Squeezebox Of Delights

I was just checking The Saleroom for fun, and I came across this. I was quite intrigued, and decided to put it here in case anyone else was interested or knew anything about it. It appears to be a homemade anglo concertina, but it is very unusual in the construction, strap design and number of buttons, sides and bellows folds. There is only one photo, and the auctioneer's estimate is very low, suggesting they don't have much experience in concertinas. Any ideas as to what it is? https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/peter-francis/catalogue-id-peter-10231/lot-ea107157-3

Well, technically speaking, if you can play the piano then you can play half a PA. Then you just need to get familiar with the left hand, which is fairly simple once you get the hang of it. While buying second hand is much more economically friendly than buying new, what I wouldn't advise is getting a PA cheap on eBay. Generally (from my experience) these are instruments that have been kept in an aged relative's cupboard, cellar or attic for upwards of thirty years and have been rediscovered while clearing out the house. They are often leaky and/or out of tune, and would cost an aw

I’ve played PA for about 7 years now, and began learning the AC two years ago, and I don’t have any bother with bellows direction etc. etc. I think it may be something to do with how different they are to hold and play. It might seem confusing at first, but as Pentaprism and JimmyG have said, your brain should be able to adapt to different instruments. The only thing you should be worried about is being ravaged by hardcore concertinists for turning to the dark side!

From what I've seen on Wish and Banggood, these instruments have traditional riveted action and flat mounted reeds, which is surprising for a low end instrument, although do correct me if I'm wrong. It'd be interesting to know where it sits in terms of playability and quality on the scale between cheapo beginner hybrid and high end professional hybrid, as it seems to be a mix of the two...

Just to say, I wasn't talking about the grommeted holes, I was referencing the holes underneath the handle. It just looks rather like bare metal on the inside edges of the holes, and on the insides of the button holes too

It might even be painted/celluloid covered aluminium. I seem to remember seeing a similar but different concertina on eBay a while back that had green aluminium ends, and the exposed material around the sound holes does look a little metallic...

That's very interesting! Who'd have thought that a free reed instrument company would branch off into nose flutes... There's an incredibly informative set of articles about the history of the swan brand nose flute here, if you wanted to have a look: http://nose-flute.blogspot.com/2012/07/about-swan-logo-part-i.html

Looks Stagi or Bastari to me, unless it’s a later Chinese model. Do you have any idea of its age?

I've emailed him twice, once last January and once last August from a different email address, and never got any response. I was wondering if my emails were somehow sent straight to his spam folder or something. I'm still in need of certain parts though, so I'll probably try again sometime soon. Maybe you have to be ordering something from his website?

I always wondered if they were talking about Chemnitzer concertinas, which do seem to just be referred to as ‘concertinas’ in certain parts of America where Anglos, Englishes and Duets are less common.

Yeah, I have seen a good few pretty little Anglos like this, but no miniature ones. I wonder why? It’s kind of a shame it is so expensive, because no-one in their right mind is going to pay that much for an old German concertina.

Just saw this on eBay, and decided to post it here because it looks quite interesting. It appears to be a very convincing German imitation of an English-built miniature Anglo, of which I have never seen the like. If it wasn’t out of my price range I’d consider getting it just to have a look! Has anyone experienced one of these instruments before? Is it as unusual as it seems, or am I just not very experienced in imitation Anglos? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-SMALL-ANTIQUE-SOPRANO-20-KEY-ANGLO-SYSTEM-CONCERTINA-IN-CASE-GERMAN-MADE/373338999692?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%

The Wren is pretty poor in construction; it is basically everything you’d expect from a cheap Chinese-made instrument. I’ve never had a look inside a Phoenix, but I’d expect that it is much better. The Wren has accordion-type reed blocks, which makes it quite long, while the Phoenix seems more traditional in dimensions, making me think it has flat-mounted reeds. The Wren also has nasty fabric/paper/plastic bellows with shallow folds and sharp corners, and they have a habit of collapsing in on themselves when you pull them out too hard. The Phoenix however looks to have more traditional

Looks Stagi to me, but I’m not sure.

Out of interest, do you think you could post photos?