Daniel Hersh

Lots of questions! But here's an answer for the one in your subject line, quoted from http://www.geocities.com/heytud/faq.html#faq22 : What is the difference between a Chemnitzer Concertina and a Bandoneon? The most significant difference is the keyboard layout, which has some similar notes at the core, but varies significantly around the edges. Most bandoneons are double-reed, octave-tuned with one middle and one high reed per note. Also, the decorative style of a bandoneon is usually more subdued, while chemnitzers often tend toward flashiness. Here's another, from http://www.baldoni.com/Concertina_Facts.html : CHEMNITZER CONCERTINA: Diatonic system, the largest size in concertinas, rectangular in shape with generally 102 buttons. Incorporating various tunings and register combinations. Most used in American Polish music, especially in polkas and waltzes. BANDONEON: Rectangular in shape similar to the Chemnitzer concertina. The Bandoneon has a vibrant tonal quality most used in Argentinean Music, especially Tangos. And to address another one of your questions, an Anglo is similar to a Chemnitzer in that its two home rows are single-key diatonic push-pull (aka bisonoric), similar to harmonicas. They're different in that the home rows on an Anglo are tuned a fifth apart and on a Chemnitzer they're tuned just a whole tone apart. They're also different in that the set-up of the "other" buttons outside the home rows on a Chemnitzer is very different from the one on an Anglo. Anglo vs. English has been addressed many times in these forums. Try doing a search and you'll probably find more than you want to know... Daniel

See http://concertina.home.mchsi.com/concertin...arly_german.htm for pictures of similar instruments. Also see this thread: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php...indpost&p=31112 . Daniel

I just found it again on both the Fischer and Pepper sites, priced at $11.95. Try entering "de ville" as author/composer and "concertina" as title. Jim's point about this possibly being public domain now is an interesting one. Can anyone give a definitive answer? Daniel

I'd highly recommend this CD--if you like a highly ornamented style it's one of the best Irish concertina albums that I've heard. Daniel

Carol Denney ( http://www.caroldenney.com ) lives near me and sings and plays some shape-note hymns very nicely on English Concertina. Don't know if they're on any of her recordings, but you could e-mail her and ask--her e-mail address is on her site, which also includes some fine concertina humor at http://www.caroldenney.com/concerti.htm . The De Ville book is apparently in print and available from Carl Fischer directly at http://www.carlfischer.com or from a sheet music dealer such as http://www.jwpepper.com . Daniel

This is almost certainly a 20-button Anglo (aka German) concertina. You can find a fingering chart that will probably be correct at http://concertina.info/tina.faq/images/finger3.htm -- just look at the lower two rows and ignore the top one. General info about this type of concertina can be found at http://concertina.info/tina.faq/conc-typ.htm and elsewhere. Daniel

An interesting one on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-11-KEY-WOOD-CO...itemZ7384622168 . I assume that this is German-made, but I was surprised at such an "English" look (hexagonal shape, 5-fold bellows) on a 10-button concertina. Daniel

Ha! I've been in many old-time sessions where we only played in one key for hours (usually G, for some reason) so the banjos wouldn't have to re-tune. Old-time fiddle players often do a lot of re-tuning too (ADAD, AEAE, GDAD, etc.) which aggravates the problem. Pretty cheeky, coming from a banjo player. I thought they did a complete retuning for each tune, anyway.

Christian, can you show us a photo of the other end? And if you can somehow find out what keys this is in and whether it's in modern pitch, that would be very helpful too. My guess is that this is a Lachenal, but others are far more qualified to make that call than I am. Daniel

This actually was tried--it's the unisonoric bandoneon. See http://www.inorg.chem.ethz.ch/tango/band/band_node13.html . Another comment on cross-row playing: I'm just starting to learn Chemnitzer after years of playing Anglo. My sense from what I've tried so far is that cross-row playing is much more intuitive on the Chemnitzer than on the Anglo because the two "home" rows are a whole tone apart, rather than a fifth apart as on the Anglo. So you can work your way up and down the scale on both push and pull by just alternating adjacent buttons between the rows, pulling in the accidentals as needed from the other rows to suit the key that you're playing in. (Ted, please chime in if this isn't right!) Daniel

This can be a problem in old-timey sessions too--some are more accepting than others. I walked up to one session some time ago and a banjo player looked up at me, scowled and snarled "We're NOT going to re-tune!" Daniel

I play lots of old-timey music too, and I play a C/G Anglo. I haven't found playing in D or A to be particularly problematic. Many old-time tunes in A are in what banjo players call A modal, with a flatted seventh (G natural rather than G sharp) which makes playing on a C/G to be less difficult. It's certainly possible that G/D would be easier, as others have said, but a C/G will work too. I believe that Bertram Levy, mentioned in an earlier post and an inspiration to me when I was starting out on this, played a C/G Anglo when he was playing this kind of music on concertina. Daniel

Your concertina is what we would generally call an Anglo. Daniel

See http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Marveltone-Con...itemZ7382834607 . Daniel

On a more local scale, I would agree, based on increasing attendance at workshops in this area over the last couple of years. Daniel

I hope so too--I take it that he never responded to your e-mail. If it was a scam, he did a good job of sounding like he was a non-musical person with an instrument in hand with his answer to the question that was asked about brass reeds: "By looking through the metal frets, it would appear that the reeds are brass"--certainly sounds like someone looking through the fretwork at the brass wires of the action. Daniel

Thanks, Malcolm. I can barely even tell, given the resolution of those photos, that those are wood screws. I guess it's a matter of having a practiced eye. I've seen very few German concertinas (they're not common in the US) so I don't have a good feel for what they look like when the maker was trying for a British-made look. And there are three bids now--I hope the buyer isn't disappointed! Daniel

Thanks again, Theo. I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to get started on this, but I may well post further questions when I do. If I were in the UK I would probably just take the box to you for repair... Daniel For the occasional spot of regluing liqid is ok. For the number of joints you have to do hot hide glue would be my choice. It gells quickly as it cools, which means that for small light parts you don't need to clamp. Just apply glue and press the parts together with gentle finger presure, hold while the glue gells (you'll learn by experiece how long that takes) then set aside for 24 hours. You should remove any loose or flaky glue, and glue that has squeezed out of joints. In the joint area remove any particularly thick bits. If you want to remove it all, moisten it and after some time for the water to soak in the glue will soften and be easy to remove. Any glue left will be softened by the new hot glue and won't spoil the joint. possibly the button is in two halves, split lengthways, if so you could separate the halves and glue in a new strip if leather. You do need to keep the flexibility to prevent buttons sticking in their holes.

How can you guys tell? Is it the picture of the lyre in the fretwork, which I didn't initially notice? Daniel Definitely.

Take a look at this: http://cgi.ebay.com/BEAUTIFUL-ANTIQUE-CONC...itemZ7381875147 . The label on the case says it's German, but it looks English-made. A questioner says it's a Lachenal. It occurred to me that it might also conceivably be a "Tidder" (compare http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php...indpost&p=28817 ). Any comments, anyone? Daniel

Thanks very much, Theo! This is really helpful. This is a German-made Chemnitzer, so I'm not surprised that the action seems similar to that on smaller German concertinas. Regarding hide glue, do you have any opinion about liquid hide glue as a more convenient alternative? It's been mentioned here a few times on previous threads. More questions: after reading your post I took a closer look at the problems with the action. Most were as I described: failed glue joints. In most cases, some or all of the old glue is still there. Is it ok to glue over the old glue, and if not, what's the best way to remove it? Also. the buttons seem to be glued directly to the levers--I didn't see any leather there, though it's possible that I missed it. But there was one situation where I had mis-diagnosed the problem. To give flexibility, the buttons on one row are made in a complex way. The top half and the bottom half are separate pieces, connected to each other by a strip of leather that runs through the middle of both halves. The two halves of each button are tapered to a narrow line at the point where they meet. In that one case, the strip of leather on a button has broken, and the top half of the button is now loose, with the bottom half still glued to the lever. It was in a similar situation on that same row where someone in the past used a metal pin to re-attach the two halves of a button. Do you have any better suggestions for that situation? I can't quite see how the buttons were originally assembled to get that strip of leather into the center--given that, I can't see how to replace the leather, though you may know the answer. Thanks again for your help-- Daniel

This question is a long shot for c.net, but I figured that it couldn't hurt to ask... After being curious about Chemnitzer concertinas for a while (my "normal" concertina is a British-made Anglo) recently picked up an old Lange Chemnitzer at a low price on Ebay. My guess is that it's 80-100 years old. The biggest problem with its condition is that some of the glue joints that hold the all-wooden action together have failed, and others are on their way to failure. Buttons are disconnected from levers or getting loose, and one pad is disconnected from its lever. At least one of the buttons seems to have been previously re-connected to its lever by the use of a metal pin stuck into the underside of the button and the corresponding point on the lever. Has anyone here ever worked on this sort of problem before? If so, any advice? Re-glue (and with what kind of glue), put in more pins, or what? There's no Chemnitzer equivalent to c.net, and the repairers I've found out about are thousands of miles from where I live. I've tried e-mailing one repairer (Scott Majeski) and the owner of the Chemnitzer Concertina Novice web site (Theodore Kloba) but haven't heard back from either one--so I thought I might as well ask all of you too! Daniel

It's an Anglo and the cheapest reliably playable new Anglo available. If you're going to buy one, get it from the Button Box ( http://buttonbox.com ) -- these Hohners are inconsistent in quality, and Button Box is a very reputable concertina dealer who'll make sure you get one in working condition. Daniel

Very informative, Chris. Doesn't solve the 5th-finger problem that I described, though, which was in response to Richard's comment about playing in the upper octave on the G row of a C/G, not of a G/D. I don't have a G/D myself--I've got a 30 button C/G and a 20 button D/A--but reading these posts is getting me interested in the possibilities of a G/D too. Daniel

And now the listing is gone--good thing too. d.