Pete Dunk

To be fair it was an exceptional instrument, I think we'll wait a long time to see one in as fine condition again. I first spotted it a couple of days before this thread started and if I'd had the cash I would have gone for the buy it now at a mere £2,450. Fairly average ebony ended Aeola tenor/trebles cost that kind of money.

I'm sorry if this has been discussed before but if it has I can't find it. Whilst there is a great deal of info available about Wheatstones there seems to be relatively little about the various models of Lachenel, the price list descriptions are of little help. So is this a pic of an Excelsior? Does anyone have pictures of other models (other than the obvious Edeophone)?

David, you might like to consider David Leese's other option and pay £130 pounds for the kit with separate cards, these are far more like the traditional construction. I'm sure that these bellows offer really good value for money but perhaps they won't last as long as other bellows - maybe only 60 years instead of 80! The card used in the set I bought wasn't the acid free museum or mat board used in Tedrow bellows and is possibly a little thinner, for that reason I suspect they may have a somewhat shorter life. I would match the quality of the bellows to that of the concertina and what you expect from it, also of course the amount of money you are prepared to pay right now. If you're an advanced player with a really nice high end concertina with worn out bellows then I'd probably go for a traditional set of bellows fitted by a respected maker. If you have an average but playable instrument I think David's bellows kit would serve you very well but I'd still spend the other £25 on the better set. If you don't fancy doing the job yourself the fitted price is still not out of the way. Hope this helps ...

I'll bear that in mind next time I'm singing John Barleycorn.

We went along to the part playing workshop and had a really good time. I was a bit worried that my Jack baritone might be too slow responding to keep up with the pace of the music. It's pretty hard work getting the lowest note to sound but the tempo was kept moderate for we lesser mortals and a good time was had by all.

Here we go again, ebayer rewrites history. Apparently this instrument was made many years before Wheatstone's original patent and a good thirty-odd years before 'Her Majesty' came to the throne. I think it's from the 2nd September 1889; a plain Wheatstone starter box with worn out four fold bellows. Starting price £500! What planet do these people live on?

This thread might shed some light on it but I don't think it will help you play along with the cornet player. A 4 Hz difference will be very noticeable and if memory serves me right the slides on brass instruments only allow for lowering the pitch but 'tis nearly forty years since I last played one!

I have a 48 key Lachenal in Philharmonic pitch which seems to vary in definition between 453, 454 and 455 depending which opera house you attended or which piano makers reference tuning fork you used!

Theo, I found two pics of harmonium reeds on the net. One was a rectangular plate, rather like a single accordion reed but made out of brass (I think) and was of a screw fixing design. The other was a pic from the Concertina Connection site and looked like a large riveted concertina reed and shoe, I wasn't able to tell from the pic if the shoe was dovetailed but I presume it was. Which pattern are the reeds you have? Jim, what can I say? So much useful information which gives me a great deal more to consider. I've never handled or closely examined any of the larger and much less common forms of the EC. Reproduction of the type of single action bellows you describe might be more than a little daunting. I think (as Dave Elliott suggested) a little more research is in order!

Unless I'm very much mistaken this new listing on ebay has one of David Leese's bellows kits fitted (there are obvious signs). Whether it's the continuous or separate card type is anyone's guess though.

This is uncanny, I've been mulling over the same idea for the last few weeks. I've been searching about for pics and trying to find out what the 'normal' range of such instruments was. The bass concertina was a 48 key instrument pitched one octave below the baritone I believe but the make up of the contrabass I have no idea about other than it had less keys and was often, but not always, single action. I presume it's range would be an octave lower than the bass but with a much reduced top end. My thoughts were along the 'hybrid' lines using secondhand accordion reeds, so perhaps not a 48 key bass because it would be huge. A single action contrabass might be possible though. Maybe we can trade thoughts/ideas?

Agreed, and the photos seem to show both ends - with five rows of five keys on one end and five rows of six keys on the other, a grand total of 55 keys. Despite the reference in the ledgers to this instrument having nickel ends, price lists from that era state that metal ends will be chrome plated and that seems to be the case looking at the pics.

36087 was a model 3T duet with metal ends dated August 30 1954.

I'd have a word with the Button Box and see if they can come up with a deal.

It must be name and shame time! I don't think you could be sued for saying ' I bought a *insert name* concertina but I can't really recommend them and don't consider this to be a good value for money instrument.' It is after all just a personal opinion.

This is a difficult question to answer. I remember recommending that you contacted the vendor about the problem so as to avoid invalidating the warranty. Now the instrument has been returned to you with the original problem fixed but other major defects evident. If you were in the UK I would recommend that you contacted Trading Standards to voice your concerns, they would be obliged to investigate and if necessary intercede on your behalf. I know nothing about US law, do you have a regulatory body to protect consumers? If so I would contact the vendor again and inform them of your problems, requesting that they offer to repair or replace the instrument at their expense (including carriage) or offer a full refund of the original purchase price and compensation for additional expenses you have incurred during the failed transaction i.e. return to base carriage charges for faulty goods. Give them a reasonable time to respond ' If you fail to reply within 14 days....' Then if you get no satisfaction from the vendor it's time to call in the statutory forces and leave them to sort it out.

Indeed!

I have a very similar looking Wheatstone made in 1916 but it's a Model 2 with metal keys. The box seems to be covered with some kind of grained leatherette but the handle is leather and the top surface was mostly pealed away leaving a very dry looking rough surface. I had a word with a leather worker; there's nothing you can do to repair the original shiny surface but you can feed the leather to recover the suppleness and prevent further cracking (if there is any). Soft beeswax will do the trick or you can buy a jar of creamy leather food at a good hardware shop. Put plenty on and leave it to soak in for a good while before wiping off any excess. Do this a few times over a period of a week or so and you'll be quite pleased with the results. Don't do this to the bellows though!

Although I don't play anglo I would echo Woody's comments and go for the Rochelle. Many years ago I played a new Stagi English and didn't like it a bit, I have both a Jack and a Jackie and although they cannot be compared to vintage instruments they are very playable and good value for money. The Jack weighs in at 1450g, Jackie is 1390g and my rosewood Wheatstone is 1106g so the Rochelle will be both larger and heavier than a traditional concertina. A few months ago I played a Marcus treble English and a Morse Albion baritone at the Music Room, it's difficult to compare the two because a baritone is always going to be slightly slower to respond however well made. Both were excellent instruments, my personal preference on the day was the Marcus but I would have been happy with either. The Morse was incredibly light in weight and no doubt the C/G anglo would serve you well given your problems with arthritis.

Now that part couldn't be easier. Plug in the usb lead, the device will ask if you want to connect to PC - answer yes and that's it! The Zoom is now just another drive on your computer. Open 'My Computer' and there it is. After that simply drag and drop the files onto your desktop or into a new folder. This bit may be a little trickier, you'll need a bit of simple audio editing software to chop up the continuous session file into manageable chunks and save it as an mp3 (if you've recorded in wav format). Then you'll need a bit of webspace to upload the file to to share it on here. First of all get the files up onto your machine so they will play in media player and we'll take it in steps from there. You can do this, it just seems a bit daunting because you've not done it before. In a couple of weeks you'll wonder what all the fuss was about! Pete.

That must be a new model Chris, it's more what I was looking for to be honest because I don't need all of the bells and whistles on the H4. I do prefer the X-Y mic configuration though and I suspect it's easier to be circumspect with the H4 - vital to a bootlegger

Hello Andy, welcome to the forum . The link to the B6 abc file doesn't work. It looks as if it's hyperlinked to a non existent email address instead of a file.

Santa brought me a Zoom H4 last Christmas and they really are excellent. I have used mine mostly for bootlegging concerts but it's very useful for scratch recording practice sessions too. I have also used the line-in facility for recording old vinyl records and transferring them to CD. The 128Mb SD card that comes with it isn't really much use if you want to record in CD quality wav format though; I have a couple of 2Gb cards that I picked up from the internet at around £15 each which gives me hours of recording time. I haven't explored the 4 track recording facility or sound effects at all because I have a Roland digital 8 track that took me long enough to get to grips with! Here's a pic for those who are wondering what we are talking about:

I've just listened to all three sets with no problem, very nice too Could it be a browser problem? I use Firefox...

Yes you are. You have trash cans, we have dustbins. Therefore we have (dust)bin men and you have garbage collectors - go figure! An Oscillograph Wobbulator sounds fascinating but I'd rather find an old leather box with an Aeola in it - at least I'd have some inkling of what to do with it! Unless of course it was an anglo Aeola..... *shudders*