david robertson

I have sent quite a few instruments to the USA, but I get the impression that US Customs have got a good deal more picky in recent times. In the past few weeks, I sent a baritone Wheatstone and a tenor/treble Aeola, and on both occasions, the instruments were held up by Customs in Memphis while they sought further information from me. I was asked for a complete list of materials involved in the construction of a concertina, and, so help me, a more detailed description of the end use. I suggested that although I couldn't be absolutely certain he wouldn't use it as a doorstop, I suspected the buyer would probably want to play tunes on it.

Those very short levers can be a royal pain in the fillings. Often the problem is a lack of space for the lower arm of the spring, in which case it may be necessary to shorten it. Snip it off at an angle to make a sharp point, and bend a new spike. In an ideal world, you want the upper arm (or at least the last part of it) to end up parallel with the lever, so it may be necessary to put two small bends in it, first one way then the other. When fixing a new spring, it's best not to use the hole that the old one occupied - it will almost certainly be too loose and allow the new spring to move. Assess the required position of the new hole, and use a bradawl or some such to make a "starter hole". Now you need a special tool to press the spike of the new spring into place. I use an old, small screwdriver with a V-shaped notch filed into the blade - works a treat.

I don't know about Brazil, but I once bought what looked like a very nice Lachenal EC from Peru. When I opened it up, I discovered that about 75% of the wooden frames were hollow. Voracious insects had left the veneer on the outside (I guess they didn't like the taste of glue) and a wafer-thin sliver of wood on the inside, having devoured everything in between. One particularly industrious grub had eaten its way right through every fold of the bellows to get to the other end. I swore a mighty oath then and there that I would never again buy a concertina from a sub-tropical climate.

Pictures would certainly help everyone. (I'm sure you know there are many different kinds of Lachenal treble.) If you click on "Add Reply", a new message window will open. Under this window you will see a "Click to attach files" button. Click on this, select the pictures to upload, and they will be added to your message.

This must be about the thirtieth time this scammer has tried his luck. Stay alert, everyone...

I have actually employed the same trick on this one - I use the same 25 thou phosphor-bronze wire that I use for springs. I also just finished a New Model tenor in F, whose reeds are considerably bigger, and that one had springs fitted from new.

It must have been a couple of weeks since we last saw this scam - I was beginning to miss it!

5180, Chris - just a few months older than yours.

I just finished the restoration of a 35-key tenor New Model, which had two buttons with their end caps missing. The buttons are unusually long, and therefore hard to find, so I thought I'd try repairing them - and it turns out to be surprisingly simple. (Forgive me if all you old hands know this already!) First I removed the caps from two shorter spare buttons, by dint of applying a soldering iron to the outside. Then I filled the cavity of the New Model buttons with as much solder wire as I could get in. Now the tricky bit: lining up the new cap with the old button, while fixing it end-on in a vice. (NB light pressure only, or you'll bend the pin.) I wasn't sure that the button would conduct heat from the iron well enough to melt the solder, but it does. Finally, a quick spin in the Dremel on a Brasso'd rag, and the buttons look good as new.

Excuse? Surely you've heard the wise old Norfolk saying: "When rosebuds do burst and the bumblebees drone, 'Tis time to invest in a nice baritone!"

This Edeophone has now been sold, and an appropriate donation made to concertina.net. Thank you all for your interest. David

Here we go again... Reported to eBay, but why can't their system recognise the same scam when it appears over and over again?

It's back again. It seems that hope springs eternal in the scammer's breast...

No need, Alex. Whatever the glue is, it's water soluble, so just squirt the leftovers back into the bottle, fill the syringe with warm water, reattach the needle and squirt it through a few times. Let me revise that opinion. Returning to the finest needle a week after the first use, I find it irremediably blocked, in spite of what I thought was thorough sluicing through. You were right, Alex, and I'm now going in search of a wire tie and a small slice of humble pie...

If this isn't a scam, I'll eat my Jeffries.

Your use of the plural in the above suggests (but doesn't state clearly) that you found the same construction anomaly on both ends. Is this in fact the case? If so, then I think we can rule out the suggestions of aftermarket repair or trial-and-error prototype work. Good thinking, David! Yes, both ends are constructed the same way, which does tend to rule out repair, but doesn't necessarily exclude Geoff's prototype theory.

I'm not quite sure why you would want to reverse the repair of a de-laminated end...

No need, Alex. Whatever the glue is, it's water soluble, so just squirt the leftovers back into the bottle, fill the syringe with warm water, reattach the needle and squirt it through a few times.

Thought I'd share this recent discovery. A good friend of mine, a skilled woodworker, put me on to something called "Chair Doctor". It's intended for injecting glue into dodgy mortice and tenon joints in chairs - and injecting is the right word, because it is a very low viscosity adhesive that comes complete with a sort of hypodermic syringe. This is the easiest way I have yet found of getting glue into delaminated areas of wooden concertina ends, or under areas of lifting veneer. The very fine needle (it comes with a choice of three) will reach places that are out of range of a brush, and it seems to do a good, sound job. Read all about it here.

[quote name='Chris Drinkwater' timestamp='1336952648' post='136095' It looks lovely, David. What a shame I already possess, a TT, a Wheatstone Aeola. However, there are some people who rate Edeophones more highly than Aeolas. I believe Wim Wakker of the Concertina Connection, does, for one, having converted his own instrument to a rivetted action. I do hope it finds a good home. Chris Thanks for that, Chris. As it happens, I am in PX negotiations with another member of this parish - a donation to C.net follows if we reach a successful conclusion. David

Since my eBay listing seems to have been greeted by a spontaneous outburst of indifference, I thought I'd offer this cracking Edeophone here, at the eBay starting price of £2750. Serial number 50247, it is newly restored (pads, valves, bushings, straps etc), and all the woodwork has been stripped and refinished in French polish. Tuned to concert pitch, it plays beautifully, loud or soft. In my opinion, it runs a TT Aeola very close in performance, but of course, costs at least £1000 less. If there's anything else I can tell you, please ask - or if you'd like to have a squeeze here in Norwich, drop me a PM.

You've obviously given the matter some serious thought, Dave! I love the theory, but it is slightly undermined by the fact that nowhere does the moulding actually exceed the depth of the finger plate. Still, as you say, maybe it would be sufficient for the machinist to think it might...

Would it be this one ? : http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=14047&st=0&p=134821&hl=earliest&fromsearch=1entry134821 The very same. Unfortunately, I didn't buy it!

A repair was also my first thought, but the original factory serial number stamp is on the inner, veneered sections, so it looks like the whole shebang was assembled like this in the factory. The overall height of the rails, by the way, is identical to a conventionally made Aeola, as is the button height. I guess it's just what we in Norfolk call a rum ol' do!

I've got an early-ish Aeola on the bench at the moment, which shows a quirk of construction whose sole purpose appears to be to make life as tricky as possible for the poor sods in the Wheatstone workshop (not to mention the humble restorer). The side-rails of the end covers are made in two layers, as if it was decided that they needed to be deeper than originally planned. The outermost sections are of a dark and distressingly open-grained wood, while the inner pieces are more conventional, being in a veneered sycamore (?) The dark wood sections are wider than the others, and do not appear to be veneered at all. So, two questions. First, why two layers of different timber? And second, having used those two layers, why on earth would you not cover them both with a single piece of veneer? I've only been restoring for 7 years or so, but I've never seen anything like it. Anyone else?