d.elliott

Hi Alan, it is very easy to play individual, separated notes on the English, most English system players do this most of the time, indeed many are scared to play any form of chordal music until they are quite advanced in their progress. The anglo has it's reversal pumping action as almost a given so the individuality of each note is emphasised. The English System has keys grouped in 3rds & 5ths, so to slide up and down arpeggios is easy, and traditional church can lend it's self to this sort of move. When you play proper 'Concertina Band' music the emphasis is often on defaulting to a semi staccato or staccato playing style. Don't forget English System players can reverse bellows for emphasis purposes. We might consider this part of bellows control.

Peter, For playing, yes, but for repair & tuning, no, Each reed becomes an entity in it's own right you have to work out what notes each key should sound, and then tune accordingly

Back in June 2019 a question referring to a Lachenal Edeophone Sn: 39825, was asked. The description was for a 56 extended Treble instrument. Downright answered confirming the 56 k description, and giving a date. I now have an Edeophone serial 39825 on the bench. but it is no way a 56 k treble, no matter how I stretch things, are there records/ instances of duplicate serial serial numbers. The other oddity is that action is riveted, 100% and seems so from new. Dave

There is a significant advantage of riveted actions over the Lachenal style hook and aperture action. Not on lever arms that are following a straight path between key, pivot, and pad, but on those where the arms are cranked to pass around other keys or pivots. In these circumstances the action suffers a twisting force (torque) which causes wear in both the pivot post's aperture and on the corners of the arm where it touches the pivot. The outcomes are that the key height drops, the key tries to move on an angle, and the pad tends to a slicing path as it hits/ rubs on the pad board. This can be a particular issue on Edeophones. Riveted actions do not suffer in the same way, certainly not to the same degree. The hook action shown by the OP was a later Wheatstone innovation, which I have found consistent and reliable.

Whilst not the most common keying, B/F#'s Anglos do pop up from time, they are to be treated like any other concertina in their servicing and refurbishment, once you have worked out the fingering in six sharps. The only down side is their lack of easy fit into common session tunes. The key of F major does have some more regular applications.

If I cannot hear myself then it is a bonus!

Steve, not really, what the researchers did was collect a series of Lachenal instrument data points as information on specific instruments randomly appeared. They then extrapolated between data points and constructed a time line, which in turn has been augmented by some catalogue information. The output is approximate +/- a couple of years and a bit generic. There are different number sequences for Anglos, Duets and English systems. No doubt more data will surface with time.

I use BA replacements too.

From the data Wes has provided to me, 13469 looks to date around 1868 ish. The wood seems to Amboyna, the finger slides are unlikely to have been original. Of it's day, a top model, a 'Nonpareil'

Hello Simona, and welcome to the Concertina.net community. I think that we will all look forward to your contributions as you continue to develop your business. One thought, some of us, like me, don't do Instagram. do you have a facebook page?

Good grade 20k Anglos are out there, look at the current stock selection for barleycorn, Stock Number- 7750 steel reeded, fine rosewood end frets etc.

must remember to remove shell, next time egg is sucked.

Yes Clive, I am aware of that, and as you say not on a concertina. In other applications the petrol has soaked into the wood making glueing problematical, even tried lighter fuel. It also makes pretty patterns in the end polish.

'Better safe than sorry' comes to mind. At least get a letter, copy packed with the instrument, dating it. I seem to remeber that items made before a certain date don't count.

It was a pleasure.

probably made without the fabric core or, the core not anchored onto the leather.

If you try rolling, then the metal can stretch, if you hammer, then you probably will mark the surface, even with brass guard shims. Pressing is the best option, but you need to take the metal just past flat, to allow for the elastic limit, even on relatively soft material like nickel. Personally I would talk to the manufacturer who will be dealing with this sort of issue on a daily basis as part of the manufacturing process. There are other more brutal and certainly not recommended ways: a peck hammer on the reverse side, or heating and water, both very skilled and likely to leave permanent marking of one form or another

I recently had to attend to a minor fault on an 'Irish Concertinas Co.' model 'Vintage'. I was seriously impressed by the build standard. The only issue was that one of the reeds was too tight in it's dovetailed slot and the wood had pinched a bit causing the clearance along the flank of the reed tongue. The reeds tongues were accordion style mounted into individual brass frames, riveted. I did not have the opportunity to check tuning, but it sounded OK to me, and bold of tone. The bellows were nice and neat, the action riveted. the reed pan is Jeffries style in layout. I cannot comment on cost, but as a concertina choice I would not hesitate to put the model forward for consideration.

A thought for the day, oft repeated. There is no 'Student Model' on any Lachenal price list that I have seen. The coloured keys were standard on bone keys, just a convention. I have seen them on Aeolas, I have also seen brass reeded Aeolas. Lachenal produced a brass reeded plain and low grade instrument, simple mahogany ended, called a 'Peoples Model', aimed to make the concertina more accessible to the working man. later a 'Popular model' concertina was introduced which, whilst still being plain and a lower grade had steel reeds. Whoever coined the term student model did us all a disservice, condemning some good instruments to the assumption or low worth.

Can you get the serial numbers on both instruments? I tend to agree that the 4 fold instrument indicates either an earlier model, or lower grade model; before domed keys were introduced etc, and the 56 keys extended upwards add weight for little benefit, other to annoy sound engineers, or dogs. The Lachenal is a well known 'label' and the paragon is a well developed model with all the 'mod cons' of it's day. Just make sure about the Cites documentation, the rosewood is likely to be a controlled material.

it is probably the fact that you have so many reeds packed into a small space, the chamber sizes are correspondingly reduced, the reed lengths may ne shorter, so the reed thicknesses are greater. I might guess that on the Bass end, there are several reeds that have been weighted on their tips to drop their natural pitch.

The drawings I have seen from this company, are essentially accordion reeds mounted onto single brass dovetailed frames. The frames appear to be wider than the common concertina reed, you may have to do some serious woodwork, to get the frames into the chambers, re-cut or modify the vents, and even alter the chamber lengths. Furthermore they may have a different tone to what you might expect. Steve Dickinson is still making these reeds, have you talked to him. When you say 'rusted' is it just the steel reed tongue which is corroded, or are you talking about oxidisation of teh Aluminium frames as well. Rust on steel reeds can often be cleaned off and the reeds made quite playable.

Looking at the photo of the RH side fretwork, this instrument has the hallmarks of a good quality instrument, rosewood ends, fine grade fretting and moulding around the edges. The buttons are bone, This could probably have been an option on ordering, metal buttons etc, were not always a preferred option - especially those with flat tops. I would not spoil the instrument with 'plastic' buttons to no advantage. The instrument is fitted with 6 fold bellows, again an indicator of quality. Looking at the picture It looks like you are going to need to replace the bellows, the bellows, like pads (which also seem life expired) and valves are all consumable items, like tyres, oil filters, sparkplugs etc. on a car. They all have a life, and whilst they all make up to a functioning car, changing them makes the car perform better an is more saleable. I would expect to have to replace: pads, valves, bellows, some felt work in the keys, I would also expect to have to get some springs as well. A final thought, I can see a pile of end bolts, it is generally a good idea to put bolts back in the position they came from, just commenting...

I cannot remember on the Morse, if there is a central long screw going down a pillar into the pad board or not. On traditional instruments, this is the case on thumb strap plates and finger slides. Please remember that the hole down the pillar is a clearance hole to the screw, the pillar is a spacer to prevent damage to fretting, hence the packers between the pillar top and the underside of the fretting to make a firm 'sandwich'. The long screw transmits the forces of play from the thumb strap/ finger slide through to the action assembly without any stresses being applied to the delicate fretwork. It is the tip of the long screw that bites into the action plate wood that does the work.

Sounds like a cock-up, with reed pans aligned to a misaligned action box, or the reverse. I can think of no practical purpose, other than a physical issue on the part of a previous player??. I assume that the thumb straps & finger slides are also out of kilter? Do you yet know which end is a flat out of position?