John Sylte

Incredible. Love it! Anyone else notice he doesn't seem to use the air button at all?

I changed my left thumb C drone to a D drone for the same reasons. It's not a Low D mind you, just one step above middle C... It's redundant of course because there is a push D on the G row and a pull D on the C row on a standard C/G box, but it does give your thumb something to do. A Low D would be cool too... I had no use for a C drone.

Excellent concession speech McCain. Inspiring victory speech Obama. This concertinist is proud to be an American tonight!

I have the Tascam DR-1 unit and love it. I have recorded fiddles, concertinas, banjos, acappella... It captures exactly whats going on in the room with high sensitivity. The mics are directional too. If the guitar is too loud, then it's too close to the mic. With some trial and error with regard to positioning, you can make very high quality recordings.

Great advice everyone, especially Wally, thank you. I taped all of the holes up expecting to find my leak but instead found that, thanks to freshly rebound bellows, it was very airtight. I untaped a couple holes and they both shreiked at me a little under higher pressure. So I was wrong in assuming the pads weren't the problem. Then I isolated a couple other holes, and a couple others, and it turns out most of the pads are allowing air to pass under higher pressure... It makes sense that if you push hard enough, air will have to escape through the pads at some point, but I am not convinced I am simply pressing too hard. My other Lachenals have not allowed air to pass so easily. The springs are the stock lachenal jobbers and seem to be doing a fine job. I just replaced the pads with materials from david leese. It all looks sharp and ready to go but for this leakiness. I'm stumped? Bigger springs?

Hi everyone. I have been working on a 20 button Lachenal lately and have run into a problem I am having difficulty troubleshooting. The left side leaks. When I press rather lightly on the bellows without pushing a button, I can hear air escaping the left hand side (from inside the concertina ends). In the past, if air is escaping from a leaky pad (or a button that is too tall) I can barely touch the offending button and the note will continue to sound as I release the button and continue pressing the bellows... That is not the case this time. My pads are all airtight. I replaced the reed pan chamois leather (on the inside of the frames) and thought this would fix it, but I still am having trouble. What I hear is multiple high-pitched harmonics, so somehow air must be passing through multiple reeds, right? I think I did a pretty good chamois job, but maybe not? How do I pinpoint the leak? Certainly someone here has run into this before... HELP!? Thanks-

Beautiful Billcro! With bushed metal buttons even!!! i would love to see before and after pics of the 26er you just bought when it is finished. If ever there is a testament to a restorers skill, that would be it... Inspiring work!

If I had the proper equipment to fix the fretwork, I would buy the rosewood lachenal for sure. But I'll pass on the 26 button jobby. When I first started teaching myself how to restore vintage concertinas, I would have snapped it up with the best of intentions. But after I've fixed up a few distressed Lachenals, I've come to appreciate the relatively small increase in cost for a box in much better condition. I look at the Ebay pictures and laugh to myself at the frustration and misery I was once so willing to subject myself to. But that's how you learn... I think when you're hungry for experience, such a fixer upper is just what the doctor ordered, but only once or twice. There are better boxes to buy for reeds alone. Maybe if you can pick something like this up in person and avoid shipping costs it would be worth it? And if I had a complete workshop, I might buy something like this and try building a new concertina around the reedpans, reeds, and bellows frames... That would be fun. But then, why not start with a 30 button? I feel a strange attraction to these old boxes, because I can see so much fascinating history in their wretched condition. And I have bought a few of them based on this attraction alone. But fixing up these beaters and putting your signature on your work is a wake up call. I've come to learn that, like old houses, I think it's probably easier to fix up a box that was well cared for (or build a high quality product from scratch) rather than invest your time and energy into a well loved / beat up old shack. One thing that amazes me about some of these instruments that pop up on ebay (like the 26er linked above)... How on earth do they get SO USED!? As a musician, I can't imagine overlooking so many requisite repairs and continuing to play an instrument. Do you know what I mean? It's like coming across a car for sale that has a bad engine, bad wheels, bad brakes, bad steering... ALL AT ONCE. How could you drive without brakes? How could you roll without steering? How could you steer without a running engine? How did it ever even make it to the car lot? It seems once the bellows give up, the instrument would no longer be useful and it would then sit until someone fixed the bellows. But you see so many of these ancient boxes that appear to have been played for billions of hours with multiple repair issues all at the same time. Bad bellows, bad reeds, bad action, cracked pad boards, missing chamois... Some boxes have clearly sat and sat and sat, and then they just deteriorate, but others seem to have fallen prey to excessive love. I always imagine some very talented musician, some long dead virtuouso that we'll never get to hear, making beautiful music on one of these wrecks, and being pleased as punch to simply have the instrument to play. And then he/she died and some great grandchild sold the instrument a hundred years later on Ebay (to some nut like me)... It makes me wonder how much we take for granted todays high standard of quality. Anyway, I'll move along now. Just my $ .02 ...

It's a whole tone up then, there won't be much metal left on the high reeds if you have them all tuned up. There are Bb/F anglos around, it would be worth looking for something already in that tuning that you could do a trade with before you embark on heavy retuning. Hi There. I have been tuning up 20 button Lachenals from C/G to D/A and I imagine tuning down to Bb/F would be just as easy. I swap reeds as much as possible (I have a collection of extras/spares), and when inevitable I apply sparing amounts of solder to reed ends before retuning them so as not to compromise the stability of the reed tongues (especially the small ones). I personally think the 20 button Lachenals are great little boxes for just such a thing. I keep a 30 button C/G that I use for most tunes, and have another 20 button D/A box that I usually bring along for playing old time tunes in D and A. I have a couple 20 button Lachenals that are ready to be restored and retuned, a 26 button Lachenal ready to be retuned, and a couple 30 button Lachenals that are also ready to be retuned... If you are interested in such a box, let me know.

Whats your time worth spent learning overcomplicated programs? Get the Amazing Slow Downer. I have been using it for years and years.

If you have a wooden ended concertina, and you can hear your nails clacking when you play, over a significant amount of time you will end up with wear pattens/gouges around each button. It's not really a big deal that affects the performance of the instrument, just affects aesthetics in the long run. Just a word of caution...

I have had 7 Lachenals and all but one have played a C on the pull on that lowest button. A draw C is of little use to me. I changed all mine to A.

I play anglo with old time music and I love it, it works very well. I am a fiddler primarily, and I play a lot of old time tunes. I also play clawhammer banjo and diatonic harmonica... The trick for me is definitely playing in the rows. I basically play the anglo as a harmonica, which presents a few added bonuses... the first and most significant of which is not having to breathe into the thing. It's also nice to be able to play chords and octaves. Sometimes I wear a neck rack and play harmonica and anglo at the same time, which offers a very cajun-esque quality. I tuned up a 20 button C/G Lachenal into D/A, and I travel to jams with my C/G and my D/A. By far, most of the tunes I play are in A and D, so the extra box is nice.

I know of two on Bainbridge Island, five in the close Seattle area, and of ........................ Bruce I live in the Methow Valley, east slope of the Cascades in the town of Twisp. Mostly bluegrassers over this way, gets kind of lonesome, would love to connect with some like minded folks. I started to organize a 'Northwest Squeezefest' some years ago, but circumstances required that I abandon the project, and I have not had the time to make another attempt. Since there are a good sized group here in the Northwest, we should make an attempt to get together, no matter how informally. Cheers.......Forrest <:{!!!!!}:> Hi there. I am in Rathdrum Idaho, not too far from Spokane. I play lots of irish (anglo) and old time tunes. Feel free to ring me up for tunes sometime...

It was a blast everyone! Good on you Bruce for posting the pic

Cross harp techniques rely heavily on bending notes using the shape of your throat and mouth cavity, and many of the notes that give blues harmonica it's unique sound are found in between the notes of the diatonic scale. Notes cannot be bent on a concertina. Ask someone who can play blues harmonica to do so without bending any notes at all, and that's probably as bluesy as the concertina could ever sound... I like the idea, that's just my two cents.

Very nice tune! Am I allowed to say that?

Hi Patrick, I go, and it's definitely a fiddle-centric event. It's the type of gathering where the different fiddle factions break off and gather with one another. The Appalachian (true old timey) fiddlers gather in "Stickerville", and every once in a blue moon an irish session is sparked up there. In other areas, the bluegrassers gather, and in yet another, the texas swing style fiddlers gather... It's a blast for sure, especially if you're a fiddler. I wouldn't expect to meet any other concertinists there, unless you and I arrange something...

Billcro, you have done a very nice job with these. I have been watching the auction, but I'm afraid the going price is already more than I can afford. However, I have everything I need to make myself a set, except the brass reed jigs. Where did you get those? Where can I find a set of these? All help appreciated. Thanks-

Ruben my blue heeler sings when I play concertina and/or harmonica... I play fiddle and banjo too, and he doesn't seem to respond to either. The free reeds get him going everytime, although in this video, it was the third or fourth take, and he's actually a little subdued. He especially responds to octave playing, when I add the left hand melody notes to the right... I found this on YouTube too (among MANY other singing dog videos)... Notice the pup only sings when his owner is singing, and not during instrumental breaks

Thank you everyone, this has been a very worthwhile challenge! I contacted the Button Box and they were able to send me replacements at a reasonable price. But by the time they came in the mail, I had already solved my own problem with help from Dana's post. The information he shared about the profile of the reed and the trade off between strength and responsiveness made it all click. I decided to try again at fitting a new tongue from another reed. IT WORKED! The only problem was that I had to cannibalize the tongue from a larger reed to fix the smaller reed. So, on my second attempt (actually 5th or 6th), instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul, I looked to other metal sources. I heard that clock springs work, but I couldn't find any of those in my digital clocks Instead I have an old burned up chainsaw that has a similar spring for the pull start recoil mechanism, and I tried using that on another reed frame, and that worked too. The profile was way too thick, but at the same time it occurred to me that a chainsaw file, which is quite a bit more abrasive than my harmonica tuning file, would remove metal much quicker, so I used that and it saved me quite a bit of elbow grease. The only problem is that the chainsaw file is round and not flat, so I had to be very careful with my filing technique to not create any weak spots. It hadn't occured to me to use a feeler gauge. I thought of using a harmonica reed tongue, which I have plenty of, but then I was concerned it may not be robust enough, because they are brass and they eventually all go flat... In any case, I have fixed a couple of these myself now, and I'm feeling quite confident that my work will only improve as time goes on. David, thank you for your detailed response here, as well as all the help you have compiled in your book. My copy is well worn! My original failures were due to a combination of problems. My side clearance was too great, my tip clearance was too great, my tongue profile was still too thick in the middle, and the reed tongue sat too high above the top of the frame. So basically, way too much air could pass through the reed before setting off the note. I could make it sound with my mouth, but the bellows could not duplicate this pressure. I am curious about your suggestion to use a flame to weaken the metal. I am intimidated to say the least. Until I try it myself though, I guess I have no reason to believe I couldn't make this work. It just seems a little too much like Alchemy! Up until now, I haven't concerned myself with the amount of time it took me to fit a new tongue. I was just looking forward to success of any kind. But I am now curious if there are any special techniques that make it easier to size the new reed tongue shape so that it fits snugly inside the frame with minimal side and tip tolerance. My technique involved a lot of trial and error, and my finished product, though it works, is not exactly perfect. The gaps between the sides of my reed tongue and the reed frame varies along the tongue's length. Because I didn't want to remove too much material, I would only file away a little at a time before comparing the tongue with the frame, and this took me forever. Do any of you have any tricks, or are there special tools I need to purchase or make? Again, thank you all for your help!

Thanks Dana, that is a wealth of information. I think much of what I have been experienceing has come from filing away the reed at the "neutral zone". In most cases, I have simply weakened the reeds when trying to raise the pitch. I have tried to avoid making the tip paper thin, because it will just fold right over, making the reed useless. In avoiding this, I have assumed I could file to approximately the reed's halfway point to raise the pitch, yet this has not been the case. It makes sense to me now why that might not work, when the center of the reeds mass does not correlate with the center of the reed's length... I hadn't considered the profile of the reed. Sticking to the outer 1/6th makes sense. Your suggestion to reduce the paper thin tip, then push the entire reed tongue forward a little makes good sense too. I will try those things. I have also noticed it is easy to make a reed too thin at the base, where it will fold just as easily if you're not careful. I get the feeling that getting good experience with these small reeds will help me with the larger reeds as well. "Along the length of the reed there is an area where the weakening produced by thinning is balanced by the weight reduction and nothing happens. This is the area where you control the reed's overall stiffness. A reed that is thicker here will be stiffer, more powerful and less responsive. A reed that is thin here will be sensitive and weaker sounding." Thank you for this... great stuff! I am making this D/A for a friend as a special order, but I already have one of my own that I converted a while back, and I love it. I can play the D major and A major scales on my 30 button C/G, but I have to think really hard about it, the scales are not intuitive to me at all. I'm getting better with D, but A puts me in knots. I'm originally a fiddler, which of course plays in any key, without having to think too hard about it. Then I learned how to play diatonic harmonicas and got very comfortable with that layout, which is exactly the same as a concertina when playing "in the rows". That in, out, in, out, in, out, out, in pattern feels very intuitive to me, with all of the 1s, 3s, and 5s produced on the push and the 2s, 4s, 6s, and 7s, produced on the pull. I have found it very rewarding to have a simple 20 button D/A available for some D Major, A major, B Minor, and some E major tunes. I know some may consider this cheating, or some breach of tradition, but it works great for me... Thank you all for your help.

Thank you Greg for your response. I have switched reeds in slots whenever possible, and I have a collection of odds and end reeds for such purposes, so my first priority is to minimize the amount of retuning I am doing for any one instrument. However, these teeny tiny reeds are hard to come by, and they are absent in my collection of odds and ends... So I had no choice but to try tuning them. Well, I guess I did have a choice, to not tune them at all, and buy replacements. Then I would be left with the unadulterated originals... That would have been smarter. But I was anxious to finish the job, and well, that's how it is being me sometimes. Now I have a collection of small reed frames without tongues! I wish I knew what to use for tongues to salvage these frames I've got... I have been using the same file on the small reeds as I use on the large reeds, going about it ever-so-gently and cautiously, checking the pitch every two or three strokes... it's a file I use for tuning harmonicas too, so it's not too large. But I like your idea about the sandpaper and tongue depressor. What you describe about them "hanging up" is exactly what I've been experiencing. They go nowhere in pitch, and then all of a sudden, they are WAY too sharp. Then when I try to bring the pitch back down, the reed gives up on me. It just gets too thin... I also use a gapper, or what I have been told is called a "feeler gauge" to reinforce the reed while filing. Is that what you are suggesting with the glorified tin foil? I'm not sure I understand what you were describing there... It's a relief to know others struggle with this too! I had about pulled all my hair out last night when finally I realized I needed to have a glass of wine and put the project to rest for the night... Thanks-

Hello Everyone, I have been tuning a set of C/G reeds from a 20 button Lachenal into D/A. I have done this before with good results, but over the last couple days I have encountered some bad luck. I have fouled up the smallest reeds, from the G row, right hand side, buttons 4 and 5 pull and push (the notes many refer to as the "squeekers")... I have discovered that these little suckers can be stubborn about changing pitch, and then, if I'm not careful, they just give up and stop working altogether. I then turned to another complete box (which I was quite reluctant to do) to "borrow" these same reeds, and wouldn't you know it, I screwed them up too. After that, I tried fitting new tongues to the small frames, using tongues from larger reeds and filing them down.... But they seemed to require a LOT of air to sound them, and they never quite sat right in the frame. I'm not sure what to do next. I need a couple sets of replacements for these squeekers. I contacted David Leese, and he may (or may not) be able to help me, but he is on holiday at the moment, and I am anxious to find a solution to this. Short of buying a wreck box on Ebay for donor reeds, do any of you have any other ideas? Have any of you had this problem before? What I need is: Anglo 20 button C/G, right hand side, G row, 4th button, Push = G (x3) Anglo 20 button C/G, right hand side, G row, 4th button, Pull = E (x2) Anglo 20 button C/G, right hand side, G row, 5th button, Pull = F# (x4) Anglo 20 button D/A, right hand side, A row, 5th button, Pull = G# (x3) Anglo 20 button D/A, right hand side, A row, 4th button, Push = A (x4) Thanks in advance for your ideas and help!

Same note push and pull.