Roy H

Hi. I ordered some leather for rebinding my bellows and papers on 5th January this year from his website and received them in the post a very fast 3 or 4 days later.

Hi paaudio. That's interesting - there's at least one other out there then! Thanks for that. I've been busy working on mine. There is still some work to do but it's mostly airtight now and apart from a couple of buzzy and slow starting reeds it seems to be playing well and mostly perfectly in tune (in B/F#). It sounds beautiful. I'll post some pics soon.

Thanks Ken. Yes I saw your survey. Very interesting. I note though that the Lachenal you mention in the B/F# section 'seems to be Bb/F' whereas mine has reed stamps that are consistent with being a true B/F# anglo.

Hi. I recently decided I wanted to learn to play the anglo concertina so I set about looking for one to buy. I ended up buying a secondhand Stagi. It's great fun and not a bad instrument but I yearned after a vintage instrument, especially one that maybe needs some work so I could fix it up whilst playing the Stagi. So, I took a punt on a 32 button Lachenal anglo that was being sold in a local auction, serial number 57377. It was a gamble as I didn't get a chance to see it before the sale. It has fretted rosewood ends that have some significant cracks and there are a couple of marks that look like a rodent has been gnawing at it. I think the gamble paid off though as it definitely in repairable condition. The bellows look salvageable, the reeds are mostly free from rust, I've already mostly fixed the fretwork. The worst problem being a more-than-slightly warped reed pad from two failed support blocks but this is not beyond saving. However, the most interesting thing about this instrument is the fact that it is in B/F#. The reed shoes are all stamped with note names consistent with this. The F reeds are even labelled E#. Has anyone else got or seen a Lachenal anglo in B/F#? I've searched through this forum and on Google. There are references to Jeffries and Crabb instruments with this tuning but no mention of any Lachenals.