Daniel Hersh
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Posts posted by Daniel Hersh
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2 hours ago, TapTheForwardAssist said:
Heard back within an hour from the owner at Liberty, and he stated the emails are "on the record" and fine to share here.
Thanks for reaching out. Yes we have some very nice German made (Scholer, Silvetta, Weltmeister makes out of Klingenthal) models for $299 at the moment 20 buttons GC and DG. We received them when we bought the stock of Castiglione Accordions last year after they closed. They are not currently in production anymore but the quality is much better than the new Chinese made ones (i.e. Hohner D40) etc. They have nice large buttons, excellent reeds, bellows, build etc. I find them equal or better to the Stagi equivalents. The only issue we have found is that on some of them the buttons occasionally fall off due to old glue and need to be super glued back to place. We check for loose ones but it's an easy fix if the glue comes off. We are planning to make videos soon to showcase them. I'll try to expedite this process and also add some internal pics to the listings. We have been very busy these days with accordion sales and repairs but we are always happy to expand our concertina market. I think these are a great alternative to the economy models found on Amazon etc. Kind regards, Mike Bulboff (Owner)
Well, that explains things. Thanks! I didn't realize that Castiglione had closed, since their web site is still up. The owner John Castiglione apparently died in May. I didn't know that Castiglione had stocked German concertinas other than Silvetta. I'm sure they're better than a Hohner D40, which is or was a pretty bad instrument.
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9 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:
They weren't Rolls Royces, but they were played by lots of the old "greats" of Irish concertina playing Daniel. I've repaired ("Junior" Crehan's mother) "Baby" Crehan's Scholer, and Ella Mae O'Dwyer's one, whilst here's a photo of Packie Russell, playing a Scholer with his brother Gussie, in the 1960s:.
Perhaps I spoke too hastily. I have heard other players say that many Scholers were very bad, but the only one I've actually played is the one I own (mentioned here) which is not great but is playable, as is my Galotta and the Silvetta/Castiglione that I owned at one time.
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9 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:
Yes, like I've already said "traditional German construction [is] with the buttons glued to wooden levers" - they have a wooden mechanism, not a metal one.
But some of the other late German concertinas used metal actions. I have one that looks like the one discussed below that has a metal action. I don't know offhand if BGK/Silvetta used metal or wooden actions, and I don't have one in hand to check on that. My point, though, is that these new Liberty Bellows concertinas could have metal actions and still be German-made.
that
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9 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:
I've had German concertinas of other manufacture, made in the 1980s, that had steel accordion reeds, but only seen brass reeds on long plates in Scholers. But who knows?
In Bandonions steel reeds on long plates are considered the ultimate best.
Hi, Stephen -- see https://photos.app.goo.gl/1FQ6YtnFVYs7Lt5R8
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4 hours ago, TapTheForwardAssist said:
Would you expect to see any notable internal difference between a German-made Scholer, or a "Scholer" that's just a standard China-made cheapie with a German label slapped on it?
You're asking the wrong question. A lot of the German-made Scholers were badly made and virtually unplayable.
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4 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:
Only, they haven't used zinc plates for the reeds since the 1930s, they should be on aluminium long plates instead.
And the later small German-made concertinas used accordion reeds, though I believe long plate reeds continued to be use on at least some German-made bandonions.
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It's hard to place a value on these, especially since they don't come up for sale very often. On the one hand, there were the cheapest Anglos in Wheatstone's line at the time. On the other hand, pre-WW2 Wheatstone Anglos are desirable instruments now. Condition is important too, though the condition of this one looks pretty good from the photos, though we don't have a photo of the bellows at this point.
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3 hours ago, TapTheForwardAssist said:
@Daniel Hersh
I ran across a thread from 16 (!) years ago on this sub of a Bastari Chemnitzer, with the actual Bastari stamp, that appears to be identical to this model in my OP. Reckon these are all much of a muchness?
Yes, probably the same model.
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Re pics of the insides of Chris's concertina (and of the Liberty Bellows instruments) I don't know if that would help or not. As Stephen Chambers said in the other thread, the German action was copied by the Italian makers, then the Chinese makers copied it from the Italian ones. So I don't know how much we would learn from photos.
I also don't think that country of manufacture is necessarily the right thing to focus on. The Rochelle/Jackie/Elise line is made in China, but they're well-made instruments for the price. The Scholers were made in Germany but some of them were not well made. And the Bastari/Stagi concertinas (made in Italy) have often had quality control issues.
The key thing, really, is for someone or several people to (1) have them in hand and try them out and (2) buy them, play them regularly, and see how well they hold up. There's really no substitute for that.
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It's German - probably late 19th or early 20th century. There were a number of German concertina brands in that era and I don't know if there's any way to identify one without a maker's name on the instrument. Stephen Chambers might have more to say if he's inclined to comment.
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9 hours ago, TapTheForwardAssist said:
Okay, Chris_Concertina on Reddit has been a massive help running this issue down.
Chris owns the exact same instrument, but his is unbadged, and he's pretty sure it's a Stagi for various reasons of build. So taking that cue, I did some basic searching and am finding an identical instrument being sold new under the name "Castiglione", which iirc is the current name of what was prior Bastari/Stagi?
So it seems this is a pretty long-standing Stagi model, sold under various (or no) names, and for whatever biz reason at some point a "Stradi" badge was slapped onto this model and that's what the seller on eBay has.
I messaged the seller about getting them to upload a quick demo video of condition to increase their odds of making a sale (price is a bit higher than market, afaik though). Honestly just doing all this for kicks on a slow week, because I'm interested in squeezeboxes, and partially because I like seeing things done right and it's a mild annoyance when I see someone who could be marketing better with five minutes of effort, so sometimes I reach out to offer tips (and sometimes they even take my advice and business picks up).
I'm kinda a weirdo, but I like to think occasionally a helpful weirdo.
Bastari/Stagi concertinas have been sold under many names over the years.
Bastari/Stagi did make a Chemnitzer model at one time, though their successor firm https://www.fabbricaconcertine.com/ don't seem to currently show one on their website.
Castiglione is an accordion dealer in Michigan who also sell some concertinas. They used to sell some concertinas under their name that were made by the now-defunct German manufacturer Silvetta/BGK , and it seems that they may be doing this again with concertinas from a German successor manufacturer Weltmeister/Harmona (a well-known accordion firm) as was discussed in another thread. Castiglione is not "the current name of what was prior Bastari/Stagi".
It's somewhat interesting that Liberty Bellows is calling this concertina a Castiglione, but I'm not sure what to make of that. This model is not marked Castiglione in the photos on the Liberty Bellows website and it does not seem to appear on Castiglione's own website http://www.castiglioneaccordions.com/concertinas.html .
Both Liberty Bellows and Castiglione are accordion dealers who have a small side line in concertinas. I wouldn't count on either of them to be a reliable source of information about concertinas, even the ones they sell.
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12 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:
I'm no longer in the business of importing new concertinas, so I wasn't aware of it until now, but it looks very much like Harmona/Weltmeister have started manufacturing new German concertinas (since the demise of BGK/Silvetta) under the Harmona and Scholer brand names - though I can't find anything about it on their website.
Yes, seems likely based on what's on the Liberty Bellows site. Any ideas as to how we could find out more about this? I owned a BGK/Silvetta 20b double-reeded G/D (branded and sold by Castiglione) at one time and it was pretty decent for an inexpensive instrument.
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Best bet in the US is Greg Jowaisas, who you may be able to reach via private message here on c.net.
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3 hours ago, RAc said:
actually, the snapshot must have been taken before Feb 20,2019 because at that date Chris had (upon my request for privacy protection) removed my name from Wheatstone 20796. On the snapshot it's still there. I received your #3 about a week prior to that, so I suspect your entries weren't on the site yet when the ICAs snapshot was taken.
The ICA just added this as a subdomain of the ICA site in the last couple of days! It's still in progress.
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9 hours ago, Kathryn Wheeler said:
Daniel, how far away do you tend to put this device?
For recording, it sits in front of my monitor while I'm at the computer - so maybe two feet from the concertina. For Zoom I clip it to the top of the monitor.
On 1/14/2021 at 9:47 AM, Little John said:I like the idea of a simple microphone I can plug into my iPhone to improve the quality of the sound. This one seems to be mono only. Is there a stereo equivalent?
I don't think I see a stereo USB mic on Samson's website, but it looks like the Blue Yeti (https://www.bluemic.com/en-us/products/yeti/) has a stereo mode. I don't know if either would work with a phone - I'm only familiar with using them with PCs.
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I use a Samson GoMic USB mic: http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/microphones/usb-microphones/gomic .
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5 hours ago, Takayuki YAGI said:
It might be a 42-key chromatic anglo described in Jones' 1884 patent. http://www.concertina.com/jones/index.htm
It's possible. There are good pics of one of those put up by Jim Lucas at http://www.nonce.dk/Jones-42/ .
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I think it's German, but the exterior is a better copy of an English-made Anglo than I've usually seen: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antique-Boxed-21-Button-Broad-Reed-Steel-Notes-Concertina-For-Restoration/133634551283 . And it comes in "THE registered Concertina-Box"!
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It's a pretty distressed concertina at https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-VICTORIAN-MAHOGANY-CONCERTINA-FOR-REPAIR-RESTORATION/393088369781 . Am I right in thinking that this is a Jones based on the design of the wooden ends and the action as shown below?
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On 1/6/2021 at 6:15 AM, Don Taylor said:
I just let my membership lapse - sorry, but I will renew if the ICA ever gets around to issuing digital journals.
I looked at the stacks of old magasins and journals in my book cases and decided that they all had to go as I felt it showed evidence of hoarding. Plus I doubt that I could ever find anything in them that I might be looking for.
Please publish the journal as a PDF - it will save you money and trees.
The most recent issues are available to members online. (Though I personally prefer a print version and I suspect I'm not the only one.)
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I am now a member of the ICA committee myself, so I will relay Alan's suggestion to revive the competitions in online form to the rest of the committee.
And Alan: welcome back to the ICA!
Daniel
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C.net folks--If you're not already a member of the International Concertina Association, this would be a great time to join. Membership goes with the calendar year, so joining now will cover your membership dues through the end of 2021. Members receive the quarterly Concertina World magazine and its music supplement, both of which will be mailed to you in paper form. You'll also have access to the members-only portions of the ICA website and to Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne's recent all-systems video concertina workshop, as well as to the ICA library of concertina music. Most important, you'll be a part of the only international concertina organization, still going strong almost 70 years after its founding!To join, go to the ICA membership page at https://concertina.org/membership . For more information about ICA, look around the website at https://concertina.org . There are samples of music supplements and one sample issue of Concertina World at https://concertina.org/category/concertina-world .Daniel
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List updated to add Seth Hamon in the Intermediate/Mid-range category.
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58 minutes ago, Stephen Chambers said:
If it's in good, playing, condition then buy the May Fair - they're excellent for the price, and that's the going rate for one.
I agree with Stephen. I have a May Fair and have played a Swan. I think the Swan is a decent instrument for the price, but I think a May Fair is better if it's in good condition.
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Direct link is https://concertina.org/2011/04/08/the-concertina-book-of-music and as Alan says, there's a path to it from the ICA Music Library page https://concertina.org/2021/01/21/the-ica-music-library/ . ICA webmaster Colin Whyles is working on getting the additional pages up on the site, since Alan has provided the images (thanks very much, Alan!) I'm not sure how long it will take.