d.elliott

Full PPE is suggested, for use with scratch pens, and mechanical cleaning carried out with care is best. However for the vedegris on reed frames (shoes) a brief exposure to an oven / cooker cleaner works, but whatever chemical cleaner is used, it has to be water soluble, and needs to be rinsed off quickly, then finally killed by boiling water. Boiling water heats up the reed metalwork so that any moisture flashes off preventing further corrosion. Another means of killing moisure is a volatile safety cleaner as used in dye pen inspection systems, acetone, or even meths! Dave E

Greg is quite right, however there is a missconception that all brass reeded instruments are some sort of second grade instrument classification. Not true! Lachenal made large quantities of an entry level grade of concertina of both the English & Anglo systems. These invariably had poorer toleranced brass reeds, fairly plain mahogany fretwork and coloured keys (buttons) on english and plain bone keys on Anglos. However many very good grade instruments were also made by the main makers using close toleranced brass reeds. A lot of players chose brass reeds as a preferred option for their tone, and as a parlour or perhaps singing instruments. These concertinas had all the quality and refinements of their steel reeded counterparts. Yes brass age hardens, goes brittle, can move to flat and fatigue fail, poorly made ones with course filing marks on the brass reeds from tuning; even more so. I would suggest you look for a finely fretted instrument, moulded or scribed action box edgings, felt bushed keys etc. and your brass version will be a top quality instrument just the same as if it was steel reeded, albeit with the mellow tones and fineness of the brass reed tongue. Dave

Picking up on Theo's comments. You can get a lot more available-air on some lesser fold instruments, but with deeper folds. Its the closed to open length difference that makes the playability. (not unlike your other activity!) The Lachenal reeds, as Theo says, may well be more air efficient as well. However don't forget the effect of the lowly valve in this aspect. If you are struggling with bellows air, check out air tightness, valve condition and reed set before you invest in a six fold bellows kit from Dave Leese! Dave

Geoff, Its bad enough being bionic, with being radio controlled. The PC is still US, (Un Servicable) which is an English technical abbreviation not aimed at the colonial brigade, a bit like 'MT' for 'Empty' and 'FKD' for 'Broken' appologies to the ladies. I have snaffled my daughter's laptop to write this, OOOOOOps, I hear footsteps............... Dave

rumours of my demise may be a little premature........ I can peek at the forum from my PC at work, lunch times only of course............................. Emails are a tad more problematical Dave

Hi Theo, I have a friend who is a jewelery maker. She taught me how to solder on small pieces of nickel plate. When finished you can't tell which buttons have been repaired (especially when she does it!) My plug approach makes the soldering etc not necessary, I suppose they could be soft soldered using the clearance as a capilliary fitting, like the good old plumbing technique dave

Hi Pete, give me a bell and I'll let you have a few at what they cost me, or I'll do the keys for you if you wish Dave

There are several types of metal keys: - wooden bodied with deep drawn metal tops fitted - solid metal keys, nickel, nickel plated brass or aluminium - hollow solid or plated keys with caps fitted Many repairers will be familiar with the instrument that turns up with flat topped nickel keys, some of which have their caps missing, others of which have been plugged with soft solder. These are the hollow keys refered to above, and unfortunately, the loss of a key cap or three is far from un-common. Recently I had one to deal with that had eight keys plugged with solder. This last instance has prompted me to post my repair technique. The only course of action has been to contact a source for scrap parts and try to order as closer replacement as possible. This is fine but the keys come in different lengths, and are very much a diminishing resource. Keys too long or too short are unsightly and will throw the action out of kilter. For some time now I have been experimenting with replacement polished stainless steel plug- caps. These caps are the same dimension as the original caps, and have a plug section the same diameter as the key bore (less a clearance). I have tried different lengths, clearances and leads; press fits, sweated fits and bonded fits have all been considered. The following is the resultant repair technique To fit a plug-cap simply cut off the solder (if present) and ream the end of the bore with an appropriate sized drill-bit to remove debris, old solder etc. True up and flatten/ clean the top of the key tube by striking it across some emery paper which is laid on a flat surface. The cap is glued into the key with an industrial grade of adhesive, like the gel-type superglue which also works. If the key body has been worn it may be necessary to blend in with a fine diamond file or emery paper 'on-a-stick' once the glue has cured. The final result is only disinguishable if you know its been done. By now I must have repaired over thirty keys like this, my first 'production batch' of fifty caps has been replaced with a second, I know I let David Leese have some but most have been used by me over the last 18 months, with no failures. Hope that this is of interest. Dave E

Yes I have, I just put it down to the oddity of the Anglo as a system, by assumming that the instrument was made for a custoer to a specification dave

I hope 'happy'- yes; but corrected? surely not, the word 'clarified' came to my mind Dave

This is a standard variation, my treble & baritone both have this but my bass does not. The variation does help with playing in C, F, Bb etc Dave

Not strictly true, its more a case of "very high reeds MAY not need valves". There are a number of variables that come into play: Reed edge/tip fitting clearances; reed set; reed material strength etc. Even the variation in different comparative valve flexibilities can effect the perfomance of the valves when/if it is fitted. Two key questions: 1: does the fitting of the valve mute or slow the reed response? if so remove the valve, or weaken it 2: do the reeds beat & burble when valves are not fitted? if so then fit them Clearly the above will vary from machine to machine. So there is no hard and fast rule. Dave

Dave Ball is now taking over some of the organisation. Dave

Not English thumbstraps, instead the straps going over the back of the hands on a MacCann (see my avatar). The ones that came with the concertina are made of one layer of leather. ocd sorry I did not Pick up on the photo, yes a tack shop ot D Leesa again for wrist straps, just measure the strap lengths either side of the wrist 'swell' in the leather shape Dave

I am assuming English type thumbstraps? These are a sandwich of leather felt and linen. David Leese (Concertina Spares) will sell you a DIY kit and instructions, or refurbish the existing ones for you. You simply need to talk to him about the type. Dave

I have used Parcelforce, who nearly lost an extremely rare piccolo english, but managed to find it two days later, otherwise they have been effective and cost effective. My favourite is simply the post office's registered delivery service. You can pick your insurance band, it's easier to use than parcel fprce, you can pay over the internet, and has not let me down, ever. Touching wood quick. Just avoid the postal strikes! Dave

Does any one know if Jeffries, Crabb, or Wheatstone had acid free museum board????? Has acid card ever been a cause of failure? I think the leather is normally the weak link, generally due to external wear, although some cracking does occur. Suspect we'd be better of concerntrating on the tanning processes, which invariably involve compounds far from neutral. Actually the weakest link is often the leather used in the internal hinges, this embrittles, and splits. The bellows then start to pull themselves apart from inside. Often splitting the card and de-laminating it. Linen inner hinges do not tend to exhibit this failure mode. If you are assessing another instrument then always look inside the bellows see if the inner hinges are intact or heavily repaired. Dave

I have fitted well over a dozen Leese bellows, some continuous card, some separate card. Stella has it about right in her comparisons. The reason Leese bellows are so much cheaper is that David Leese dosn't have the overheads, and he makes kits which avoid him having to charge the time consuming work of fitting to the frames and also the labour rich activity of hand cutting the best part of 100 bellows papers and carefully glueing them into place. Whilst I have no doubt that it will happen one day, so far I have never had a complaint about any David Leese bellows that I have fitted, cosmetically or functionally. I admit that I have developed my fitting technique away from the more simple and chunkier method on the instructional CD, but that's what I do. For a first time assembler, allow: an hour or so to study the CD and get together tools etc 1 hr to remove the old bellows & prepare the bellows frames 1 hr to measure, trim the end cards and align/ locate the 1st end 30 mins to glue the corners for the first end, 30 mins to fit the cloth tape wrap on the 1st end and coat with glue. leave overnight get the second end done to the same stage, same times as above, again leave overnight allow: 1 hr to trim the cloth wraps & sand. 15 mins each end to fit the leather end wraps, with 2 hrs for glue drying after fitting each one. say 2- 3hrs to cut out all the papers. finaly 2 hrs to glue the papers into place. Dave

Well that sounds like an acknowledgement of quality. Would you be willing to share a copy of your drawing? That's assuming of course that you can find it! I will have a look, is yours a 56k?? Dave

I have a 6-sided one in the workshop too. Its suffered a similar fate, but in addition its had various low quality repairs attempted. It will also need two new end panels. The one I did was a 56k extended up, I probably still have the drawings for the fretting somewhere, the only thing I did not get was the pressed impression of 'Aeola' The fretting fooled Niel Wayne when my then 16yr old turned up with it to the Royal at Dungworth S.Y. Dave

They are laminated, and the top layer appears to be ebony, and has the characteristic fine network of cracks that can develop in ebony. The one I restored for my daughter had solid ebony ends, hence to need to make a complete new pair of action box covers Dave

Larry, Other than fingering, there is little standard in chamber and reed dimensions from one bass to the next. Some have chambers build into a wooden 'sandwich', others have separate pipes mounted onto a pallet, others have tubes stood off from the main action & reed assembly. I suggest you cast a wide net. Dave E

You are right Frank, I think that the detectable by ear variation between two notes was crucial to the debate, I traced the paper referred to and an extract is: 'The smallest frequency increment Δf that can just be detected as a change in pitch is proportional to the frequency. In fact, experiment shows that Δf/f = 0.003 over the mid-frequency range where pitch is well determined. Now, 1 + Δf/f = (f + Δf)/f, so the interval is I = k log(1.003). In cents, this is 5.2 cents, or about 20% of a semitone.' Hence, I think. that people were looking at appropriate tolerances. and +/- 2 to 2 1/2 cents was the MOST we could allow ourselves. I think that a total tolerance range of around 3 cents, centered around nominal was generally considered achievable, and this was the common view taken, I should have made myself clearer. Dave E

No true! I restored a ' Jeffries' which was clearly a standard 30k Lachenal thith Jeffries papers on the bellows, you could see the evidence of original dot & cross papers undrneath; and it had the small block capital Jeffires name stamping on the wooden end frames. Inside it still bore the lachenal serial number and had the standard Lachenal action etc. As I remember the the proud owner was 'less then happy' with the news. I also remember emailing Wes about it and he confirmed that this sort of thing went on. Dave

Neil, your instruments state of decay was pretty extreme, looking at what Roy did (and did well) there is not much of the old instrument left! I have worked on several Mickolds, they are a reasonable mid range quality instrument, playable and fit for purpose. I would not think twice about comparing one against a Lachenal of similar grade. Dave