Andy Holder
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Posts posted by Andy Holder
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3 hours ago, DDF said:
In the past I have bought it from here. http://www.metalsmith.co.uk/metals-materials.htm
regards David.
Thanks. Just sent a product enquiry.
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5 hours ago, Theo said:
Another piece of advice - go for bright nickel plate rather than chrome. Virtually all metal ended concertinas were nickel plated. It has a warm creamy colour. Chrome by contrast has a cold bluish colour which I find a bit brash on a musical instrument.
Thanks Theo. Good call. I agree about the harshness of chrome.
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6 hours ago, Geoffrey Crabb said:
Hi Andy, no disadvantage, we used brass for years for tops. The only advice really is, if possible, do the polishing before sending to the platers. If not possible, vet the plater, you want someone who is used to dealing with similar decorative items. From past experience, avoid any who only deal with replating, large solid items (car bumpers etc.)
They tend be over exuberant with the polishing resulting in over thin areas compromising the strength of the tops. In worst cases polishing right through areas of the fretwork😒.
Geoff
Thank you Geoff. This is all good info, It makes me want to get back into it again, but I've promised myself I'm retired.😃
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35 minutes ago, Geoffrey Crabb said:
Both sides were plated but as was customary, only the outside would have been is polished prior to plating thus the dull finish on the back.
Why nickel- silver? Easier to pierce and polish.
Geoff.
Thank you Geoff. Do you think there would be any disadvantage in using chrome plated brass?
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59 minutes ago, Frank Edgley said:
Nickel silver is a blend of copper and nickel Most concertinas with metal ends are nickel silver. There is no silver in nickel silver.
Thank you Frank. I think I might struggle to find some.
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That is beautiful Alex. Laser cut?
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38 minutes ago, alex_holden said:
They are commonly nickel silver (german silver), though that does tend to oxidise fairly quickly. A mirror bright surface would suggest it's either nickel plated or has been recently polished. If it was nickel plated I would expect to see plating on both sides.
Thank you Alex, very informative. Do you know if it's possible to get any? I just looked at your beautiful duets. Are they nickel silver?
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I'm just in the process of selling a metal ended Lachenal Maccann and I can't seem to work out what metal the end is. It's obviously bright chrome on the outside but the inside is a dull silver colour. I assumed it would be brass but it doesn't look like the inside is plated. It's not steel as there isn't any rust and if you scratch the surface it's not yellow underneath. Any ideas what they were originally made of?
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Good luck. I never had the patience to get skilled with the hand tool!
Andy.
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Robin, those blades look exactly the same as the Tandy Leather Factory blades.
As Geoff said, I don't believe there's a razor that had narrow blades like that (38mmx8mm)
I don't use mine now. I took the plunge and bought a Scharf Fix skiver (£300) and it is the most amazing bit of kit. Entirely manual but such a nicely engineered instrument.
Andrew
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OOh yes, a lovely looking instrument.
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Hi all, and thank you to Geoff for those kind words. I am indeed totally honest and a very genuine fellow (but then I would say that wouldn't I?)
My apologies to anyone that was watching it when I so brutally and shamefully pulled it, and apologies to Mr JD Leedham in particular. No suspicious circumstances at all, I don't want to say much more for the moment because the eBay police are everywhere, suffice to say I am a happy man. It's a lovely instrument and I've grown rather fond of it!
If only I had the sticking power to practice a bit more, but I've got way too many hobbies for one person. I've just completely dismantled a Canon EOS500D camera and installed a different filter for doing astrophotography of hydrogen alpha emission nebulae, and I don't even understand most of that yet!
Next job is a McCann 55 button (sorry Geoff, metal ends) which needs pretty much everything. I might even learn to play it, it seems far more logical to me!
Cheers.
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Hi all. I stand corrected, which is great! I've just phoned UPS and they will insure for 1% of the declared value, so that's £40 on a £4000 instrument. Sorry to Adrian for doubting you. I'll go and change the listing for my Jeffries now!
Andrew
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Hi Geoff, as you know I've been involved with this recently. I have spent literally days on the web and phone and my findings are, for a parcel going from the UK to an overseas destination, the maximum any courier will insure for is £2500, that includes Fedex, UPS, DHL etc. It may be different if you have an account with them, this is just going direct or through one of the agents.
Via ParcelForce it will cost £144, insured up to £2,000
Unless you have a regular account, no courier will insure £4,000 so anyone who says in their adverts "insured up to the full value" is lying or misguided.
Most of the agents, like Parcel2Go and Interparcel will not insure over £1,000 and the general rate is 5% of the value + the carriage cost.
I would love to be proved wrong but, as far as my research goes it is not possible to send a £4,000 instrument fully insured. Dont even think about insuring anything classed as an antique!
Good luck though.
Andrew
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Last saturday night I was able again to play with "the band" for the monthly Ball in our local town. I had an especially wonderfull time, watching a hall full of people enjoying their dancing and I felt so priviliged to be in such fine company, among friends.
This experience was particularly poignant for me because three months ago I had a Stroke and when I came out of hospital the first thing I wanted to do was check my ability to play my instruments. Well, this was very frustrating, as anyone who has suffered a Stroke will tell you.
My first attempts at playing the English were a total failure,of course, because my stroke had affected control of my left side the coordination of left and right hands was nowhere near fine enough to get anything more than gibberish music.
So I tried the Duet and that made more sense... at least I could play the melody on the right and fumble bits of accompaniment on the left.. it got me started again.
I was heartened and helped by the postings of other Stroke victims here on Cnet too and so thanks for that.In fact Forums like Cnet are so helpfull and entertaining when one has nothing much to do during a recuperation period.When I felt sorry for myself I could take heart from the fact that my Stroke was not too severe and that I should just take it as a warning to start behaving myself.
With constant daily practice I have regained most of the use of my left hand and the EC is back "in the Band" and my Maccann playing has improved too.
You might never aprieciate the value of what you have untill it's gone!
Geoff, I haven't been around here for a while and was shocked and dismayed to hear your news. I wish you the most heartfelt good fortune with your recovery and a joyous Christmas. Although we've never met I appreciate your comments and opinions and have great respect for your depth of knowledge. Good luck mate.
Andrew
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That does look ridiculously cheap for a Jeffries!
That's what I thought but eBay doesn't lie! I purposely played down the condition because I want happy customers but it is a nice instrument.
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Hi all. I recently sold my Bb/F Jeffries for a tad over £2,000 to a gentleman in Southern Ireland. I had quoted £50 for carriage, assuming I could send it insured for probably about 60 or 70. When it came to it, the cheapest I could find that would be insured up to £2K was £144!
In the end the sale fell through but when it comes to it next time, does anyone have any recommendations for sending high priced instruments?
How on earth does anyone send a £4,000 instrument insured? I couldn't find a single courier that would insure any more than £2500. What do other people do?
If there's an alternative, I've never found it. However, for the cost of expenses, I'd be willing to hand-carry and deliver your Jeffries just about anywhere.
On the serious side - is it possible (I've never investigated this option) to insure it through a regular insurance agency who's coverage would include transporting it?
If the sale had gone through I was going to take it by Ryan Air to Dublin, maybe £80 return (plus the cost of a couple of pints of Guinness!)
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G Wizz Couriers (now rebranding as Total Parcels) used to offer pretty good insurance options. Also worth looking at APC Overnight, though you may wish to phone your local office for details of insurance.
Neither will do it, I'm afraid, Theo. It's 5% of the value for insurance. That's £100 on a 2K instrument.
Happy Christmas, I wish I was up North for it.
Andy
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What I do is to get the customer to arrange pick up by a courrier company. That way, as soon as it is collected it is no longer legally your responsability, for one, and, the customer can arrange for insurance cover for the delivery under their own household or special musical instrument insurance policy.
Most companies that send things of value regularly will have their own insurance cover, but us small operators can find that this is too expensive.
Prior to deregulation of the Banking and insurance industries it was possible to buy insurance through a courrier company for whatever value you stipulated the item was worth.. then the rules changed and the Logistics companies were denied the right to organise insurances... so they let the qualified staff go (sacked them)... now these rules have been changed again to allow the courriers to arrange insurance but they are loathe to re employ the staff.
I have sent instruments half way around the world that represented 4 months work on my part and with no insurance cover... these were worrying times... usually my customers collect their new toy.
PS; Does £2000 for a Jeffries represent the full effect of the current ecconomic crises ?
Hi Geoff, I wondered why it had all changed. I must admit I was a trifle disappointed with 2 bids and £2,050, even though it is a Bb/F. I'm not greedy, but 3k would have been nice.
Have a marvellous Christmas.
Andy
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Hi all. I recently sold my Bb/F Jeffries for a tad over £2,000 to a gentleman in Southern Ireland. I had quoted £50 for carriage, assuming I could send it insured for probably about 60 or 70. When it came to it, the cheapest I could find that would be insured up to £2K was £144!
In the end the sale fell through but when it comes to it next time, does anyone have any recommendations for sending high priced instruments?
How on earth does anyone send a £4,000 instrument insured? I couldn't find a single courier that would insure any more than £2500. What do other people do?
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Well done Henrik! Nice to see your idea taking shape.
Have a very Merry Christmas.
Andrew.
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There is also Gumtree, Adtrader, Craigslist, http://www.musicalinstrumentsales.co.uk/, http://www.musicalads.co.uk/, netinstruments.com/ and probably many more. I'll sell your instruments if you wish on The Box Place, 15% commission on a completed sale, no other fees, set your own price. Just sold two concertinas this week.
Thanks for the offer Theo. It did sell in the end, not quite as much as I hoped, but I'm reasonably happy. I have noticed prices going down over the last few months. Maybe there's a recession going on!
Andrew
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Thanks for the encouragement. It's always a problem. I don't like using reserves as I think it puts people off after a couple of bids that don't make it. You might as well do a buy it now. But sometimes you get loads of watchers (I have 96 at the mo.) and it goes up by £50 in the last 20 seconds. It's not that I'm being greedy but it is such a lovely playing instrument I would rather keep it than let it go for £500.
I think the best system is more like a real auction where, if there's a bid in the last minute, the auction extends. There is one site that does that, but of course nothing touches eBay's monopoly.
Thanks again all.
Andrew
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I'm selling a lovely early Wheatstone EC on eBay.
The bidding is very slow and I'm certainly not letting it go for two or three hundred quid. I know there's usually a flurry of bids at the end but these days you just can't tell.
I would much rather the commission went to CNET so if anyone is interested, I would be happy to sell direct, with apologies to the other bidders.
Andrew
What are metal ends made of?
in Instrument Construction & Repair
Posted
Oh dear, so they probably won't supply one sheet. I'll give it a try though. Thanks Geoff.