Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

"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.

I would love to go but unfortunately I have a commitment I cant get out of that day

Things have been somewhat busy at Wolverton concertinas. I am now offering a new design which is built around concertina reeds, the reeds are hand made in my workshop. This design comes with 31 buttons as standard but up to 34 are possible, currently C/G or G/D only. There is a display model so people are welcome to come and have a go if they wish. The new more advanced model is based on Victorian instruments, both in look and construction - It is very much a hand made instrument. The design is not a copy of any one historical instrument but rather an amalgamation of the most desirable features from the existing historic instruments which I have studied. I have also added some features of my own – most notably the unique pattern of the hand-cut end-plates. I have put some images below, there are also some new recordings and more information about this model on my website: https://wolvertonconcertinas.com/sound-samples/ https://wolvertonconcertinas.com/advanced-model/ A big thank you to the people who helped me develop this, you know who you are.

The A# on the Left hand side should be A#3, always I would say. As for the C/E - that is one which there is variation on, sometimes it is E/C and sometimes the other way round apparently. I do E/C on my instruments though the reed could easily be flipped. There is not tooo much of an advantage either way with the C/E or E/C in my experience - It is rather a seldom used note. If you ever play pop goes the weasel in G it makes for a comic "pop" in the weasel, I think that is all I ever used it for.

I have a small theory on this initial question - I think a lot of people find the Anglo easier to hold. Not everyone of course.

Hmm I cant offer tutorials at the moment though I can recommend the Chiltinas http://www.chiltinas.org.uk/links.html who are a group with mainly english players but some anglo players as well, you might find some help there. Alternatively my mate Phil who lives nearby used to do lessons, I will ask if he is still doing that.

I notice you are in Northampton - I am a maker/repairer not too far away from you in wolverton - I would be happy to look at it and advise you if you could make the journey here Jake

that is a cool idea making the clamps in the same part and then cutting them off at the end. I am not interested in buying but cool idea.

those buttons look nice, what are they made of?

I see, very interesting, I never knew any bellows were made in this way. Good insight

There is sometimes a downside to bellows which extend over 90 degrees though - I am not certain that any of these bellows were ever designed to do that (though maybe some were I don't know), though I can be certain that sometimes such extension is actually caused actually by internal de-lamination of the bellows cards at certain points in a complex way - be cautious with bellows that can do this. A Crabb concertina which opens to 114 degrees was mentioned. Perhaps Geoffrey Crabb might know - did crabb ever design their bellows to extend beyond 90 degrees?

perhaps it was worth a potential difference in tone for an instrument which is not going to be temperamental in the African climate though. Zak that recording sounds great! I love hearing this musical style. Are you saying in this recording the instrument has a perspex reed pan?

Playing dynamics certainly are important as well, maybe this is why jeffries bellows tend to be a bit 'heavy duty' looking. If they were more fine they might have been somewhat unstable with that depth of fold

The measurement I have observed on jeffries cards was 1" and 1/8th" or something near 28mm. The benefits of folds deeper than 1" which was standard on Wheatstone and Lachenal instruments is something which experts seem to disagree on. The argument against is: the bellows are able to extend further but the deeper folds mean there is a smaller volume of air inside. In such a case you would have a bellows that comes out further but does not actually have any more air inside. But others believe that the deeper folds do give you more air. I have been told conflicting things on the subject. If anyone could mathematically or otherwise calculate weather a 6" wide 7 fold bellows with 1" deep folds has more or less air inside than a 6"wide bellows with 1" and 1/8th" bellows I would be very interested to hear what the answer would be. I was thinking about building a deep fold jig at one point but am unsure if I should bother. alternatively: build one of each and fill them both with water and see which holds more 😂