Fanie

Thank you for your help, I appreciate it. Theo, I have contacted that supplier, I hope they can help. On Aliexpress they also advertise veneer, but international shipping from them to me is a nightmare. It takes over two months and you are lucky to get it. Our postal services is a real nightmare.

Thank you Steve, it is a good idea. I was thinking on putting veneer on it, but in my neck of the woods (South Africa) it is impossible to find.

I just received a very old, pre Chinese, Hohner International (Bastari) D20/40/8. It plays very nice and the sound is very good. It has a red Mother of toilet seat finish, which is pealing off. Some places the pearloid cover is very buckled and I do not think it can be glued back. Can anybody please advise how I can repair it? Should I rather remove all the pearloid plastic and clean and sand the wood and then stain and varnish the wood? Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.

Beautiful instrument. I am also busy with restoration of a bandoneon.

Pictures please?

Maybe is was to accomodate the amplifier and loudspeakers.

My cat also likes music. When I start playing, he jumps on my lap and rubs himself against the concertina. When I play harmonica he rubs his nose against the back of the harmonica, as if he is helping to play. My sister has a cat that attacks her when she plays on the old peddle organ. I have wondered, do they really like the music, or does the sound irritate their ears?

😏

Since childhood I wanted to learn to play concertina. About a year ago, during the Covid lockdown, I decided its time to bite the bullet. But what do you buy? If you buy an expensive concertina and cannot manage to play it, then you wasted a lot of money. So, I decided to order a cheap Chinese 20 button Anglo from Banggood. Yes, it is hard to play- the bellows are very stiff, but in a few months I managed to play it and the more I played it, the easier it became. A few months ago I moved on, I found an almost new 40 button Hohner with metal buttons and -ends and leather bellows. What a pleasure to play! I will never be sorry that I started with the Chinese 20 button, and I still play it now and then. Just my 2c.

The reeds we are now talking about are not those that slide into a dovetail slot. We are talking about the after 50000 serial number concertinas with reeds attached to the wood with two screws . They are making them exactly to the same dimensions as the reeds on my concertina.

I belive they will be good, Theo. They said it will be First quality with brass frames. If they must make less than ten sets, then it will be +50% per set. So, I hope there can be enough interest so that we can order 10 sets.

Yes, if I can get nine other people who are interested, then we can order ten sets. Anybody who will be interested in new set?

We all know that the +50000 Wheatstone reeds are different from the before 1938 stuff. So I sent my set of rusted reeds to Harmonikas.cz in the Czech Republic to see if they can produce a replacement set. And I got this answer from Ladislav: Thank you again for sending your sample of reeds, as I could check I have never seen this kind of reeds yet. As you know we are able to produce two different kind of reeds for concertina. One is with the rivet and the other one is with screws and clamps. Now we make these reeds from brass and for these reeds I think is better Material brass the Aluminium. The production is too demanding and we can offer these reeds only in first quality. I have no possibility producing for these reeds in another cheaper quality.. Suggestion for your reeds: - the frame according your sample - reeds are riveted ( like our concertina reeds ) - Material for frame „ brass „ - Price for this reeds set 30 button 164,-EUR ( if you order more than 10 set ) We can make the frame from aluminium, the price then 148,-EUR/set What do you guys think, is there perhaps somebody else who are also interested so that we can order 10 sets of First Quality Brass framed reeds at 164 Euro/set? Thank you

Thank you for the references, I will check them out. I recieved the bandoneon and it is not in good shape. Some of the gussets on the bellows are gone, 39 bellow corners are missing, 15 buttons are missing, and some of the reeds keep on singing all the time, so the pads will probaply have to be replaced. Lots of projects to keep me busy, I am currently working on a Wheatstone Anglo and an old 1880's Stanley reed organ. Thanks

Anybody here with an old broken melodeon willing to part with some corners and buttons? 😌 Thanks

That is great news, thank you John. It seems that this one is missing a lot of corners. Do you perhaps know where one can order corners from? Thanks

Thank you guys, I cannot wait to have it in my hands. The courier will probaply deliver it on Monday. It has an awful lot of buttons, is there among them a row of buttons that resembles an Anglo? Thank you

I want to trade this thing for an old Scholer Anglo. But I don't know what it is. What do you think? Thanks

Thank you for the help gentlemen, I appreciate it. So if the error measurement is "+" cents off, you file the tip of the reed, and when it is "-" off, you file the base of the reed? How much maximum error is it possible to change? Thanks

So are you not using the frequencies to tune the reeds?

It is time time to start doing something about the reeds in my Wheatstone. I cleaned all the rust out and started testing the pitch. I have two tuner apps on my phone, which are Pano Tuner, and I have Billthefarmer Tuner. Both apps measure the pitch in Hz an my reeds are way out of pitch. I first tested the right hand side reeds and made a tabel of what it should be (Target Hz), and what it is currently testing (Current Hz). Right hand reeds: Reed Target Hz Current Hz C#5 554.73 546 D#5 662.25 604 A5 880 857 G5 783.99 747 G#5 830.61 800 Bb5 932.33 903 C#6 1108.73 1095 D#6 1244.51 1173 A6 1760 1587 F6 1396.91 1246 E6 1318.51 1182 B5 987.77 963 B6 1975.53 1780 F#6 1479.98 1425 C6 1046.50 962 A5 880 845 G6 1567.98 1482 E6 1318.51 1256 D6 1174.66 1092 C6 1046.50 1011 G5 783.99 760 F5 698.46 B5 987.77 949 A5 880 868 E5 659.25 620 D5 587.33 583 G5 783.99 750 F#5 739.99 728 C5 523.25 490 B4 493.88 481 As you can see, they are WAY out of tune. Please tell me if it will be possible to tune these reeds to what they should be. Thank you for you help.

Luke, it is great having sound on the concertina buttons. Would it be possible to to make it that the corresponding piano key lights up when you push the concertina key? Maybe that will teach me to master the piano accordion. Thanks

Time for an update: I made a new set of 8-fold bellows I made a set of new deldrin/acetal buttons I made new pads and I made new springs from 0.7mm stainless steel spring wire. Now for my big headache, the reeds. The reeds sound terrible. Some of them don't make a sound and the rest are out of tune. Some of them were so rusted and pitted that I do't know if it will be possible to tune them. Now I have been thinking............ I have an old Scandalli piano accordion that is beyond repair, but the reeds are still looking good. It has about 120 treble reeds. If I could harvest a set of reeds from the PA and then cut half of the reed plate off so that it is a single tongue reed and then file the reed plate to shape and then drill holes on both ends to attach it with screws? What do you think?

I learned on this: https://www.banggood.com/20-Button-Concertina-with-Carrying-Bag-Adult-Primary-Playing-Hexagon-Accordion-Keyboard-Toys-Gift-for-Kids-Children-p-1704323.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=CN&ID=6287842