Crankygal

Brian, This is good news! Any tips? Hints? Comments? Warnings? pics? instructional videos? Seriously, any input before I try and do this would be VERY WELCOME.

Great news. Any hints? Comments? Warnings? pics? instructional videos? I'd love to hear how you went about doing this.

Mark, No, but I have a 2000 GOLF (one of the first assembled in Argentina). In the shop 4 mos the first year. And things have been falling off of it ever since. So I can relate.....

Samantha, Yes, totally 'hooked'. I've played keyboard and recorder, but the whole concertina thing is just plain darn fun. And while I was ever so careful with this thing when I first got it, all my reading up (on Scholers) has made me a tad more 'adventurous' with regard to, um, spontaneous modifications. I'm off in search of balsawood this weekend. Thanks for your encouragement!

OK, I've wanted to play concertina ever since I heard/saw one at the local Yankee Pedler festival in Canal Fulton, Ohio. So I bought something economical off of ebay... "...a charming vintage Scholer..." What did I know? Now, after a month of ownership (and the discovery of the concertina.net, etc), I see that perhaps opting for 'inexpensive first instrument' may not have been wise. Anyway, 'greedy accordian reeds' aside, I'm finding my biggest hurdle when trying to play the songs out of the beginners' songbook is when I run into a string of all push notes or all pull notes and I need to refill or dump the bellows rapidly. The thing acts like it is strangling for air. So, (hey, it's only a Scholer), I took screwdriver to it and opened the end. The air vent is miniscule! Can anyone tell me why I can't take my Dremmel hand tool and enlarge that? I can find balsawood at a hobby shop, glue on some chamois and fashion a larger valve cover for it. Doesn't look like it would be that hard of a job. Any suggestions? Warnings? I figure, this is the one to experiment on. And why do my reeds look like someone has glued a couple of harminicas to a soundboard? The inside of the Scholer doesn't look like anything else I've seen posted on this site or elsewhere... Thanks all!