Lester Bailey

Feeling pleased with myself at having this tune learnt in D, go to a session to be told it should be played in C. I hate it when people say tunes 'should' be played in a particular key. Play it in what ever key you like the tune won't mind in the slightest. One caveat is for new learners who see a tune with one sharp and assume G when it's in Emin, OK if just playing the melody but really pants if they are playing chords as well.

We have a slow and steady folk session on the second Sunday of each month at the Red Lion, Marsworth, Bucks, HP23 4LU - from 7:00 to 9:00. Fair few melodeons but at least one anglo and one English most months. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RedLionSteadySession/

Similar set up to Colin's Franglo box

I alway look up on it as a delightful journey rather than a wade Sorry can't help with the tunes

Charlie Marshall's your man, he can ship to the US and can supply small numbers of reed plates http://www.cgmmusical.co.uk/CGM_Musical_Services/Reed_Plates.html

Take care using Bacon as the tunes are in the collected keys which, due to the dominance of D/G melodeons in morris, are not necessarily the keys that they are normally played in. ps Morris Side or Morris Team never Morris troupe

My best guess is it an earworm from the C part of Trunkles Bledington http://lesters-tune-a-day.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/tune-251-trunkles-bledington.html

This is just not true, for instance to day I have de-clubbed a Hohner Liliput Melodeon in Bb/Eb this entails change the gleichton reed that plays Bb/Bb to play Bb/C. This can be achieved by CAREFULLY filing the reed tip to thin the metal, moving a reed a whole tone is not for beginners but is eminently possible.

D40s have accordion reeds and plastic valves and therefore don't suffer from leather valve problems. Could be a stray bit of wax sticking the valve down, a common enough problem. An accordion tech could cure this in minutes but it's probably worth asking them to set the reeds and tune them as well as in my experience of Hohner concertinas/melodeons/accordions these are somewhat random.

Could be the bellows, gaskets, pads and a few other things as well. but as they only 'compress slightly and slowly' I wouldn't worry about it. Plus I would stop doing the 'sqeeze and no button pressed' as it does no good and could do harm.

In the melodeon world we use left/right push pull nomenclature Example

I don't tune concertinas but have done more than my fair share of melodeon/accordion reeds. I use these Vallorbe Saw Files 6" slim. I note in the original post SteveS talked about half round files this seems like a really bad idea as it would not allow the reed to be thinned across its whole profile. YMMV

My only observation is that I would have mounted the reed holder 90 degrees around from where you mounted it. When tuning I always file along the length of the reed rather than across which seems to be the only direction available with your setup??

A video of one of Semyon's Cherepashkas being inexpertly played by me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWNf9M-936I and much better played by the man himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EMfIT-yqEQ

It was Wheatstone that painted them as a special order for the Fair Four Sisters.