Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

I think they must have had different qualities of reeds, as they catered to quite a wide price range. On one end you have simple mahogany ended anglos and Englishes with routered ends at and edeophones and such things at the other. However I have found that even within the same model of concertina made by lachenal there is a huge variation. They did this metal ended anglo with black end frames, most I have played of this model have been basically pretty bad but there have been one or two real gems. Massive variation. Perhaps their quality control was not that set but that is only a guess

These materials look very exciting Dana! I have never worked with this sort of thing, the closest thing I have used is birch ply which we use a lot in the modelmaking industry. This stuff looks a lot denser and more beautiful, the possibilities for musical instruments are vast! I will try and find something like this in the uk..

coh, I guess that is how bad it can get. I wonder if the reeds are salvageable. Maybe not if its a damp problem!

well you can buy concertina reeds of a sort here: http://www.harmonikas.cz/en/dix-concertina-1#obsah I don't mean to suggest that is whats in the instruments, I have no idea. They have been discussed here before, the general consensus being that after some slight modifications you can get great results. I have never actually tried an instrument built around them though.

I find that insane, I have a melodeon I have played fairly regularly for the past 7 or 8 years and it needs a tune. Or maybe just a change of valves and clean would do it based on your experiance

I have never seen new ones for sale however any concertina maker would be able to make you one I am sure, though you might have to wait a while. Maybe someone on this forum could make you one - you could try posting in instrument construction and repair?

yeah, I think Henrik did a way better job of re designing the hand-rest/strap arrangement than the ebay instrument.

hmm, interesting. It looks like the lowest buttons would be hard to reach on this design though.

Just a thought Steve did the aeola feel nice to play? I mean was this spring pressure inconsistency noticeable while playing as opposed to pressing each button consecutively with the same finger? I have been wondering on this one, each finger is a different size and surely a different strength. It may be that this sort of deviation is actually not really noticeable. Or did it just feel a bit inconsistent to play? Jake

might make it to the st neots one, will talk with the wife.

coh, a bit pricey by the standards of rural Ireland! I don't really know the significance of the former owner though..

London is easy for me tio visit for a day

that sounds pretty interesting, though it depends where in the UK, I am in milton keynes. If it was not too far I would probably go

cheers mate. I just ordered a selection of samples from them and will report back

Hmm I originally purchased a c/g anglo to play all sorts of music on. English trad, Breton music, Irish trad, heavy metal covers ect. After a while I just got annoyed with it as mostly I wanted to play in G, D and A. When playing In D and A I found the non linear lay out of the scales quite non-intuitive so I got a G/D. I found G/D just simpler to play in these keys which for me made it a lot more fun

Chris that sounds good, is there a brand name? Or did the supplier have a website?

good question. My reasoning was that for the cosmetic bellows paper (as you say not part of any of the hinges) a water-fast leather effect paper would be a cheaper and quicker alternative for bellows decorating as you would not have to bother with skiving the edges of lots of leather patches (unless you brought it very thin). I have a frank edgley concertina which has this stuff on it where it seems a pretty appropriate solution. I could always ask him what he used I guess

Did anyone actually ever locate a source of this stuff? I have also been searching for some time to find some, looking at bookbinding suppliers, stationary suppliers, amazon and ebay but simply cannot find this stuff anywhere. Did you ever find any Don? Best wishes, Jake

this is kind of an aside but you might like some of the wallpapers designed by William morris: https://www.william-morris.co.uk/shop/wallpaper/ he was active as a designer/artist/political idealist pretty much during the heyday of concertina making and his designs are quite reflective of the tastes of that era. Have a scroll through on that website, I am pretty sure his designs would even make a good piece of inspiration to design a concertina end from.

these instruments are really good in their own way, my mate has one just the same. It has this boisterous tone to it which is really fun and good.

Hello I am in the UK and travelling to Europe soon on a holiday and am considering insuring my concertina for the duration of the holiday. Has anyone in the UK had any experience with this? Could someone possibly recommend an insurance company? Best wishes, Jake

haha cool alex! I found it hard to find small quantities of spring wire but that site is great for it. Spring hard brass wire is also very hard to get full stop. Did you ever find a source of small quantities of spring hard brass wire? All I ever found for that stuff was commissioning a wire factory to make it which cost at least £300 and whoever I asked always seemed to gasp at the suggestion as if it was something deeply rare and esoteric.... Not helpful

wait wait hold on, so you literally are putting the slant on the outside of the reed shoe at 7 degrees and that angle is done entirely by eye and feel? Or did I mis-understand I am not being critical I am just surprised

I am always impressed by reed making. I remember when you posted ages ago showing how you laser cut the reed holders then used a filing jig to put angles on the sides. Did you find you had to file the frames a bit then test fit it in the reed pan and file a bit more and fiddle with it in this way until it fit the reed pan or was it generally pretty fast "reed frame in jig, run file across, done"

Did you guys also watch prometheus? It is basically a prequel to the Alien franchise and was in cinema in 2012. Anyway the captain of the space ship "prometheus" is playing a lachenal edeophone in one scene