Whomper

I spotted this auction this morning, and it tickled my curiousity. As I'm off on a canal boat when the auction ends, I won't be bidding, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to a) hone my concertina spotting skills, and possibly tip someone else off about what could be a quality concertina on the cheap. To my admittedly untrained eyes, this looks like an old 20 key Lachenal, and I seem to remember reading that a mark of "STEEL REEDS" was part of Lachenal's MO. Are there any spotters guides out there for identifying random concertinas on Ebay?

The guitar, of course, being a kind of harpsichord.

Ack! I knew that, but I only got half my sentence right Just to check, the G of C/G is one octave above the G of G/D? Anyway, sounds splendid! Will the G/D model clock in at the same price?

Will you be doing G/D as well as G/C? If so, would they be physically larger, or the same size?

Just to reply to myself, I've found a few sites claiming to sell these already, but only really one picture. Any chance of some snaps to whet our appetites?

Hmm! Potential mutual Christmas present there, I fancy. What style straps will you be using? The screw-in-strap-trap style (which the Lachenal had), or the belt-buckle style? I prefer the former. In red, if possible

This sounds brilliant. My partner and I are both interesting in taking up the anglo concertina (she plays melodeon, I play mandolin), but the starter Stagi models are all so ridiculously large, and we both have small hands (which is why I play a mando, not a bouzouki). We did have a fiddle with a 20-key Lachenal in The Music Room in Clecky, which was a lot more comfortable, both in terms of key spacing and hand-strap style. Are the Wheatstones of a similar scale? Going vintage is a bit intimidating for a first-time buyer, and the price of 30-key vintages is somewhat prohibitive. Any idea when production will hopefully kick off? In time for August next year?