Henrik Müller

Hi, all - If you find my web site too big a mouthful, I now have an article out on The Concertina Journal: https://www.concertinajournal.org/articles/no-thumb-straps-no-finger-rests-but-it-is-an-english-a-personal-journey/ It's a compressed overview of the last 12 years of building, experimenting and playing. My web site has been updated to match the article. /Henrik

Hi, all - What I find difficult is keeping the blade vertical, in two planes, that is. Any quality of saw can't solve that problem. I have a saw like SteveS's - wonderful tool, but still...The effect of failing to do that is, of course, the the sides of the fretwork aren't vertical, and the thicker the wood, the worse the probelm. Metal end? No problem. Maybe it's just impatience... /Henrik

Thanks, Tiposx - it dawned on me that a well-defined description of the main features of the design was in order. And obviously it was! Button spacing It’s not that the fewer buttons led to wider spacing - like “Oh, I need fewer buttons, so now I can have wider spacing!” Wider spacing was the goal in itself, the dimensions simply copied from the litle Stagi I felt so comfortable with. The fewer buttons came out of two things: A good number of #s and bs I would never need. The top 8-10 notes I wouldn’t need either - which was good, since I wouldn’t have been able to reach them, because of the increased vertical spacing Two things limit the number of top notes (1) When you can’t reach them, and (2) when the top levers become unrealisticly short. Button that travel down to the ends This feature had more positive impact on playing than I could have foreseen. Together with the wider button spacing it allows for more creative fingering. Straps I use the word “hand straps” to distinquish them from English concertina wrist straps. They sit across the hand at an angle. Just being picky 😉 /Henrik

Hi, All - I've been away from c.net for a long time and away from my own web site for longer... but that doesn't mean that nothing has happened! The site is now updated - the latest fun starts at this section ("Twelve years later (2018)"): http://concertinamatters.se/styled-25/index.html All the best, /Henrik

Using the Rotring pen caps was a saved-by-opportunity thing - they ARE good, but veeery expensive. Much later - now, that is - I have changed my opinion about cap diameter. In the beginning I had fantasies about caps/buttons more than ¼ "/6.35 mm... Then I made #2 (inspite of great look-and-feel still a work in progress, when it comes to reeds) and used buttons from Jürgen Suttner. Ooh - very good, lovely feel. Then I made #3 - yes, I WILL update my web site ;-) (Wheatstone reeds, pan and bellows frame, with new bellows) with my own user interface = end box/action and used Suttner buttons again. A peculiarity (for many) of my user interface is the fact that the buttons go all the way down to the bushing. This time they stopped - because of a small misunderstanding with myself - 1 mm before. No good... hmmm, aha! I removed (my own) felt stoppers under the buttons since they were exactlt 1 mm. What a difference! ;-). Anyway, this instrument has been played a couple of 100 hours, and I am convinced: I want the small ones (Jürgens) - they are 4.8mm. In contrast, the oul Rotrings are 5.8. Two different worlds! It goes to show how different preferences are - /Henrik

Very impressive, Alex, very neat! Has certainly kicked off some thinking here... /Henrik

The hand rest on the finished instrument was the outcome of playing around (literally) with physical additions to the little Stagi 18-key. The outcome was the realisation that I play at an angle with respect to the vertical center line. Thus, the hand rest was angled 10-15 degrees. The shape of the hand rest? I didn't know, so I left it sort-of-rounded for 10 years, annoying the pinkie finger hand joint on the right hand! Only this summer did I add a slope (sloping of down to the edge) - a copy of the hand rest on my second instrumernt (finished, though still in the making = new reeds (not frames) need to be made). But the rests are good ;-) This is not to be considered an experiment anymore - more than 3.700 hours of playing have proven its worth. This is also due to the "rearranged keyboard": horizontally spaced out buttons, which go all the way down. Heresy, heresy... Better get started on the bellows for the third instrument ;-) /Henrik

I've been having the same headache. I found this: http://www.buchbinderei-obermeier.de/einbandmaterial.html (No English) - scroll down to "Lederimitate" and "Scaphandre" - looks pretty good, I'd say. The only thing is that it seems to be a page where you go and decide the looks of the notebook you are about to order, not where you select papers to buy. And do they sell to "civilians"? Germans - any help here? /Henrik

Hi, Steve - Let me throw in my two cents here: I have played EC since 1977, and with time - and more confidence in playing - I developed pains in my thumb joints. I am one of those players who holds the instrument with the outer tip of the thumb, since I otherwise have difficulties reaching low notes *). That doesn't make the situation better. So the more I attempted adding more dynamics to a tune, the more pain I had. Fast forward to SSI 2003, I think, when I stumbled upon a Stagi Miniature and realised that, in spite of missing low notes and a general low-quality instrument (sorry, Stagi owners, nothing personal), I could play more freely and better than on my 1909 48B, ME Wheatstone. As a result I ended up building an instrument, based on the some of the physical properties of the Stagi, but with greater range. These properties were: "Scaled-up" distance between buttons, more space horizontally The buttons go all the way down, don't stop half-way. Since the design of the new instrument was based on my fooling around with the Stagi, it also involved Anglo-like hand straps and hand rests - the latter being tilted a bit downwards, to facilitate a roughly 25° "fingering direction" as opposed to a classic "vertically up and down the rows". The thumb strap? Gone. The pinkie rest? Gone. Right, I am coming to it... soon... The instrument was ready in 2006 and I estimate that since then I have played approx. 3500 hours. Non-stop sessions (ITM) of 3-6 hours and not a pain in sight. What I didn't know was the design, especially the wider button spacing and the "all-the-way-down buttons" allowed - or led to - a new type of fingering (more room to do "illegal moves"). Out of curiosity I've tried the wrist straps on my wife's Æola - great. Yes! - that would do it - apart from the "so many buttons, so little space"-feeling, the confidence from having control with the whole arm instead of the thumbs is the same. So I would say: make, have one made, buy, borrow a set of wrist straps. Once they are on, focus on the feeling of having all the pull across the hands and the thumbs fully relaxed. Good luck! /Henrik *) Play "Farrell O'Gara" with the thumbs all the way in the straps. No fun.

I heard about and met him for the first time in Ennis last week. Very impressed by his instruments - he makes both accordion-reeded and concertina reeded. Also a beatiful, small instrument (not at home, don't have his brochure here). /Henrik

Thanks, Adrian - Yes, the crimping jig worked very smoothly. PM me if you have laser cut urges ;-). I was tempted to go to Germany, but I have a deadline ;-) and I'll meet Mary in Ennis, I am sure. /Henrik

February 7th, 2015... More stuff updated on my web site... lots of hex-shaped stuff ;-) /Henrik

Hi, Adrian - - "Do I see on the laser cut brass, that you've painted the surface black to reduce reflection?" Not sure which photo you mean, but it easier to say "No paint anywhere". I left it completely to the laser cutters... a 3kW laser, by the way - it's so big that you can walk into it... The only thing I'll be blackening will be the inside of the slots, when I come to finishing them - after New Year. The linear bearings (and the aluminium blocks that carries pairs of them) are discarded parts from an acute dialysis machine. The bearings themselves are SKF. /Henrik

Hi, Terry -Talk about a late answer/comment! The main characteristics of my "new" instrument are: - NO THUMB STRAP - Slightly different horizontal and vertical distances between buttons (more space horizontally). - The buttons go all the way down - you feel the end plate when the button is depressed. - No pinky rest. - Hand strap - though more like an Anglo strap. Now, this thing changed my life - I had stopped playing otherwise - instead I've played more than I've ever imagined! In early October, I was at the Irish Festival of Oulu (Finland), with one of the main names being Caitlin Nic Gabhann. On the Saturday evening, I had a chat with her after the concert: "I saw you yesterday at the session", she said - "great playing!" - "Oh, thank you! But when you say that, I simply HAVE to ask "Did you notice it wasn't an Anglo concertina?"" "What?! It wasn't?! Now, that says a lot. ---- I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the most significant change is and it is not so easy... One thing is: a change in fingering = a total disregard of what the "right" fingering is. Practically speaking: the fingering I have developed over the last 5-6 years works 85-90% fine on a standard EC. The remaining 10-15% that don't work has to do with the "more fingering space" on my new instrument. Another is the fact that buttons go all the way down. I've heard lots of comments like "Oh - horrible, I couldn't do that" - though they've never tried. -- Who needs 56 buttons?! ;-) My new instrument (the one I am making now) has 30. /Henrik

Hi, All - As a pre-Christmas thing, I've just added 4-5 more pages to my site, containing the latest developments - reed frames, reed pan, tuning bellows and stuff... For those who have noticed the “new thing” going on, it starts at “Eight Years later (2014)” A Merry Christmas to ya all! /Henrik