Stephen Chambers

Hello Brian, From what you have said so far, it sounds like what you have is an English system concertina. The good news is that it most likely is by Nickolds, if it is labelled as such, and would appear to have quite an early serial number, it is probably about 150 years old. The bad news is that such instruments are probably of more interest to a collector (like myself) than a player, generally being considered to be of "beginner" quality today. However, some photographs could reveal rather more ! I hope this is of some assistance. Cheers,

Hmm. And what looks like a "Wheatstone" English keyboard. O.K., the big secret is out now, they found sketches of the so-called "English" concertina in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci ! That must be how they came to find the ends of one on the wreck of Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose. Maybe it has ivory buttons ? Can't it just ?

Though I recall seeing a reference, in one of the old Free Reed magazines, to Regondi having both meantone and equal-tempered concertinas. Unfortunately the magazines are in Kilrush, and I am in Dublin at the moment, so I cannot be more precise.

Unless you are a piano tuner, in which case it is normal to "stretch" the octaves so that they are progressively slightly flatter in the low range and sharper in the high range of the keyboard ! But I think we have gone a long way beyond Dan's simple initial question. The subject is more than complex enough to justify a "Tuning.net" forum of its very own.

I see that "lauseetranful" is now "Not a registered user", but one of his would-be purchasers now has negative feedback for having refused to pay him by Western Union, still, at the cost of that they did save themself £920 !

That makes three of us then, I sent the seller the following message : "Hello, just to let you know that this is not a Lachenal, in fact it is not English made at all, though it was made to look (superficially) like it is. I have an identical instrument here (same size too) which was made in Klingenthal, Saxony, Germany. The obvious giveaway is that it has wooden levers, to which the buttons are glued, resulting in several being missing. Regards, Stephen" So they can't say nobody told them !

No, they didn't, it appears that the "high bidder" didn't complete the sale and left negative (private) feedback for the "seller", but still received "positive" feedback in return : " + Why you bid on my auction if you are not intereseted ? Seller lauseetranful(private) 30-Jun-04 16:50 3489381368" I wonder what interesting "offers" the underbidders might receive ?

Hi Val, My advice, if I had seen your post sooner, would have been "Report it to eBay", as somebody has now been "sold" that laptop for £1,220 ! He also now has another identical auction running here. I have reported both auctions to eBay, and I just hope somebody hasn't already lost their £1,220.

The international "concert pitch" of A 440 Hz was only adopted at the International Standards Association conference in May 1939. Up until then there had been no less than four pitch standards in use in England alone (at the same time !). However, the owners of instruments in the old "New Philharmonic" pitch of A 439, introduced in 1896, could almost be excused for thinking they were in "concert pitch", it being very close to 440. I would suggest you take a look at Wes Williams' "Notes on Concertina Pitch" on C.net.

Butler's was a large, and long-lived business, they even had a branch here in Dublin, and all of their concertinas that I have seen were inexpensive Lachenal models. The serial number of this concertina would seem to suggest a date around the time that the labels changed from Louis Lachenal to Lachenal & Co., which was probably about 1873.

Scholer concertinas were made at Klingenthal, in Saxony, when it was the German Democratic Republic. They were the continuation of a tradition of concertina making, in Klingenthal, since 1853, and were little different to the German concertinas of that time. After German reunification, the elderly couple who manufactured Scholer sold the business to one of the accordion factories in the town, who still make traditional German concertinas.

You remind me of a man I visited in Manchester more than 30 years ago, who had a beautiful Edeophone with reeds in "Old Philharmonic" pitch (about half a semitone sharp) made by Lachenal's top tuner Mr. Green. Rather than have it retuned, and risk spoiling those magnificent reeds, he later had another set of pans made, with low pitch reeds, and these came from Lachenal's in a fitted mahogany box. For what it's worth, I would be very worried about people changing over reedpans whenever they want to change key. The reeds and valves are easily damaged even in a workshop situation, never mind on a pub table, and there are serious risks of introducing dust, fluff & hair into the instrument, causing notes to stop sounding. There is also a serious risk of warping the reedpans that have been removed, if they are not stored properly. My own opinion is that you are much better off with a complete instrument in any given key or pitch.

Keith, You will probably find that "Regoletta" is an importer's brand name. Many manufacturers will put whatever name you want onto instruments, as long as you buy enough of them. The business that started life as "Bastari", became "Stagi" and then "Brunner", still makes concertinas under all those names, plus "Gremlin", "Hohner", "Saltarelle", "Boorinwood" etc., etc., etc. for different markets.

It may seem surprising to us today, but shops often sold seemingly completely unrelated things in years gone by. I have come across several instances of tobacconists selling concertinas in the nineteenth century, both in England and Australia, and at least one of the German makers had links with the tobacco trade.

Yes, but don't most boxers use a Bullworker instead ?

I'm quite sure it was a different one, I wasn't meaning to suggest it was the same. I would say, though, that you would want to have the arm muscles of a boxer to play either of them, heavyweights indeed !

It sounds a bit like a (duet-sized) Wheatstone Aeola anglo that Paul Davies had about ten years ago. A wonderful machine, but hard work to play. The story was that It had been made in the 1920's for a boxer (it wasn't yourself was it Jim ? ). Cheers !

The most likely cause is either a loose pillar, as Robin has described, or that the pad has somehow got thinner, either by losing its leather facing, or by moths eating the felt. If it is one of the latter you will need a new pad, though that may necessitate slight bending of the lever if you want to achieve an even button height.

Now that's more like the colour of the ones I have had, and other examples I have seen.

Amboynawood is much lighter than it appears to be in the photograph, which is (like the rest of the photos on the website) very dark, and brown bellows would normally only be used wtth amboyna. On the other hand, all the tortoiseshell aeolas that I have seen (and I have owned two of them) have had black bellows. I have heard doubts expressed about whether they used real tortoiseshell, or if it is something like celluloid, indeed they would have had great difficulty finding a large enough plate of tortoiseshell for the 72-key duet I once had (Wheatstone Director K.V. Chidley had made it for his wife). Gold-plated fittings would be "standard" with such deluxe finishes. Edited for clarification.

eBay are definitely getting faster dealing with these, I reported this to them at 21.18 last night, and they replied at 06.14 this morning saying "appropiate action" had been taken. I see that it is now an "Invalid Item".

It looks like "xinutal" (aka "Ianis Spatidis") is still up to his tricks. There is yet another scam auction on eBay (Item 3732243363), with text & photo obviously taken from Juergen Suttner's website. I have informed eBay. Cheers,

Thanks for the very interesting natural history lesson Ivan. In that case, I wonder if these ladybirds were there to eat the moth larvae, because I have only ever seen them in concertinas with moth-eaten pads ?

Yes, I was home the other week & saw all these flags, they look remarkably like a St. George's cross don't you think ? I thought England must be playing in a football tournament or something, so thanks for putting me right ! (The standard of driving must have got very bad, I saw lots of them, in fact most cars had two, & some even had four !)

No, I was meaning their larvae, as in Alan's first post. And on several occasions I have found dead ladybirds, that presumably hadn't been able to find the "EXIT". The mesh, or gauze, inside the fretwork is certainly a good idea, to keep the "critters" (of whatever persuasion) out in the first place.