Jake Middleton-Metcalfe

Steve Dickinson (C.Wheatstone and co) still makes them to original patterns you could ask him to make you one.

I didn't think about that. The subtle difficulties of the multi instrumentalist I suppose.

I suppose thing thing is you would have to remember to trim your finger nails regularly, I remember playing an instrument where the buttons stop flush with the end and I had not, the thing is then is that your finger nails touch the end before the button is all the way down resulting in a bit of an un ... "definite" end to the button stroke and possibly the pad doesn't lift all the way in such a case if you haven't pushed the button all the way down in such a case. Trimming nails is generally a good thing to do regularly anyway though.😆 The especial thing to beware of with not pressing the button down all the way is that the amount to which the pad lifts affects the tuning, the note sounds at a slightly different pitch. One of the main reasons concertinas go "out of tune" is actually because the pads have compressed or sunken down over years and the overall lift is greater which affects the tuning a little. Not really a problem if you have trimmed your nails though.

17, that is interesting. I did a study of lachenal reed designs a few years ago - the set I studied had 17 sizes.

I saw a print of this photo some time ago - Geoff Crabb had it. I did not look at it that closely though. I don't think all of that equipment was present by the time Steve Dickinson took over the business, or maybe he got rid of some of it due to duplicate items intended for multiple workers, there seem to be at least two table saws and.... 5 fly presses, gosh that would be like being in heaven, no need to keep changing tools so much. Interestingly the metal trays in the foreground on the left I think he still uses! It looks exactly like the one which slides under his press to catch the parts as they are pressed out. Also I count 9 workers, and that really is the big deal here - I don't know of a modern concertina making business which would employ that many staff, that really is something we have lost.

Thank you for your observation, this was what I suspected from the two instruments I was recently comparing - instruments I made. Its good to hear it from someone else too.

The tunes are the True Joak, the White Joak, the Yellow Joak and finally the hard to track down Blue Joak. I make that all in all a pale green Joak when combined. I hope you enjoy the video these are some of my favourite tunes from my youth, as would be heard in the streets of Hertford and the surrounding area when I used to go busking as a teenager with my melodeon. I would have included the black joak but the set gets somewhat long then.

What I should do is record some different tunes on each instrument, and post them on here and ask people to guess.

It sounds like we came to the same conclusion. I have been listening to the recording I made and at points in the tune there do appear to be subtle differences but it is very very subtle. What do you make of this recording? concertinas.mp3

I had the chance recently to compare two instruments of the same maker, same design and same materials except the ends were wooden on one and metal on the other. Honestly you would be hard pressed to tell the difference in sound. This sort of flies in the face of what I took to be true but that is what I noticed, it is very very rare to have two instruments identical in every aspect apart from the material of the ends in the same place but I can guarantee these instruments were both identical apart from that. At a guess I would have said that the amount of gap in the fretwork is more important than the material of the fretwork but that is a guess and has not been scientifically studied in any way. I have made a recording I will upload it at some point and you can make up your own mind.

if you get a tuner - or a tuner app on your computer or phone and get some way of sounding the reeds you can work out what pitch each of the reeds are. Then look at this chart of a 30 key Wheatstone anglo, only looking at the bottom two rows: https://concertina.info/tina.faq/images/finger3.htm With that information you can work out what reed and reedblock is supposed to go where. Good luck with the project, I hope it goes well.

Its all on their website here: http://suttnerconcertinas.com/ordering/ Wait times are quoted on the page I linked. Best of luck I hope you find something to suit you.

So far so good, we look forwards to what you draw. I hope to see you at consairtin again one day.

With a Suttner concertina your life will probably be made rather easier, they are good. The reason I say that is that although Jeffries made very good instruments, those instruments have suffered the ravages of time and hard use. Any Jeffries instrument will have been worked on outside the original business that made it by this point and sadly in many cases by people who don't necessarily have the skill of the original manufacturer which means you have some of these instruments being in good nick and others really not so good nick. It is a minefield. I don't know if it was always like that or not. I am not saying its not worth pursuing a good Jeffries but by comparison a Suttner is going to be reliably made to a certain high standard.

actually I have not seen that exact paper pattern one. It looks similar to other early patterns but the colours are different. Also it looks a different shape. Are those deep fold bellows? As in - is it anything over 1" deep? Its not bad really, I wonder if it was that colour originally though, some of those papers degrade over time - the typical one being Jeffries papers going green I have seen happening a few times. In any case I like the gold and dark red, it reminds me of a local and very old theatre! Best wishes and happy new year Henrik! It has been a while.

This is really really cool. Actually I hope one day to learn the 40 key C/G system (all I play I do so on a G/D 34 key). I have saved the link as it looks quite handy to help one think about arrangements and chord choices.

He always has used brass as far as I know.

Thank you, we have been playing local ceilidhs and events for some years but only recently managed to record a few bits. We hope to record more this year.

I would recommend trying to grip that very small amount of protruding thread with some very small pliers and just wind it out.

Also its known as drops of brandy, it seems it has many names!

Me, my wife and father in law recorded some of our music. Here is a set of three of our favourite slip jigs from the John Clare collection, which is the focus of our repertoire as a band, we just really love the John Clare collection. The tunes played in this recording are: Grinders, Roodlum Irish, and Drops of Drink. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo846PPHbW0&ab_channel=ChloeMiddleton-Metcalfe We hope you enjoy it! The concertina used on this recording was one of my own, a G/D 34 key.

I am sure you could purchase new ones from C.Wheatstone and Co direct.

That is good to know, thanks for sharing your findings.

It does sound weather related to me and as mike says possibly temperature related too. Concertinas generally don't like overly humid environments and the resulting expansion of wood that will happen. I have had similar experiences - though you normally have to push it a bit far to cause a problem. Once I played a set for a canal festival, it rained. I was playing my concertina in the rain next to a canal on a very muddy towpath and a reed started buzzing a bit and a button even started sticking... well I was sort of asking for it really in that situation.😆 As in your case I went home, put the instrument away and it was fine the next day, never again did I have the problem. The above situation is a pretty extreme environment to try to play any concertina in. I would just put it down to weather and not worry about it too much. I cant think of anything you could have done other than not to play it in that environment.

It can be really hard to advise without having it in my hands but that lever looks a little short - there is always a possibility that the pad needs a strap over the leather nut. Sometimes pads can catch on their pad holes or nearby pads if the lever is short and the button is released very quickly. Adding a strap stops this happening. I'm not saying that is definitely the problem it could well be some of the other things others suggest.