gavdav

Jon - sent you a PM - I'm teaching all week next week, but you're welcome to try at your convenience otherwise.

Price dropped to £700 shipped in the UK, otherwise off to the great wastes of eBay

Here are some pics, more on request. Fully restored internally but have done as little as possible on the outside! Open to offers and trades for Ab/Eb anglo or other unusual key combos!

I've persevered with this for a few weeks, but have resigned myself to being an Anglo player at heart, and would like to put the money into an Anglo. This beautiful little box is a dead ringer for the one here (kevin Gow's box, middle of page) http://tinyurl.com/cz7j59 It is in amazing external condition with the original gold-tooled handstraps (both) and label, fretwork in perfect condition and perfect bellows with unusual lachenal balck and gold papers. It has been lightly cleaned but still has a patina of age about it. It could be further restored to "as new" condition quite easily if one was so disposed. It has been retuned, repadded and valved by Dave Elliot and is playing rally nicely. I've managed to work a few tunes out, but I'm an in-out kind of person after all. Steel Reeds. Photos on request. I'm looking for £800 o.n.o, which is below the insurance estimate and about 600 quid less than buying a similar box from Hobgoblin or Music Room. cheers Gav

That was my feeling - I thought the end price was pretty eye popping for what it was. I guess I'm just wondering how much this kind of crazy bidding affects the normal day to day price of concertinas. Hobgoblin in Manchester, UK, have a Jeffries Anglo for over £6k at the moment. People are frequently putting lachenals up for sale with £1800-£2000 starting prices which does seem surreal. No doubt that duet will pop up on ebay again as is, or will be anglified and be sold at over the £6k mark - still won't clear the initial outlay, and that is going to be a pretty epic clean up and retune.

£4100 - Staggering!! Mind you an unrestored Jeffries Anglo went at auction 2 days ago for £1900. Steve It isn't that long (say 2 years) since I saw a restored and playable jeffries duet go for £1500. Prices do seem to be insane at the moment, and I know that there's a slightly strange trend going on to buy concertinas for investment. What I wonder is how much the last purchase price contriubutes to the real perceived value of the concertina in question. In a commodity so rare as vintage boxes, there's a real danger of inflating the market by people piling in with crazy ebay bids. Still, handy if you already have a vintage instrument sitting around

Ironically it looks like this was a scam anyway - see the post in the sales thread.

Cheers Paul - I suspect so too, and feel duly wary. My main concern is that the scammer seems pretty savvy - the first time they went so far as to end me pics of the box, but went a bit funny when I asked for internal details. Beware of any long distance deals I guess where you don't know the seller...

I've spotted a couple of concertinas listed as for sale in London on sites like Gumtree and craigslist. I enquired about two of them seperately, a couple of weeks apart. Here is the mail from the first one a wheatstone listed in Surrey "hi there i'm based in Lerwick,Shetland,if this isn't a problem for you i can send you some pictures thanks " Here is the message from the other, a Jeffries listed in London "hi there i'm based in Baltasound,Shetland,if this isn't a problem for you i can send you some pictures thanks " these are identical, including the dodgy punctuation. Does anyone else smell a new and potentially nasty rat? Gav

i would agree with frank here. $1800 USD is what i was thinking i would pay for it. Thanks all, I've withdrawn my interest. Once again - appreciate the helpful input of all concerned! all the best Gav

Gav, Have you/can you play the concertina? Can you see or get pics of the interior? Do you like the sound? Is the instrument solid and appear well cared for? Are you trying to base this decision on the manufacturer's reputation rather than the individual instrument? There are no hard and fast rules about 1950s Wheatstones. I'd say the earlier in the 50s the better but the dovetails may have the edge over the crimped reeds and associated construction. I've seen and personally played good example of both types. I've read reports of folks who were disppointed in their Wheatstones from this era. Really IS a case by case decision. One wise, experienced concertina aficionado put it: Individual concertina care and history can make more of a difference in sound and performance than manufacturer's pedigree. Greg Thanks for all the input - the catch is the box is in Shetland, so no way I can try before I buy and it isn't a dealer - the seller knows nothing about it other than a ballpark price. I may steer clear. They're looking for £1800

I just foudn out that the concertina in question is 1952 - is this a bad year? When did boosey take over?

I have the option on a 30 key C/G anglo in stunning condition at what I believe is a good price, but I'm unsure as to whether the 60s/70s era wheatstone anglos are to be avoided, whether they're good bad or indifferent. Can anyone shed any light?

Marcus music sell a travel model, which has 21 keys allowing more range for Irish tune playing. they say it is the size fo a piccolo but standard pitch. This pic should show comparative size.

I think these are Andy Norman boxes rebadged. It should have held most of that original value. UK price is between £1000/£1500 for equivalent instruments, guess these things are harder to come by in the states so depends on your market.

Dave Webber is amongst my favourite singing Anglo players, but then I really love his voice, and Tom Brown on English is pretty good too! I taught myself (for my sins) to play by listening to Peter Bellamy so I guess I also play in an idiosyncratic style, probably rescued only by the timely input of the late Barry Callaghan. Still Howard's comment that Bellamy's style is hard to imitate at least makes me think my hamfisted playing is kind of clever in its own way Gav (off to work out this playing in F thing!!!)

Interestingly I know lots of people who play that up and down the rows english Anglo style (like me) who like the left thumb drone key, but I find a lot of boxes that have been Irishified where the drone key does something else...e/g two different notes or not the root of the key on the same row. does your Jeffries have a left thumb drone? Whilst D is a nice singing key I find it hard to play in that style on a C/G with any robust accompaniment.

Edgley sold, photos uploaded for the Tedrow.

I do indeed - it is my concertina raison d'etre, though I seem to be playing lots of English session tunes recently too.

I think they were actually fixed to the end bolts, so no screw holes required. Indeed - I posted two pics further up the thread which show this - they look like they resemble artists drawing board clips, but htye could be custom made, I guess it isn't a complex piece of engineering.

I agree. So far as I can determine, I have every Bellamy album there ever was and he is my favourite of all time. A great loss. Ian Mine too, I know his playing is not to many people's tastes, but he's certainly my prime concertina influence as well as having a big effect on my singing.

Peter had more than one concertina. I've checked, and sadly have only one photograph of Peter; here he was playing a 30 key wooden-ended Lachenal, without any "additions". The concertina, which had the two additional "slides" which held down buttons, was the metal-ended one. Regards, Peter. To answer my own mail I suppose - Just found these two crackers in the program for Peter's memorial at Csharp house.

I was chatting with Jon Boden last night about the metal helpers that Peter Bellamy attached to the end bolts of some of his anglos to provide additional drones. I know I have seen photos of them in the past and found it difficult to describe them. Does anyone have any images or more detail of these eccentric contraptions? For those not in the know, these effectively held a single key down permanently to provide "drone" type additions to what was easily accessible. Many thanks Gav

Hmmm - my messenger seems to have deleted all of the private messages in my inbox. Could anyone who already contacted me and was awaiting photos drop me a line again? Apologies for the bump.

Thanks to Paul and Jim - these are indeed both excellent boxes, and I'll be more tahn a little sorry to lose the key flexibility. Both of them have really changed my mind about the whole accordion reed debate and improved my playing massively, but I'm ready to invest in some more buttons! all the bet Gav