Alex West

I had this issue in a bad way on one concertina I refurbished. Here's my solution - thin wedges of wood alongside the valves with the tallest part of the wedges where it would touch the inside of the bellows Alex West

I'm guessing this is the one that sold last night (21st July) and went to £945. Given the condition it looked to be in - bellows sound and woodwork intact - I'd say this was just about right. I certainly wouldn't have gone any higher and I've been told I don't need another concertina Nice looking instrument Alex West

Larten There's lots of reasons why a reed can stall or refuse to sound. Too close to one side of the frame; too little gap between reed tip and frame; too much gap between reed tip and frame; too tight in the reed pan slot... Whereabouts in Scotland are you? I'm in Ayrshire if that might help you find the solution Alex West

...and mine's a similar press. with the thin veneers, the dampness of the epoxy and the relatively small amount of curvature being created, the plywood bends easily and takes the form with no trouble. Alex West

How do you make the blanks for new raised ends? I've done this by making a male and female mould to the dimensions of the area of the raised portion - circular for one instrument and a sort of ellipsoid for another - then making a laminated board from multiple layers of veneer using a Cascamite epoxy as recommended by Steve Dickinson (other glues/epoxies are available!). Here' a picture of the moulds with the right hand end as (more or less) finished Alex West

Reuben Yes, the Koot Brits 40 key G/D is still available Alex West

Sorry Peter, All of mine are 26 key or above. Some may be suitable as a beginner instrument but all are more expensive than a 20 key would be. I'll send you a PM with some suggestions when I'm back home in a few days Alex West

I got this case from a yacht chandler a good few years ago. I've a feeling they were made in Italy but with a Netherlands distributor. I had to add the padding but they were around £70 if I remember rightly. Plywood frame, leather clad, very robust

Arktrav This attached PowerPoint file won't be identical to your layout I'm sure but might give you a clue and a starting point. The stave represents the treble clef and the note values from G2 upwards) are as you get from a Peterso tuner Good Luck! Alex West 32 Key GD Jeffries.pptx

Arktrav On a 30 key instrument, the C row is the same on "most" CG instruments. There are likely to be some variations on larger instruments for the buttons outside the core 30 key pattern. The G row on a CG is not the same as the G row on a GD. The lowest notes and highest notes (little finger) are almost certainly different values and the whole row is an octave lower on a GD than on the CG Wheatstones tended to be a lot more "standard" than Jeffries, but variations are possible, particularly on the accidental row or at the upper end of the range either as customs from original or as modified by players over the years to suit preferences F# over E is the standard for a Wheatstone GD in that position, but F# over A is common on a Jeffries and preferred by some players who may have swapped the A in there or had Wheatstone put it there originally No such thing as a daft question! Alex West

PM sent

Indeed Richard - my mistake. The G makes perfect sense Alex West

OK - All of the other keys I checked have the equivalent of A5 there - apart from the Bb/Fs which all have a G there when I would have expected a Gsharp. Apart from one Bb/F instrument which had a C in that position Alex West

And I've just checked my records on Jeffries CG instruments - yep, they all have A5 there. I'll take a look at the other Jeffries in other keys for which I have maps and see if it's the same equivalent Alex West

George Yes, the Ab/Eb is still available. I've attached a file with some more information and pictures and if you send me a PM with your email address, we can talk further. There's no drone under the left thumb with a 27 key instrument, and even if there was, it would typically be Ab/Ab. It would be possible to swap a couple of reeds around to get a Bb drone under the left little finger, or there's space to add an extra button and a couple of reeds to get a drone but that's a job for one of the makers I'd suggest Alex West C Jeffries AbEb.docx

I thought that might be the case Ciaran but the element of doubt put me off bidding as high as you were obviously prepared to risk! With the cost of a new set of bellows, you must be getting close to the top end price for a Jeffries Duet though, add in the tuning of 102 reeds... Brave man! Alex West

Joachim I used this method specifically to be able to re-use the leather end binding without damaging it. The pictures below show the edge binding I wanted to save and the new bellows built around the old leather. If you want to make a completely new bellows, then you don't need to take such care. If it's a vintage concertina, then it may well be a water soluble glue or a glue softened by heat. In my experiments, it came off without heat or water. In fact it may have been less messy as the old glue turned to powder when I ran the feeler gauge along. In a newer concertina, I would not be sure what glue might have been used to attach the leather to the end frame. No problem to contact me if you want assistance Alex West

Joachim I'm not sure how good your English is or how Google will cope with the translation but here goes! I have done this so it's possible but I won't say it's easy and it is not without risk. It might be more easy or more difficult, depending on what the concertina is and how the bellows leather was glued to the frame. In my case, it was a vintage concertina and there was a layer of cloth glued to the frame and the leather was then glued to that, either using a starch glue or a rabbit skin (or similar hide) glue. Basically, I peeled back the chamois gasket at the edge of the frame and slipped a feeler gauge between the frame and the bellows. If you do this in the middle of a side, the glue seems to be weaker near the brass 'nut" where the end bolt goes and it's easier to get the feeler gauge in here anyway. Since I was going to re-cover the frame with new cloth, I wasn't worried if the cloth ripped but I was careful to keep the bellows intact. Once you can work the feeler gauge down the full depth of the bellows frame, you can then work it backwards and forwards to the corners and you should find that the leather/cloth comes free. You may have to wiggle the feeler gauge a bit and approach the corners from both sides and have a bit of patience. but with a time and small steps, the corners come free and it's possible to remove the frame. If you want any more help and think that I can assist, feel free to PM me Alex West

Did anyone else see the Jeffries Duet which went at auction today at Sworders auction house? According to the declared condition, it sounded to be a bit of a wreck which makes the hammer price of £1,300 plus a buyers premium of 30% (inc VAT) a bit of a surprise. I don't see much change out of £2,700 to get this to playing condition and if it was bought by a dealer, that pushes the value up towards £3,000 which is surely a bit steep for a 51 key Jeffries Duet - even with the history of this one Alex West

I suspect you mean Alex Holden, Dave. I've made new reed tongues but only to fit existing shoes. Alex H makes his own shoes (as do Steve Dickinson and Colin Dipper in the UK and possibly others I've forgotten) Alex West

Robin I had exactly the same issue with a Lachenal New Model Duet which I restored. As Alex H suggests, the local jeweller helped me out and it wasn't too costly either Alex West

In doing some research for one of my instruments, I looked at the Wheatstone price lists available over at the Concertina Library. My instrument is a special so slightly bigger than a typical 40 key Wheatstone but that was my starting point to see how much my concertina might have cost when it was made in 1921 and what it might have cost relative to the average wage at the time. I'm only the second owner of it and I'm still curious as to why the original owner commissioned it, whether he was trading up from something less expensive and what he might have played on it. My first note was that there seem to be more Duet pricelists over a wider spread of dates than for Anglos. My second note was that Duets seem to be quite a bit more pricey than Anglos. My third observation was that the price difference between a Class C or Model 62 40 button Anglo and a Model 36 46 key Duet seemed to be relatively consistent from 1910 to 1934 at around £7. I can't see any logical reason for the price difference between the Duet and the Anglo, given that the specifications are very similar. Obviously, the reed count is greater on the Duet, but if you try to work out a "cost per reed" and then a "cost per woodwork", "cost per bellows", the Anglo seems relatively quite a bit cheaper not only as a complete instrument but also on a "per component" basis. It's not easy to work out the cost compared to the average salary - that could be anywhere between 6% and 10%; that might compare quite well with a brand new Wheatstone, Dipper, Carroll.... Was this Wheatstone simply charging what they thought the market would bear as their Duet and English customers would expect to pay more than a typical Anglo customer (compared to the cost of a Jeffries/Lachenal/Crabb)? Any thoughts? Alex West

I'd say Theo's got it about right - and very succinctly too! Dances are different in different places though so a tune played for Contra might be considerably faster than the same tune played for dancing in the UK (although there are regional differences even here - the tempo in Scotland tends to be a bit quicker than in Southern England where dances are "stepped" rather than walked or run through). I'd gauge ability in a slightly different way. To qualify as advanced, you should be able to keep up with a session playing a tune that you're familiar with, without fumbling for the note, slowing down for the tricky bits (and reciprocally not speeding up in the easy bits or where the triplets encourage folk to push the pace). You don't necessarily have to play at a breakneck speed - even in Irish music, there's a considerable variation in tempo between, say Mary MacNamara and Mohsen Amini - but your playing should be accurate and replicable, not just a lucky one-off! As for embellishments, I guess I'll leave others to comment, but I guess they mean that where there are grace notes, cuts, rolls and the occasional accompanying chord, you should be able to put them in without tripping over and losing the plot. I don't think it really matters whether you're playing alone, in a session or with a regular accompanist. Whether you choose to play fast, slow, with embellishments or unadorned can be musical choices rather than badges of merit. In a session, I very often adjust how and what I play in order to fit in with others in the room Alex West

Yes, it's still available and I can send more information and pictures to your email address if you send me a PM. My best guess as to age is around 1880-1890. It has mahogany action boards and bone buttons Alex West

Keith, Sorry to not reply earlier but I seemed to be having some problems with my computer or the site or both. I’m not a dealer and don’t run a shop. I play concertina and restore instruments as a hobby to get them back into playing condition. If you’re interested to know more about any of the instruments here, let me know your email address - via private message to be more secure - and I’ll happily send you more information, pictures and let you know what sort of price I’d like to get for it Alex West