Daniel Hersh

It's depicted in a photo on this eBay listing. Was this standard on Jones concertinas? Daniel

If you buy a Stagi like this from The Button Box, it will cost more ($650 or thereabouts), but it is set up so it is playable and you get a one year warranty. Stagi's purchased elsewhere, I'm told, are sometimes fraught with problems. I purchased one from The Button Box and it has perfomed well as my starter instrument. The Button Box folks know and build concertinas. They don't merely retail them on the web. You should also go to concertinaconnection.com and check out the Wakker Rochelle, which is due to hit the shelves next month. It is made in China, but according to Wakker's specifications and with many of their parts. It is very reasonably priced at $279 for a starter instrument They made an English concertina the same way that has been relatively well regarded since it came out. Hopefully, their Rochelle anglo will be defect free and have the playability of better instruments. I agree with everything that Cary says, and would add that the dealer that you are considering was previously discussed in this thread. Daniel

It's here. Daniel

I sometimes find myself feeling that c.net is vaguely democratic, even though I've always known that it actually belongs to Paul. This is because Paul usually maintains a very low profile as site owner, and others of us often get involved in the sort of informal "self-policing" (through posts and through private messages) that would be associated with an unowned, unmoderated forum. That having been said, I certainly appreciate it when Paul steps in when those methods don't succeed! Daniel

I know Skip Henderson slightly (he plays some Chemnitzer as well as Anglo) and have an e-mail address for him that I believe is current. If you do want to contact him, send me a pm and I will forward it to him. Daniel

6000 pounds for a Linota in old pitch and with old bellows. I agree, the price is high. Chris Indeed. I believe that it's substantially higher than any price I've ever heard quoted for any concertina. Daniel

Considering the amount that the auction is likely to achieve, there is an amazing amount of work gone into this description. Well done! IMHO it should be perhaps archived here (with permission of course!) MC Sounds like a good idea. I'm not sure that there's a way to archive it here directly at this point. When I e-mailed Paul about archiving something a while ago he wrote back to say that his focus is on the forums now. But I would think that it would be easy enough to put the photos elsewhere (e.g. on Flickr or a similar site) and put a link here, and the seller is offering a full set of the photos as a zip file. Anyone interested in taking this on? I'd be willing to contact the seller for permission if someone else wants to handle the hosting part.

They're here. It's a good illustration of how a German-made concertina can look similar to a British one on the outside but radically different within. Daniel

Yes, I know. I've met Udo Schneeberg several times, and bought some of his Wiener Harmonikas (Vienna Accordions) too, but I haven't (yet) found much call for Bandonikas in Ireland. Maybe I should get him to build the first BC version of one? You could start a new trend!

Thanks, Stephen. They're being made again now too, though not quite this large: http://www.schneeberg-harmonika.de/bandonika.htm . Daniel Daniel, There seems to have been as much variation in Bandonika layouts as you get in button accordions, ranging from as little as one row of 10 treble buttons and only 2 basses, through two rows, two and a half row Club models and three rows with 31 trebles and 12 basses, right up to this large size with 34 trebles and 16 basses. For that matter, though many have a Konzertina-style wind key on the right, like this one, some have an accordion-style wind button on the left.

It's here. Too many basses for the usual Bandonika... Daniel

Well, that's quite a collection of sterotypes there! I personally am both a librarian and a musician...some sort of walking paradox, I guess. Daniel

Thanks for the good advice. Fortunately it has already been spoken for. -jeff You're welcome! I'm glad you found a buyer.

Aren't bandonikas melodeons disguised to look like concertinas (as these abruzzese are one-and-a-half row organetto similarly disguised)? I was waiting for someone to mention bandonikas, which could at least as accurately be described as concertinas set up to play like melodeons... To me the key points in distinguishing concertinas and accordions are: * concertinas ALWAYS have buttons that travel toward the bellows when pressed and accordions ALWAYS have buttons or keys that travel toward the player * concertinas ALMOST ALWAYS have left- and right-hand key layouts based on the same principle and accordions ALMOST ALWAYS have left- and right-hand layouts based on different principles * concertinas USUALLY have only buttons that play one note (though perhaps with multiple reeds in multiple octaves) and accordions USUALLY have buttons on the left-hand side that play chords. I think that button/key travel direction is most often cited as the key distinguishing feature, and based on that a bandonika is a concertina. But since it doesn't meet my second and third criteria I think that it could at least as accurately be described as an accordion/concertina hybrid. A hybrid coming from the other direction (an accordion by the first criterion, but I believe a concertina by the other two) can be found here. Daniel

You might try contacting Paul Groff to see he'd be interested in selling it again, perhaps as a consignment item. Daniel

Because of all their moving parts, glue joints, points of wear, etc., concertinas don't age nearly as well as violins. A "good quality concertina that is not new but is worth buying but not with a hefty price tag" is very difficult to find. Best bet for an older concertina of decent or better quality and condition is probably Barleycorn Concertinas--but you may be surprised at the price you'll have to pay for even a lower-end vintage English-made 30 button Anglo in good condition. There's probably greater demand for these Anglos than for any other type of vintage concertina, and the supply is limited. And regarding the possible antique-shop non-working concertina, if it's not English-made and there's much wrong with it it's probably not worth fixing. Good concertina repairs are not cheap, and good technicians are not easy to find. There's only one shop in the US who are real concertina experts--Button Box, in central Massachusetts--and they have a six-month waiting list for repairs. There isn't really a "typical professional set up"--but to give you a sense of costs, Button Box recently tuned my 30-button English-made Anglo and did some pretty basic work, replacing a spring or two, a couple of reeds and a number of small leather valves, and I spent over $250. On the other hand, there are a number of reasonable choices for new instruments out there now. If you're willing to consider that, say so and I'll offer more advice. Daniel

I believe that this dealer has been representing his "Morelli" as Italian on eBay for some time. Another dealer did something similar some time back (see this post) but stopped after repeated inquiries about where his concertinas were manufactured. I've thought of trying the same tactic on the Morelli dealer but haven't taken the time to do so. Daniel Isn't "Morelli" an Italian name? We live in a world where names and symbols are considered more real than things we can see, touch, feel, or measure. Morelli is indeed an Italian name, and was once a genuinely Italian brand of accordion, but it's not the brand name that's the problem, but the false description "Italian" in the heading. Stephen, I was just being cynical. I agree with you that it's false (dishonest, if the sellers actually know the difference), and should be corrected or even prosecuted. But it might not be "illegal". Actually, there are various consumer protection laws in the US, including those specifically against "false or misleading advertising", but in general the government doesn't initiate action, some individual has to take the initiative and press charges. Maybe nobody's yet bothered with these guys. What's more there are legal dodges ("loopholes", we call 'em), and they may be able to use one here. E.g., generally the import tariff on "parts" is lower than on "finished goods", presumably because American labor will be employed to do the assembly. But many businesses have successfully violated the spirit of this law while getting either courts or government agents to declare that they've adhered to "the letter", by, e.g., receiving fully assembled watches without the winding stems (today, batteries?), receiving the stems in a separate package, and "assembling" the watches from those two parts. (Concertina equivalent: leather hand straps packaged separately?). So if these guys receive fully assembled concertinas from China, they'd probably be in violation of the law. But if the instruments are shipped first to Italy, where somebody so much as adds a screw or nameplate, then it may be legal to call them "Italian". Not ethical, in my opinion, but legal according to our government. (And it wouldn't surprise me at all to find similar dodges in the EU, but I'd better not get started on the politics to either side of "The Big Pond".

Here are some possibilities for a new 20-button: a Hohner (from the Button Box, who warranty it to work ok), a Castiglione and a Silvetta. But if you can wait until August your best bet is probably a 30-button Rochelle. Others may disagree, but I think that any of these would be a better idea than trying to get your Scholer repaired. Daniel

Are accordion kits really available? Michael mentioned Weltmeister, but I didn't see anything on their site, and I didn't have any luck with a Google search either.

And now on the same listing, in response to a question: "... Many offers have been made off e-bay, but just didn't want to part with it. True antique and italian concertinas are hard to find..." And now there's one "bid", but from a "bidder" who has been the high bidder on four of this seller's auctions and always leaves extremely positive feedback for this seller...

It's here. "This is an original Italian Bastari Concertina...Italian concertinas are of high quality and will las for years. The previous owners daughter dates this on as far back as 1890, and believed it belonged to her great grandfather." !!!!! Daniel

Are the reeds waxed onto the blocks or mounted in some other way?

Where are you located, and what's wrong with your concertina? And is your concertina one of the better German ones (e.g. Galotta, Silvetta, Castiglione) or one of the lower-quality ones (Scholer etc.)? Is it otherwise in good condition? If you're really looking at hundreds of dollars for a repair you should replace it. Even the best 20-button German Anglo isn't worth more than that. Daniel

Perhaps one can buy a new Connor from Chris Algar/Barleycorn: "At £1600 we start with the cheapest new concertinas - budget models by John Connor (although these prices are rising justifiably) and the rebuilds of old instruments which Connor does for me alone and which are one of my steadiest sellers" (from this page.) Prices are stated to be current as of January 2006. Daniel very good advice Bill,however I play the harmonica but couldn,t get on with the anglo ,although most people would find it easier,Iam sure. Well I did say probably . BTW, I want to make one thing clear from my earlier post. When I mentioned that the waiting list was years, I was specifically referring to makers using concertina reeds. Most of the accordion reeded instruments can be ready in less than a year, and some of them might just have instruments close to being done. -- Bill i think you will find J ohn Connor ,only has a waiting list of nine months Really? Thats cool, I have only heard a few things about Connor's, but it has generally been positive. I would guess that if the waiting list is so short that it is more because of lack of advertising than anything else. I don't know how fast the Concertina Connection sold out their run of Anglos for 2006, but I know that Dana Johnson developed a 2 year wait list rather quickly once he put up his website. -- Bill Personally I've never seen any information anywhere on where or how to purchase a new Connor, either through an agent or direct sales. I'm sure if such information were available, plenty of people (myself included) would be interested in getting on that list. The lack of advertising may be completely intentional - as you say, when Dana Johnson started his wait list jumped exponentially. Maybe some makers like Connor and Dipper are purposefully trying to avoid being flooded by operating on a more word-of-mouth basis.

How are the reeds mounted on a Rochelle? I'd assume that they're the same as on a Jackie, but I don't know how they're mounted on a Jackie either. I too asked Wim about a G/D Rochelle--and I asked about a baritone and got the same answer. Daniel