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Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

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Everything posted by Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

  1. I think I would have to see the instruments you are measuring to validate any of what was just said. If you can't see why a heavier instrument is going to be harder to play if only fractionally then I don't think there is any hope for you on this one. More and more on this forum I see self appointed experts going on and on about things and when a professional adds something they are not even listened to. This is why most of the professionals in the UK are never posting on here and the online community is poorer for it.
  2. Basically the reason given for the raised ends design feature was: "less weight = less work for the player". I learned this at the C.Wheatstone and co workshop as part of a period of training that has lasted a number of years. I would caution people against over thinking this one.
  3. This philosophy has to be applied to all aspects of the design for it to make sense, if you just remove the few mm of height from the action box by adding raised ends it is a very small difference in weight - insignificant one might say. But if you then - reduce the weight of the buttons by making them metal capped plastic or just plain plastic or bone instead of solid metal, and then also use for example 1/16" brass for the reed frame clamps instead of 2mm and numerous other things then the end result of all of these efforts is of significance in terms of reducing the weight. The weight of the instrument isn't the be all and end all but it was believed by these designers to be a factor. Yes, added cost can be a factor in this - if a manufacturer would go down that route it depends really on if they are making an instrument up to a standard which the cost has to follow or down to a price and the quality has to follow that. It might seem finickity or a bit fussy as an approach but the thing is comparing a "very very good instrument" to "an instrument where you literally could not imagine it being any better" is probably only a matter of 5 or 10% in terms of performance (though I would not try too hard to quantify that mathematically). Also I should add, don't let it appear that I am saying anything without raised ends is bad, I'm just trying to explain the thinking of designers in the past. Personally I have never made an instrument with raised ends! 🤣Also I feel I should mention this funny story: I recently repaired what I considered to be a really bad instrument and was unhappy with it, when the musician (a very well known musician) collected it he played the most beautiful music I had heard in ages on it. Ultimately its the musician who makes the difference I suppose.
  4. I learned about this somewhat at C.Wheatstone and co who always do raised ends nowadays I think. The reason they do it is it lets you make the action box shallower, using less wood thus less weight. It is a very small difference but the philosophy is to try to improve the instruments performance where ever possible even if only by a small amount.
  5. Here are some of the measurements from concertinas which I have copied the button placement from in the past. There is variation of how grouped together the buttons are as well as how far from the hand rest. Measurements taken from edge of hand rest (the edge which faces the buttons) to the centre of the G push A pull button on the left hand side G row (assuming its a c/g anglo) Lachenal mahogany ended 30 button 52.63 modern Wheatstone anglo 30 button: 51.6 Jeffries 38 button: 49.28 Jeffries 31 button: 47.58 Based on that I would say that your measurement of 40mm to the centre of the G/A button on the left hand side is an unusually short distance - it is quite a bit below the historic instruments I have studied at any rate. Perhaps the manufacturer had some internal design based reason for doing this but it is unusual. I hope this is helpful Jake
  6. Just a question: is the glue joint between the strip of leather Which connects the bellows frames to the bellows securely glued? Or is it coming off. I only ask as there have been a number of new bellows turning up recently on old instruments where they don't even seem to be glued together in a manner that will keep. I have no idea who is making them. This might not be one of those though.
  7. play the highest E on a G/D then the lowest E alternately a few times being sure to play the low one a bit too hard so the pitch bends and it sounds like a donkey. I always play that noise at the end of our version of the song "donkey riding"
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. private message sent
  11. Thanks Daniel I will let you know
  12. 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!
  13. 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.
  14. 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
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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
  18. 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.
  19. 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
  20. 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!
  21. 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!
  22. you can always send it to C.Wheatstone and Co they are still trading. It might be best to do that rather than have new buttons posted to you - the buttons in your in your instrument might be different from the new ones they would have in some way and as a consequence the action might also need adjusting - which also then entails re tuning. The best thing to do would be to send it to a company that can re make/replace the buttons and then adjust the instrument all in one go, maybe there is someone in America who could to this rather than you having to send it to the UK - you could always investigate, but of course Wheatstone is still there. Best wishes Jake
  23. That all makes perfect sense, im imagining sounding the reeds while they are mounted in the reed blocks by holding the block over a tuning jig with an air hole that the reed block is placed over to activate each individual reed to detect the pitch it sounds while outside the instrument? I think Morse concertinas must have had a slightly different setup for tuning in their workshop as the action and reedpan were one glued together part and then the reeds were waxed on. Perhaps they had a tuning bellows which was set up in a different way and the whole action assembly could be attached and easily removed.
  24. Beware of one thing, if you wanted to put some different/better reeds in: I have made a number of instruments using voici armoniche tam reeds and once asked them if their a Mano sets were the same size as their tam and was told they are not, there may also be a difference between dural and tam but I have no idea. I used to order about 20 sets at a time from this company and it was a very very slow process. The reeds are good though to be fair to the company. Maybe the thing to do might be to try and obtain the sizes of the reed plates from the manufacturer and if it's going to fit your instrument then order a single set through carini if they are stocking them. There will be quite some fine tuning to do on the new reeds as well so you will need a decent tuning set up. I'm not sure how Morse concertinas did that as I know their reeds are waxed in, maybe with reed scratchers? I am not sure. Best of luck with the project if you decide to go ahead, it's not that easy a task
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