Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

I always denoted middle C as C4 (scientific pitch notation) and uploaded a variety of diagrams to my website. I think its easy enough to work out what is what when looking at these diagrams but the fact that people would use different numbers might confuse people - C.Wheatstone and co supply a nice diagram which has the notes on the stave for each button which clears up any doubt, probably that is helpful to include on the diagram as well as the octave numbers (from whichever octave numbering system one chooses). I would like to do that at some point.

if you can find a magnet strong enough it may stay on but although I have not personally experimented with this: I was warned during my training about the dangers of reeds becoming magnetized and it apparently can cause unwanted acoustic effects ... though I do not remember what those were exactly.

private message sent

Thanks Daniel I will let you know

Ah yes - I decided that was best as I'm only one person and the designs of the concertina reeded instruments I make have become somewhat more diverse and as they are quite popular it makes sense for me to focus on that. Still some G/D accordion reed sets left though!

To be honest I would not really recommend having instruments changed in key like this. Many times I have worked on instruments which have been badly damaged by having their pitch changed, it seems to be the worst way in which old instruments can be wrecked sadly. The last old instrument I worked on was in some sort of old pitch which translated as it being roughly 40-50 cents sharp from A4=440hz (im not sure what that old pitch standard was) and even with that I decided it was best to exercise extreme caution and add weight to the tip of every reed from middle C down as the reeds were already on the thin side.

looks like it could be the work of John Connor, I believe he used pivots of that sort. Edited to add: Here is where I got that idea from, there are some images of a Connor concertina action on this page: http://irish.cocolog-nifty.com/flute_concertina/concertinaconnor/index.html

I haven't heard of that as something someone would do on purpose, its probably just the drilling jig for the bolt holes in the reed frame was set up in a hurry or was a bit mis-aligned. It was just a simple little drilling jig that held the frame and clicked into two positions. Or maybe it got knocked half way through a batch or something like that.

Is that an unplayed original wheatstone in factory condition? Very rare to see that. It looks 1950s from the fretwork perhaps, you can check the serial number and date in the wheatstone books on the horniman museum website. If it's 1950s it's not their top top work but probably still good to play and will have some value to it.

Here is a link to the thread with the document Geoff wrote, it's quite an interesting read. https://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?/topic/20077-post-wwii-wheatstone-reed-pans/#comment-187627 Document downloadable from Geoff's post on the thread at the bottom of the page

Geoff crabb did a document about this process wheatstone used a while ago where it was described as a cost cutting approach wheatstone tried at one point. It was something c.wheatstone and co did or had made on purpose and not a later mod according to the document.

1 free prime concertina given to each new Amazon prime subscriber, so long as the subscribers subscription is a prime number in the list of all subscribers Edit: you might have to make a lot of them though

Simon please don't feel self conscious about being enthusiastic!

Its ok you should not need a press really - these dies can just be hand tools used with a hammer. A friend of mine had good things to say about this company: http://www.woodash.co.uk/index.html who made him some hand strap clickers or you could try this one if you cant get hand punches made at the above. http://www.sjwestpressknives.co.uk/our-products-and-services/ Both in Northamptonshire which is an area with a long history of shoe manufacture. I would investigate woodash first - they have the worst looking website which probably means they are the best to deal with! That is just my experience with suppliers anyway!

Well that has clearly worked well for you, sometimes the simplest way is the best. I had some made by a company, I can't remember the name of but probably would have done it the same way as you If I had thought of it!