gcoover

... and I'll bring a genuine 2-color Wheatstone brochure from their last pre-Dickinson location at Sonorous Works, Deansbrook Road, Edgware, Middlesex that includes photos of the manufacturing process plus photos and descriptions of English, Anglo and Miniature English concertinas - as a giveaway! (Contest details to be worked out later) Gary

Hi Carola, welcome to cnet! A place that is always informative and entertaining. Have you checked to see if the lever arm (after it comes through the button) is hitting the wooden end when you let go of the button and the pad comes to rest? Sometimes new pads are thinner and that makes the button rise up a little taller. If that's the case, you can find the offending spot and perhaps remove a bit of wood underneath. I had to do this with one of my instruments several years ago since I didn't want to re-do all the pads. Or, the little felt bushing in the hole in the button where the lever arm goes through might have rotated (or come loose, or fallen out) allowing the lever and button to "click". Gary

Thanks, Geoffrey! I read somewhere that Crabb had made at least one Jeffries Duet - do you have recall as to what size or when that might have been? Gary

Amen, Brother Greg!

I stand corrected about the large Anglos - looks like Steve Gardham's W28930 (1921) at 61 buttons might be the largest we know of, although there are two other ledger entries: W31282 (1926) at 72 buttons and W31693 (1927) at 74 buttons that are listed as "A.G" but no mention of "duet". Mighty beasts either way. It looks like there are eight instruments in the Wheatstone ledgers listed as "A.G. Duet or Anglo Duet" from 1924-1930, and there are two others that are definitely Jeffries Duets - W29112 (1922, listed as "Duet NP Octo Special) and W32045 (1928, listed as "Duet Hex NP flat"). I've personally played W29112, and it is likely the first Wheatstone-made Jeffries Duet. W32045 is owned by Wunks and looks like it might have started out life intending to be a different duet but was actually made into a Jeffries system duet. So of the ten by Wheatstone, we now know the whereabouts of five of them (including Gavin Davenport's that was later converted to Anglo). Not too bad considering they were built a hundred years ago. Perhaps some of the others are still in the Harvey family? Maybe even in that 1950's photo? Greg Jowaisas told me he has never heard of a Lachenal Jeffries Duet - anybody ever seen one? Gary

I doubt it was ever an Anglo, since the ledgers call it an "Anglo Duet". An Anglo that size would be the most unwieldly one ever! I've been in contact with the auction house folks and have sent them a 61-button Wheatstone layout in hopes they can fill in that mysterious 5th row on the bottom of the right side. I'll keep you posted. Gary

And a well-played instrument at that - look at the wear around the buttons. Recordings, anyone? Mark, would it be ok to include this photo of Jim Harvey in the upcoming Jeffries Duet Tutor I'm working on? Great stuff, and very timely! Gary PS - In March 1928 Wheatstone #31850 "Anglo Duet" had 70 buttons, perhaps the largest Jeffries Duet ever made. Maybe this beast will also turn up some day...

Very sad indeed - I had just finished working with him to get his book "Ditty Box" available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. At least this will now be part of his legacy. Great guy, with a great sense of music and humor. It was an honor and pleasure to have briefly known him! Gary

Who said rehearsals can't be fun?!?

All, Slight thread drift here, since it's not just about English session tunes... but the good news is a most excellent C/G and G/D "how-to" by Jody Kruskal is in the works and coming along quite nicely - with luck it should be out in the next month or two. A really unique feature will be how to take each tune and play it with a variety of accompaniments so you can mix and match when you play. Gary

So sorry to hear there's a problem! I'm not familiar with the Voyage device, but here's the official response I got back from the Amazon/Kindle support: Hello Gary, Thank you for contacting KDP Support. I understand that you would like to know why your book is not showing on the Kindle Voyage. This is because that the book is uploaded as a fixed layout book and there are limited devices available. Please view the link below with the list of devices supported for your file format: https://kindle-content-cs-workdocs.awsapps.com/workdocs/index.html#/share/document/e450538d35e117bf0433f372d0d241d556e06cb2cbc23bddf4353b2d418919d8 In order to provide readers with the best possible experience, fixed layout books with Text Pop-ups (Children’s picture books and Print Replica books) are currently only available on Fire, Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iOS, and Kindle for Android. The buyer needs to view the book with an alternative device. I hope this information is of assistance. Have a wonderful day! So, the books are uploaded with fixed pages (no flowing text) in order to keep the music and formatting from going kablooie, so it's pretty much just like viewing snapshots of each page that's in the paperback. At least it works ok on your iPad! Gary

I think it was Danny Carnahan who once told me about seeing John Kelly play concertina while tilting the chair back on two of the legs, and yes, the inevitable happened - he fell over completely backwards. All the audience saw was the bottom of the chair with his two legs sticking up - and yet he continued and finished the tune without missing a note! Gary

Yes, you heard that right - for all you folks struggling with the quirks of the Jeffries Duet, a book is now in the works and with luck should be be available in a few months. It's going to great fun putting this together, especially since Michael Hebbert and Gavin Atkin have both graciously offered to assist. In addition to 20-30 tunes, it will also include recordings and videos that will be accessible by QR code in the paperback version and by hyperlink in the Kindle edition. We can all blame Greg Jowaisas for this - his long suffering patience will finally be rewarded. But here's how you can help - if you're a Jeffries Duet player, or a wannabe player, let me know if there is anything in particular that you need to get from this book. Or if there is a certain tune that you're struggling to learn. We can probably only get away with brief excerpts of any tune copyrighted after 1923, but that still leaves a lot of great traditional and classical music to choose from. No guarantees, but we'll do our best to accommodate! Gary

I'll be there with a Jeffries Duet as well as a Wolverton Anglo - looking forward to meeting concertina players in the Bay Area! Also, if I can be of any help to any struggling Anglo players, there will likely be some extra workshops or one-on-ones that weekend too, happy to help as always. And who knows, I might even bring a few books with me... Gary