Theo

All the above is good advice. In addition there are several other reasons why a reed may sound weak: The valve behind the reed may be partially stuck down, too stiff or making contact with the side of the reed chamber. The valve next to the reed may not be closing or may have fallen off. The reed plate may not be firmly attached, there may be an air leak from the reed chamber, the reed tongue might be slightly off centre, or in the case of a low grade instrument it might just be a badly fitted reed tongue with excessive side clearance. it’s also possible there can be more than one of the above combined. I I’m prompted to give this list because I’ve just dealt with exact the same symptom on a customers concertina where the reed assembly was loose and there was an air leak from the reed chamber. it’s not easy to diagnose these disparate defects if you don’t have any experience of working with reeds but with the list you know what to look for.

Before adding lubricants (which should not be necessary) it's worth doing a bit of detective work to find out which exact spot is causing the problem. If it all works freely with the end removed that suggests to me that either the felt bush is too tight, or the button is not aligned exactly with the hole in the end. To check the bush take the button off the lever and offer it up to the hole in the end. It should move freely. Try it in other holes for comparison. If it is tight you can easily compress the felt to improve the clearance. A good tool for this is an artists paintbrush which a tapered handle that you can push into the hole until it begins to feel tight, then rotate is a few times and gently wiggle it around. Now before replacing the button inspect the end of the lever and check that it is exactly over the centre of the hole for the base of the button. If it's slightly off centre this will cause the button to bind in the hole and in the bushing. Gently bend the lever to centralise it before re-fitting the button.

Your pad board looks fine. That tiny gap under the veneer is to close to the outside to be the source of the air leak. This is much more likely, especially as sometimes happens the end bolts have been overtightened in the past and the bolt heads have worn their way down into the wood.

Of course. There is a 71 key Edeophone And an 81 key Aeola

This old German concertina is looking for a new home. It is unrestored and has at least 4 broken reeds and missing buttons but may be of historical interest to a collector. It has rosewood ends and a paper label where I can make out "English Pattern" which possibly refers to the fretwork. The bellows papers are quite ornate. Reeds look like nickel silver on long zinc plates on the right and brass on long zinc plates on the left. It is two voice octave tuned and pitched approximately AE. If the images don't sow you can see them here

Don’t write off Lachenal based on your experience of one 20 button Anglo. They made good quality instruments too.

Carefully being the important word here. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has occasionally seen reeds that have been re-pitched without care.

Thanks for this tip Alex. I see they do black, so I'll get some.

I use the .85mm felt and usually it’s fine. Are you ensuring all traces of old adhesive are cleaned out? Are you using a tool to bed in the felt after fitting?

Roger have you tried the suppliers mentioned earlier in this discussion? Fletcher & Newman, Steve Dickinson?

Cohen's instrument is a Jeffries 45 key CG anglo that I sold him.

Harry Boyd had a music shop which sold more than just his specially commissions concertinas.

If you bought it from a retailer you should send it back for repair or replacement.

Push on the clamp with a broad flat-bladed screwdriver.

If a reed is a semitone flat that usually indicates a cracked reed which will eventually break. That will also continue to drop in pitch as the crack develops. If that is what is happening here you will need to replace the reed.

Better not to use glue of any sort as it may make future repairs more difficult. The pin is retained by friction, so a better method is to cut a sliver of soft wood the same width as the pin and place this between the pin and the edge of the hole, the press the pin fulling in. If it's still not tight then try again with a thicker sliver

Often these reeds in the middle don’t need to be pulled back far in order to release them from their tapered slot. The slot is often on a slope with the reed tip at the usual depth and the screw clamp end barely below the surface. If you can push it as far as the chamber wall the reed may lift out.

I’m sorry I didn’t get there.

I think you would have to read the terms of your warranty.

Working out exactly where bellows leaks are is one of the most tricky aspects of concertina repair. I don’t think there is one foolproof method that will work in all circumstances. Feeling a jet of air against your face s a good start. listening with the concertina close to your ear can help placing a very bright light inside the bellows and observing in a subdued room light will sometimes reveal holes a light dusting of powdered talc over suspect areas can sometimes narrow down the location. I’m sure there are others but those are the main methods I use. You have to be a detective!

It's very unlikely to be a valve. Much more likely to be an internal air leak around the edge of the reedpan as described above by Milsey. Check for for a gap between reed pan and bellows frame and check that the top of the reed pan is flush with the top of the bellows frame caused by the blocks supporting the reed pan being loose or too low. This is very common. Could also be missing gasket on top of a chamber wall, or even, much less likely, a crack in the reed pan.

It’s at my local saleroom so I might be able to take a look on viewing day on Tuesday. 48 buttons does not rule out being an anglo, but I agree there are other possibilities.

If you prefer not to show the full serial number you can look it up yourself here in the production record and a year or two either way in date will be unlikely to affect the value. More important is the condition. It looks good externally which is a good start, but it's quite possible it needs work on pads and valves and tuning.

Usually the reason for a note sounding so low in pitch is that the reed tongue is cracked, and needs to be replaced. It is sometimes possible to tune a reed up by a semitone (like E to F) but it does require some skill and a very good file.

Thicker pads will reduce the distance that the buttons travel. If the pads are old it is likely that they have become compressed, which means the button rises higher when released, and consequently travels further before it stops. This is the safest fix. The alternative is to bend all the levers, but this is risky on 100 year old levers. You will need to find a good repairer who can examine the action and make pads of a suitable thickness.