Pete Dunk

There are several formulae for dating Lachenals (and probably as many threads on the same subject on here), have a look around on Concertina.com and run a search through the old posts on this forum. Hopefully someone who remembers more about it than me will be along in a while to point you in the right direction.

Hello Steve, welcome to the forum. All concertinas are salable but you'd have to define 'good nick' in order to find out how salable. Pics would help too. Looks like a Lachenal to me. The clue is in the 'steel reeds' stamped on the handrest. The bellows look shot to me; is there any reason why you've posted two photos of the right hand end and none of the left?

Why can't thin airplane model plywood (1-2mm) be used? It's much stronger than cardboard, will not indent with time, and can be re-used. I'm sure 100 years ago thin plywood didn't exist, but why makers keep on using cardboard? I also don't think that thick felt-leather sandwich will make the buttons spongy. Why? It will just seal better. But I wonder how does one glue new pads to the levers and secure pads' positions? Not an easy process to my naked eye. When you take the top end off, buttons lose their uppermost guides, right? The levers go through the buttons, and use them as guids too, so the ends of levers get all disarranged. Given the tight space inside, how does one arrange the whole thing? Just eyeballing? Using aero-ply would be impractical as I see it, the beauty of the traditional construction is that you can make the three part sandwich as a flat sheet and then punch them out - quick, neat, simple. With ply you'd have to cut and tidy up the discs singly and then glue on the other layers which would take forever. I wouldn't think that durability was an issue in any instance as a set of pads should last decades. I buy mine in from David Leese and wouldn't even consider making my own, that's carrying DIY a little to far. As for fitting new pads, it is relatively straight forward and requires a quite modest level of skill. It does however require a little patience and a good eye for detail. Replacing one or two at a time (I prefer to do one at a time) reduces the possibility of having levers flapping about all over the place to nil; it also allows you to set the key heights as you go. As for the glue used, some use hide glue, others (like me) use PVA (Elmer's). Both work well. If you are really interested in how things like this are done I would recommend that you buy a copy of Dave Elliott's excellent Concertina Maintenance Manual. Come to think of it I would have thought this book would be of great interest to any concertina owner whether they intend to do repairs themselves or not.

Seconded - and eloquently phrased if I might be so bold. I'll remain a Luddite too, it suits my nature.

Hello and welcome. The forum is a wonderful place, full of lively debate and friendly advice. Take a bit of time to browse through the various sections and read up on the many questions previously posted about the relative merits of the various types of concertina - English isn't the only type with the same note push and pull. Then there's the hoary question of where you start. New/secondhand/vintage instrument; cheap and cheerful, mid priced workhorse, bespoke handmade antique of the future. The list goes on... Give us a rough idea of where in the world you are and the kind of music you are interested in. There may be a c.net member close by who can give you a little guidance and perhaps let you 'have a go' to see if your interest will ever amount to anything and help you decide on the concertina type/price range that's best for you. I would echo Nicholas' advice regarding the Jack (baritone) and Jackie (treble - same range as the violin), good basic instruments at a very reasonable price. They hold their value so you would loose little of the modest outlay if you decide the concertina isn't for you. So pull up a chair - and as a newbie it's your round at the bar!

Now that is a thing of beauty!

This has been discussed near the end of this thread. Not that you were to know that. It would seem there is yet another variety of concertina. Anglo, English and Duet I've heard of but what on earth is a Double?

You'd better check the serial number because 36488 was a model 2E with rosewood ends dated 3rd February 1959. Is this a tenor/treble or an extended treble?

While browsing for a tune I came across Gordon's Tune, not the same one of course - this one's Irish. The whole freesheetmusic.net site is a great resource.

Mmm, Ribblehead (railway) station to Dent station is all of seven miles. Do that in thirty minutes on any day in February and I'll buy you a pint mate!

Without wanting to sound patronizing or stupid would it be too much to ask that you post a link? If you do I'll take a look, if you don't I'll pass.

I've had a Jack and a Jackie (from the Music Room in Cleckheaton) since April. From day one the Jack was my favourite, I just loved the deep warm tone. From a playing point of view it has to be said that the lowest notes on a baritone are noticeably slower to respond than those of a treble. I've moved on to a Wheatstone treble now but Jack is still played quite regularly and I played it at a recent workshop so I could have a stab at the third part of the arrangements. On that occasion the baritone parts were written in the treble clef with 8va written at the beginning to indicate that it should be played an octave lower than written. It's many years since I last read and played bass clef so I would have struggled to get the pieces ready in time. Have fun with the Jack, and if you got as far as 'Oh When The Saints' in the tutor within a day or so you're obviously getting to grips with the English keyboard layout pretty well, keep up the good work!

Alan I think you're letting the H4 psych you out, connecting it to a PC is very simple. With the unit switched off plug in the USB cable, the screen will come on displaying two options 1. Audio I/O 2. Connect to PC Audio I/O is the default so you have to move the jog wheel down once to point to 'Connect to PC' press the jog wheel in to select the option then put the Zoom down because you've finished with it until it's time to disconnect the cable. The Zoom is just another drive on your PC now. Other things like setting recording levels are indeed buried in the menus and take a bit of getting to but there's also a mic level switch on the side with low/med/high settings. I set the input level up once in the menu and now use the switch on the side in either low or mid depending on the application. I won't defend the H4 here though because it is indeed cumbersome to use at times. I love the recording quality but if it ever breaks I would replace it with something a lot more straightforward. The Zoom H4 is capable of a great deal more than I would ever use it for and if the H2 had been around at the time I would have bought that without doubt. The four track recording capability is a bit gimmicky to me but the audio I/O and line in are handy because I can plug into the hi-fi amp and record old vinyl for transfer to CD or use the H4 as an audio interface for the PC. Most of the other recorders can probably do that of course so it's no big deal. I might have been tempted by the Edirol R-09 simply because Roland make good kit but the price difference decided the matter in the end.

We're booked to go to this workshop and now have the dots. Nasty little finger jumps in one of the pieces so I'd better get practicing!

The quick and dirty way is to buy one of these, mask off the buttons and spray it black. Overnight delivery included in the price.

It's enough to drive you bonkers, piles of scrap going for big money. That one doesn't look too bad compared to some I've seen on ebay recently, but to me it would have been worth £120 tops. Perhaps I'm losing touch with dealer prices but isn't that kind of money you'd expect to pay for a half decent playable 20 button in concert pitch? The other week I watched a lovely, concert pitch Lachenal 48 button treble English with metal ends go for £550. There are times when it all doesn't make much sense...

Buy it now secondhand - for only £3.00 more than a new one!

Hello all, Dave Elliott suffered a PC catastrophe this afternoon and has no hope of getting it sorted out before next weekend at the earliest, and it may possibly much longer than that. If you need to contact Dave in the meantime, the quickest way is to visit his website for his telephone number. Don't you just love computers?

It's of great interest to me Dave. I have a Lachenal with three key tops missing and have been scouting around for suitably thin sheet material and a metal punch that would produce the correct size of 'slug'. We have one such punch at the school where I work but the slugs it makes are too small. So can I either buy some of the tops you have or post the keys to you for repair?

In case you wanted to jump straight to a better instrument I've just had a quick look about and Theo Gibb at The Box Place has an almost new Morse Ceili and a refurbished 30 Button Lachenal. Morse concertinas are incredibly light in weight and very responsive to play, they are also available new from The Music Room or direct from The Button Box in the States.

The Rochelle only comes in C/G so no choice of key to worry about. All the Concertina Connection budget concertinas (Jack, Jackie and Rochelle) are sturdily built and physically much larger than 'standard' concertinas. They have accordion reeds in them which take up quite a lot of room and that explains the size although other makers of 'high end' accordion reeded concertinas manage a much more compact design but the price tag is much higher. If you take to the concertina you'll be wanting to move on to a better instrument within a year or two, fortunately the Rochelle retains a high second hand value and there's always the option to upgrade to a top flight Wakker (Concertina Connection) concertina and get a full refund on the Rocehelle. I'm not sure if the Music Room offers this upgrade so you may be better buying direct from Wim Wakker in Holland. Yes, the Music Room are helpful, I'm sure they will explain the options if you give them a call, and don't forget the 30 day money back guarantee if you're not happy when the Rochelle arrives. Have fun playing and let us know how you get on.

From what I've seen more melodeon players use only one strap than those who use two. I think there's usually only one bracket top and bottom so both straps attach to the same point. I've fancied having a crack at playing a melodeon for a while and might have been interested in a trade but the only concertina I have available at the moment is an all but new Jackie English. If you have your heart set on an anglo and don't want to part with loads of cash, consider a Rochelle.

There is a similar item here which may give you some idea about ebay value although final selling prices vary quite a lot.

It's the fifth heading down on the main page - and it's here

Would this be the best section of the forum for discussions regarding audio and video hardware and software? Odd discussions pop up now and again regarding the relative merits of recorders, mics/pickup devices and software for editing audio and video files in order to create the web based media referred to in the threads here. Just a thought. Pete.