rcr27
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Posts posted by rcr27
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1 hour ago, Don Taylor said:
How do you cut valve leathers?
Do you have to make a set of dies or can scissors and knives do the job?
I used small sharp scissors. I removed the original valves (one at a time), and outlined it’s shape with a pen on the leather hide (hairy side), and then gently cut it. My other concertinas which are already restored (not by me) have slightly wider valves, but I preferred to keep the same width and length as the original valves.
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26 minutes ago, paaudio said:
https://www.cacornish.co.uk/musical-instruments/
does the whole range of concertina leather bits..... Gerry
Thanks a lot! I’ll have a look
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Hi, anyone in the UK knows any good leather supplier or website where I can find the right leather for concertina valves? I bought a sheep hide from ebay to cut and replace the valves myself, but they curl up too easily. I trimmed them to the same size and chose the same thickness as the original ones, but they tend to curl rapidly just with gravity. I’m guessing it’s a matter of stiffness and flexibility? It’s the first time I’m cutting them myself, if anyone has found the right leather I’d appreciate a bit of help. Thanks.
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I see, thanks for the information. It does makes sense because the bushing board is paitend with gold paint on the other side and yes definitely a poor work done. As for the bellows, do you think it will be better a fit new set of bellows or just work on this one? They air airtight but too thick
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I have bought this concertina last week from ebay and I’m not sure whether it’s a Lachenal or Wheatstone, or has parts from both? The serial number that I see inside is 19059. I would imagine the ends have been replaced at some point. It has got mainly steel reeds with some brass replacements, and it plays decently well to say it’s extremely dusty inside since it has been stored for about 70 years or so. At first I thought it was a Lachenal as the 3 screws in the finger rest are not perfectly in line just like my other Lachenals, but then it has riveted levers, which I think was unique to most Wheatstones?
For some reason the manufacturer name has been peeled off from the reed pan.
Any help I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks
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18 minutes ago, Alex West said:
I spoke with Mark just after the New Year about an order I'd placed a while ago. He was back in action and delivered it promptly so he's recovering although you might have to be patient
Thanks for letting us know, I placed an order a month ago and emailed him today but haven’t received a reply yet. Does he work on his own? It would be great if someone could work along with him while he is off.
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11 minutes ago, malcolm clapp said:
A newspaper photo of a Jim Gale of Kings Cross, Sydney, in 1949.
Might be our man.....
Jim Gale, must be him! It would make sense since this concertina arrived in England after the war, I guess 1945 onwards. Thanks for the link.
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47 minutes ago, malcolm clapp said:
Would not surprise me; you would think that a locksmith would have the metal working and fine work skills for fixing concertinas.
True, perhaps that’s how my concertina is tuned to A=440Hz and not old pitch.
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Interesting, thanks for the information. Indeed, very little about him online. I wonder if he was a repairer too.
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I have just acquired my first duet concertina, a Lachenal Maccann 63 key edeophone and it has got this stamp inside: “J. Gale importer or concertinas & accordions”, wondering if anyone knows anything about it? I can’t find any information about them. The serial number is 3100, would that be early 1900s? I got told this concertina came over from Italy after the war. Interestingly the reeds are tuned to concert pitch (with slight deviations), although the valves are old.
Thanks in advance
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Unlucky, 2 edeophones duet 63 keys got sold recently on ebay uk, I got one of them but I don’t plan to sell it, however keep an eye on ebay and auction houses. Duets are getting so popular nowadays which is good. The big Æolas are quite common as well. You might wanna contact the dealers, they should have something.
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Thank you Sprunghub I’ll have a look
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Done it! I got away with a kitchen knife to slide through. My god what a chaos that was! I wonder why would people do this... But the good thing is that it kept the reeds clean and dust-free. It has definitely been touched by someone who is not into cocertinas.
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53 minutes ago, Theo said:
The chamois will have to be replaced anyway because it is covered with glue.
Where can I get the chamois from the same material?
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Thanks, definitely the blade will be a safer choice.
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34 minutes ago, Mike Jones said:
. Is there any way of sliding a thin blade between the reed pan and the frame while you are trying to release the glue to act as a lever to separate the sections?
Yes I have slid a thin blade and hopefully the glue is not as strong, but I can only reach few centimetres with the blade; there is also glue around the circle in the middle.
Thanks for your recommendation, I will try with water first and see what happens. The glue is pretty dry. I might have to remove the reeds first.
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Hi everyone, I have just received a Lachenal Anglo Concertina that came all way from Finland, and I’m having a big trouble with it: The reed pan is literally glued to the pad board and I can’t access the chamber side. Someone has put some sort of white glue to the chamois leather of the chamber walls and now it’s stuck to the pad board. On the other ends I can’t even remove the reed pan from the bellows...
Has anyone ever come across this problem? I was thinking about using some sort of lubricant but I’m afraid this could affect the wood or the reeds.
I would really appreciate some help.
Thanks
Roger
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Hi I’m selling a Lachenal tutor model that I bought a couple of months ago from eBay. Fully restored by Nigel Sture in 2014 including a 6 fold bellows and steel reeds. I finished it up with the key hole bushings. Great condition inside out and tuned to concert pitch. The serial number is 56906, likely from the 20’s? Correct me if I’m wrong.
The price is £800, but will consider reasonable offers. Can ship within the UK.
Also advertised it on ebay (more photos in there) but I would much rather sell it through this forum and contribute a small percentage than loosing money on ebay fees.
Thanks
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Paypal, or put it up on ebay. Unfortunately you get fees for selling but it’s the safest method. Be careful with scammers, they usually send fake paypal emails.
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Seen them a year ago, I wonder who the real owners are...
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If anyone is interested I’ll let it go for £200, considering shipping to other countries too.
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On 11/2/2019 at 1:44 PM, Stephen Selby said:
Not Altenburg, South Africa right? I was looking at the SA.
No, there is another Altenburg in Germany.
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5 hours ago, Anglo-Irishman said:
Fascinating!
Sort of like an Anglo-German in reverse - not German button arrangement with English reeds, but English button arrangement with German reeds! I wonder what it sounds like.
I've never heard of the maker, but Google brought up this item on eBay Germany, which went for €156.- not long ago. Looks very similar to the one in question here.
Apparently, judging from photos in the Internet, Micklitz made standard, rectangular German Konzertinas, but also some with unconventional button layouts.
Cheers,
John
Yes that’s the one that I bought, I had to do a little work, mainly fixing some sticky buttons as the the springs and levers are not as sophisticated as the vintage. Also had re-polish the ends due to some notorious discolouration on the wood that unfortunately wasn’t visible on the photos, but now it looks great and hopefully plays better than when I received it. To be honest I only bought it to look inside as I also found it very rare. (Based on one of the photos I thought it had bushed holes, but it didn’t)
It sounds great, the lower notes sound quite loud, like a baritone treble concertina which makes it great to play chords. A=435 is a lovely pitch definitely.
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Hi John
I really appreciate all the helpful information on your comments, I wasn’t aware of certain things.
The only reason I associate this box with the chinese ones are because of the plastic buttons which imo are not desirable at all since the playability isn’t great.
I’ve never had or played a bandoneon before, so I had no idea of the characteristics of this instrument; thanks for the information and sure I will edit the description.
I myself started with a Hohner english concertina, I can only remember opening it once or twice. As far as I can remember, it didn’t have a reed pan like this german one, instead, there were like 4 pieces folded in (with the reeds inserted). That’s what I meant by ‘foldable structure’. I also had a Gremlin (Stagi) 56 key with the same sort of structure. (Sorry if the description doesn’t make much sense but I cant remember very well!)
In terms of sound, certain notes (specially the high notes) sound a little louder than others, I don’t know why this could be. You can’t play very fast with this concertina because of the the plastic buttons and also because the springs are not great quality sprigs such as the vintage english ones. However, the chords sound very nice and I think it would be great for accompanying rather than for solos, but then again is not in modern pitch.
Thanks for the information about the pitch and the reeds, I will add it to the description!.
Unfortunately, although this concertina is more beautiful than the chinese ones, it’s still far from the quality of the vitange ones made in England. Lately, many Lachenal tutor models have been sold on ebay at around £150-300, which is a relatively cheap price and I haven’t yet received an offer for this one, so I’m afraid I can’t sell it for much higher, which suggests me that there is very little interest on concertinas that are not English-made.
Anyways, thanks again for all the useful information!
Valve leather suppliers
in Instrument Construction & Repair
Posted
That looks great, I need to make pads too. As long as the leather is good quality and doesn’t curl, it will do. Have you ordered from them? I see that they are located in the US, I wonder how long the delivery takes.