adrian brown

I'd just like to draw attention to the wonderful new album Strange the Grass Grows by Seamus Cater and Fredrik Rasten. https://seamuscaterfredrikrasten.bandcamp.com/album/strange-the-grass-grows The concertina interest is that Seamus plays a large Maccan duet that has been re-tuned to produce 21 tones per octave. If you ever needed proof that temperament is about more than just an academic or purist argument, then look no further. The atmosphere created by the duo on this recording is amazing — even spooky, in fact — and, in that respect, quite reminiscent of the 1960s recording Love, Death and the Lady by Shirley and Dolly Collins, which served as both the starting point and inspiration for this album. Adrian

The general readership of the Galpin Society would certainly know what a free reed was - it’s an organisation devoted to the study of organology - a British version of your AMIS (American Musical Instrument Society). I have scanned the article for David, but I am loath to simply put the link here as the society only puts its pdf’s on Jstor after 5 years. Send me a PM if you want a copy. Adrian

No, not Charlie Wheatstone, but Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein (1723-1795). There's a very interesting article about the man and the early development of the free reed in the latest Galpin Society Journal. (Vol. LXXVIII, March 2025) Here's the abstract: Author: Olaf Aasland Title: The Professor who Unknowingly Started the Free Reed Revolution. Abstract: Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein (1723-1795) was a German professor, physician and polymath who spent most of his academic life in Copenhagen. His competence spanned widely, and one of his achievements was a small organ that could play the five vowels a, e, i, o and u, for which, in 1780, he won the gold medal at a prize competition proposed by The Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. He erroneously thought that the human sound generator was a vibrating epiglottis and discovered a new type of pipe with freely vibrating reeds. Nicolai Kirsnik (1741-1802), an organ maker in St Petersburg and runner-up in the same competition, was the first to use free reeds in musical instruments, and when Georg Joseph (Abbé) Vogler (1749-1814) visited Kirsnik in St Petersburg in 1788 he was so impressed that he engaged Kirsnik's assistant, Georg Christoffer Rackwitz (1760-1844), to accompany him on his many Europe-wide concert tours to install free reed stops in existing organs, thus disseminating the new knowledge. Within the next three decades free reed instruments of all sizes and shapes popped up everywhere. Now there is probably no inhabited place in the world where you cannot find a mouth harmonica or an accordion. If anyone is interested in a scan of the whole article, send me a PM and I'll try to oblige. Adrian

Yes I hadn't thought of that - makes perfect sense from the pricing point of view, doesn't it? Now it's just those pesky gold vibrators to worry about... There would be no point in electro plating them would there? I see it was quite a state of the art technology in the 1850's Adrian

Silver and gold reeds can hardly have been very popular given that nobody here seems to have seen a concertina with them, otherwise surely some of them would have survived? It's slightly telling that a set of steel reeds is 50% more expensive than a silver set - a sign of the extra work involved in fitting the harder material? I wondered for a while if the silver and gold descriptions were more a quality statement than the actual material, but my previous statement knocks that one on the head. Is this the only extant advert/price list describing reeds made from precious metals? Adrian

Thanks for that Chris - that makes sense, I'd forgotten that buttons are not always solid! But to come back to the vibrators, (and I hope you won't think I am obsessing over this!) if it indeed refers to the reed tongues, has anybody ever seen gold and/or silver reeds? I would have thought that quite apart from the cost, both would be a worse material than brass or steel? Cheers Adrian

Thanks for you tenacity in digging this out Chris… I love the small print comment on Chromatic Anglo German Concertinas: “These instruments are constructed as the English, each Note being separately fitted, but for the convenience of parties who prefer ease to elegance in performance, are fingered as the German.” That told me… Also I might be showing my naïvety here, but what is meant by Vibrators? Are they the reed tongues? (“ready to use in the notes” = frames?) But were these really sometimes made of silver and gold as suggested? Am I right in thinking that buttons were called “studs” when made of glass, “keys” when in ivory and “touches” when silver was used? I don’t think I have ever seen ivory buttons on a concertina, although I am sure there must have been some, but a lot of bone. Since the instruments described as having ivory keys are cheaper than those with silver touches, I wonder if “ivory” in this case simply meant a white material like bone? Happy New Year everyone 🙂 Adrian

How about shrink tubing, the type used for binding electrical wires together? It comes in many sizes and thicknesses and you might even add some sort of sealant under the tube before shrinking? It probably needs a few test pieces first to check for air/liquid tightness. Adrian

Here's a photo of the cutter I mentioned in an earlier reply - it really saves a lot of time in sizing the bolt shanks. The internal diameter is somewhat wider just after the cutting teeth to relieve the friction on the newly cut shank. For the domed head, I ground a parting tool to turn the head and cut off the bolt from the stock in one pass. I hope this helps and let me know if it's not clear. Adrian

Theo probably has more experience with those hollow cutters than me, but I found I needed to back bore the cutter to a larger diameter to provide some clearance to the shaft you've just cut. I think only about 3mm of the bore is at the finished diameter, the rest is about 0.25mm larger to stop the shaft from simply snapping off due to the friction. I hope this might save you a bit of time 🙂 Yes, you're right about the coarse thread - modern instruments seem to need ages to get all the screws undone, in comparison to old ones! And perhaps having a non-V profile gives the old screws a bit more resistance to stripping? Adrian

Actually Alex, I only got the idea to make my own end bolts after being inspired by your post in 2017: In particular, I wanted to try the hollow cutter that Theo mentioned and said was an idea that came from the Crabb workshop. (It works brilliantly!) From there, things got a bit out of hand and I spent several days tinkering away at them. What part of the die making process went wrong for you? I'd be happy to share my experience, but I fear I might have just had a lot of luck to get it to work so well first time! As I said, I was terrified the tap would snap when I was cutting the thread in a piece of 1/8" gauge plate, but luckily, it held... Anyway, a belated thanks to you for the idea 🙂 Adrian

Some years ago, I made my own die in order to make a set of new end bolts for one of my Jeffries Anglos. It goes without saying that you have to make a tap first, but if you have access to a screw cutting lathe and a milling machine, it's not too difficult, just quite time consuming! One of the problems with the Jeffries thread is that it's not a "normal" V section thread, but looks almost sinusoidal in profile. I used a rounded bit to cut the thread and then ran a stone over the peaks to try to mimic it. Once I had made a thread that fitted snugly in the "nut plates", I hardened the tap and ground the clearance flutes using a mini grinder attached to the milling machine. The nerve-wracking bit was using the tap to cut the thread in a piece of gauge plate to make the die, but once that was done, it was easy to drill clearance holes and file them to shape. Adrian

That's really lovely Geoff - great to hear an Anglo played so delicately... Well done! Adrian

The Netherlands has a relaxed attitude to bicycle riding, you should try one that we call an Omafiets over here, they are very comfortable to ride and put no pressure on your hands. Of course it is possible to do both at the same time... Adrian

Very nice - I really like this! Adrian