button start. Does that suggest that US and EU "standard" layouts are different, or is it just chance?

Nice work - but just wondering if there are any potential copyright issues? I don't think it's likely, but you never know.......... You're probably safe just getting one or two made for non-commercial personal use, but commercial copyright law can be a funny old thing. Graham

Sorry, I misread the OP and ended up suggesting the wrong kinds of screws. That link is still a useful source of hard-to-find very small screws, though!

I don't have an instrument in front of me to get the size, but this might be worth a try http://hobby.uk.com/materials/hardware/screws.html Graham

Thanks Dave I've got the worst of the cobbled-up patches off, the bellows separated from the frames and the frames cleaned up - they're in far better nick than I'd feared. Some of the original leather has come away anyway in the process of removing the frames, and I'm honestly amazed at the good condition of the grey cardboard underneath. Cheers Graham

Yes - if you can, get an experienced player to play your concertina and then you'll soon see if it's a technical issue with the instrument or something you can address in your own technique. Good advice for any beginner on any instrument. Graham

I thought bits of it sounded familiar, but like JIm I'm not convinced they're not phrases from other tunes stuck together. Pretty tune, though....... Graham

Thanks Jim; that was exactly the way I was looking at it. At best I'll end up with a nicely restored though not valuable instrument and I'll have learned a lot, while at worst I'll end up with a nicely restored though not valuable instrument and I'll have learned a lot. The only difference is in outlay of finance and time - and I have more of one than the other! Cheers Graham

I guess that's the old "philharmonic pitch" of A = 453 (or thereabouts!)?

True, but when I relined the brakes and clutch on my MGs I didn't chuck out and replace the drums, shoes, pressure plate etc, and replacement tyres went on to the original wheels.......... The tyres and friction materials are the expendable parts, not the underlying structure.

There's a lot of sense there - but I have a bit of a "thing" about conserving as much of the original as possible in any restoration. It was the same years ago when I had 2 or 3 old MGs; I've done it with car-boot sale Victorian and Edwardian furniture, and with assorted musical instruments. The problem is the "5 new blades and 6 new handles" in the 200-year-old knife, which is essentially a replica, even though all those replacements might have been made as a matter of routine maintenance. In this case, actually the bellows frames are in decent nick and could have a new bellows fitted to them, but doing that wouldn't put me in the head of the bloke who sat down and put that bellows together a hundred-and-odd years ago. My hands wouldn't be working on the very same materials that his hands did, and junking and replacing as opposed to dismantling and rebuilding doesn't tell me anything about his working methods. Good job I don't do this for a living..........

No need - the advice (all of it sound) was welcome; experience with one type of instrument doesn't imply expertise with a completely different animal. And I usually like to keep a few cards close to my chest......... Will try to keep you posted. Cheers Graham

Thanks both; I'm well aware of the size and complexity of the job, having been a builder of violins and other string instruments for a number of years and also for the last few years doing my own tuning, repairs and restorations on melodeons, so I'm not coming at it as an over-enthusiastic raw beginner. Thanks, Theo, for the heads-up on the double-decked top run; that was what I suspected, and it's nice to have it confirmed. I have been through Bob Tedrow's photo-essay a couple of times; very interesting and instructive, I have a photograph of the bellows as I got the instrument, roughly patched with all sorts of odds and ends of leather of all kinds of thickness, and will photograph the process as I work through it - mainly for my own benefit, but the record may be of interest to a few others down the line. I'm hoping to get started on stripping away all the nasty bits tomorrow.... Cheers Graham

Thanks; I do realise that resurrecting an almost defunct bellows is a mountain of work and time and would be completely uneconomic in a commercial environment, but of course my reason fro doing it is as a learning process, and it won't be the end of the world if it all goes wrong. I've already sorted the leather I'll need to order from Concertina Spares and I have the David Elliott book, but though it describes the actual construction of the bellows clearly and deals with minor repairs very well it doesn't cover the points addressed above except for saying that new top run can be fitted over the top of the old but that it is something of an in extremis measure. Cheers Graham

OK, I know the quick answer to this is "replace it", but I'm too stubborn (or mean!) for that. I've got a Lachenal that has seen far better days. The woodwork isn't at all bad, but the bellows condition is extremely tatty. Several gussets are split, most of the corners are worn through and the leather on the frames is very scuffed and worn, and has actually gone through to the wood in a couple of places, Now I'd like to preserve as much of the original instrument as I can, and I'd also like to use the opportunity to learn a bit about bellows repair and construction, so: is it best to remove as much of the old leather as possible before replacing with new, or should I simply fit the new over the old? Should I remove and replace the split gussets, or is it better to patch from the inside? The card parts actually seem pretty sound. Actually, if it comes to it I might replace with new bellows, but it seems too good a learning opportunity to let pass....... TIA Graham

Thank you - very much appreciated.

I find myself strangely driven to compose "The Spring-Wonker's Polka"......

I just Googled "music manuscript book" and got several results from The Music Room and Amazon. "Music manuscript notebook" gets several more results.

Excellent choice.

Excellent a tune though it is, I really can't see "Jump At The Sun" as a NW Morris tune. You're really looking for a tune that's closer to a 2-step or a 6/8 march than a jig. But then, I could be wrong - I've only been playing for morris for about 45 years......... Graham

"Old 95" and "The Railway" are both good NW morris tunes.

I guess Paul is referring to a whole set of reeds on a single plate, harmonica-style, rather than pairs of reeds on individual plates. No idea of the answer to his query, though! Graham

I've trawled through hundreds of late Victorian/Edwardian typefaces and come up with nothing, I'm afraid - not even a near match. Incidentally, when did a "typeface" become a "font"? A "font" is a complete set of type for a specific design of lettering; the actual design of the lettering is called a typeface. Sorry to be a pedant...........