Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

for instruments like this I would recommend getting in touch with Steve Dickinson at Wheatstone concertinas directly: http://www.wheatstone.co.uk/

as a side note I like how your end plates look, presumably your own design? Nice and original take on the idea.

I think Dana Johnson mentioned making an experimental carbon fiber reed once, maybe he will chime in with what he found out by doing it. I have used carbon fiber to make other things in the past but never reeds.

I saw a presentation which mentioned this recently, I cant tell but I am aware that some instruments stamped Jeffries are not made by him. It isn't always easy to tell.

that sounds quite pretty, its nice when music happens in a spontaneous and unexpected way. Is that one by ABBA?

Its indeed a good festival, good concerts and good lectures too. See some of you there maybe, I will be there exhibiting/trading this year.

Hello concertina players Recently I wanted to make some recordings to demonstrate my new concertina designs being played and thought it would be nice to record Cohen playing as he is a musician who I admire. Kindly he offered to help. We made two recordings, the two concertinas played are a C/G Anglo and a G/D Anglo, both made with concertina reeds. Look here to learn more about these instruments: https://wolvertonconcertinas.com/advanced-model/ look here to learn more about cohen and his music: https://cohenbk.com/ Have a pleasant April Jake Middleton-Metcalfe Wolverton Concertinas

fortuna bell knife skiving machines are excellent, just excellent things.

wow I havent seen flame polishing on acetal before, I have seen it done on clear acrylic though. If fast cut is a bit pricey you might get a decent result with brasso on a soft cloth and polishing it by hand in the lathe - though I cant be sure. It will probably be slower than the fast cut, but you probably have a can in the cupboard somewhere!

use fast cut plus and cotton wool, run the lathe pretty darn fast and hold the cotton wool (dipped in fast cut) against the button, works well in general but its a bit slow. A quicker non lathe approach is to use a high speed polishing mop mounted on a bench grinder motor and a fine polishing compound on the mop (the same sort of thing you might use to polish a bit of brass). Rotate the button slowly while polishing - this approach is quicker but potentially easier to polish away bits of the button unevenly as its a bit aggressive, if you use the latter technique be careful as you do it but it can be made to work well.

you will probably get a lot from going to some local sessions, hopefully there might be an american one in Brighton. Probably there will be English and Irish sessions, its a great way to get inspiration for tunes and playing techniques. If you ever get the chance to see Brighton morris men dance they have a very good anglo player.

yes indeed it is. Send me a pm if you want to discuss further, or you could email me on jake_middleton1@hotmail.co.uk

Instrument now sold, thank you.

"as good as or better" is a bit hard to define as peoples tastes are quite different, beyond a certain level of quality its sort of like art appreciation and it really depends what you play and what sort of feel and sound you want. In my opinion - without being too specific there are currently some makers producing instruments above and beyond what the first wave of makers made and I am very fond of these instruments. But someone else might very well say "oh well that is over the top how good does it need to be?".

I had a go on a metal ended metal pierced side concertina once, it sounded ... Aggressive.