Andy Holder

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Is everyone here even talking about the same thing? There's "taper" from the base of the reed to its tip, i.e., being normally wider at the base (where it's fastened) than at the tip (the freely swinging end). And there's the "bevel" or "undercut", in which the slot of the reed frame is wider at its "under" side than at the "top". I'm a bit confused, but I think you two are talking about the second, while aybee and some others are talking about the first. One point that I don't think has been addressed here is whether the first has an effect on the quality of the sound. Seems to me that it does, as I understand that the rare "clarionet" concertinas -- with a sound intended to imitate a clarinet, bassoon, or other woodwind reed instrument -- have reeds that are wider at the tip than at the base, often described as "spade-shaped". And I remember seeing in the book The American Reed Organ drawings of experimental reeds of even more complex design, including one in the shape (looking from above) of a cross and one like a forked snake's tongue. No idea what those latter two sounded like, though I believe they were intended to produce unusual sound qualities. Jim, I just measured a set of Wheatstone English reeds and frames very accurately and it turned out that some of the reeds were tapered and some were parallel. Some "pairs" of the same note would have a tapered one and a parallel one, not always the same way. It's my conclusion that, as the frames were stamped and irregular, the reeds were just hand filed to fit the slot and sometimes they would end up tapered. I don't believe there's any relevance in the shape of them, although I'm happy to be proved wrong! Andrew

Good luck with it. There's a great series of youtube vids by a guy called Martyn, just sitting in his kitchen but he covers a lot of stuff. No connection, I just came across it a while back. Andrew

How weird, Simon. I too am a keen KAP photographer. Must be something about kites and concertinas, but I can't imagine the connection! A few here. I'd be happy to help out. Andrew

One of the most scary things for me was imagining how I could ever make a bellows. Then I came across Bob Tedrow's marvellous instructions on that topic MHere's a link. I think you couldn't go far wrong if you had a go at that and made yourself some tuning bellows, as I did. Then you can take a few reed frames out of your instrument and have a go at tuning them. (Start with the notes you're least likely to use ) Then, I reckon, another cost saving exercise would be to make some pads and see how easy it is! Finding good, dense felt has been the most difficult thing. Make a sandwich of thin acid free mount board, dense, thin felt and thin, smooth leather. I first used spray adhesive, which doesn't saturate the felt. Then get yourself a 15mm wad punch (loads on ebay) and a hammer, and a piece of hardwood and start whacking out your pads. The one thing I've found from these amazing people on the forum is that there are so many different ways of doing things and the best method is whatever you find to be the best method. I got very hung up on the "right way", the "right glues", the "right materials" but, providing you are true to yourself and your own conscience, I don't think you can go far wrong. All you need is some expert advice, and there's plenty here, and a large pinch of salt! Go for it, and good luck. Andrew

A few to get started. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ash2020/ Andy

Chris, I, of course, would be up for it, but are you envisaging a book of instruments, almost like a reference work, or a book of people playing instruments? Or both? I'm communicating with Neil at the moment so I might put the idea to him. I take your PM point about a bit of directional light to pick out the shapes too! Publisher in mind? Cheers Andy.

I use Spotify, but I haven't got any good Concertina music on it. However, I'd love to see what you come up with (once you've done all the hard work) Andrew

Tom, thanks for the very comprehensive explanation. The bits I understand are very elegant and give meaning to what, has been up until now, merely an instinctive understanding of the process. I remember the Bernoulli effect from a disk drive I had many years ago (funnily enough called a Bernoulli Drive) where the head floated above the magnetic platters at very high speed. Thanks again, I am going to study it in much greater depth. Andrew

Hi Adrian. It's difficult to determine what some of the reeds are, because they're not playing well. The lowest additional note is trying to be a G. It's G2 (98Hz). An octave below the G below middle C. Andrew

Haha! If I told you that I'd have to kill you! Seriously though, it was in a small provincial auction house and I just got lucky! Cheers Andrew

Not a silly question at all Geoff, and not taken as such, and thanks for the interest. Cheers Andrew

Hi Geoff, the extra buttons haven't been supported, nor do they have any sort of bushing. I think the responsibility falls on me to give them a bit of extra support! Thank you for your compliment about the photos. Although it is is a bit off topic, I'm glad to give away all my secrets! I believe it's very little to do with the camera, but all about the lighting and background. Here's a picture, using my normal setup but taken with my phone. As they say in the instrument repair world, it takes some very specialised equipment and years of experience and training. Seriously though, here's my setup, in our tiny dining room: I have a 4' roll of Coloroll background paper which has lasted me for about 10 years, just coming to the end of it now. It looks better than chucking the thing on a chair or an old bed sheet. The light is a single studio flash head with a large softbox on it. This gives a broad light with very soft shadows and, importantly, a lot of light, so you can use something like f22 or f32, thereby getting lots of depth of field. Jessops do some great stuff here. It's also good for portraiture. You can use more than one light but they always end up fighting each other so it's much easier to have a big single light, the bigger the better. I use either a Canon 500D or Olympus E510, but most modern digitals will give excellent result. For developing, I find Adobe Lightroom 3 has by far the best algorithms for sharpening and noise reduction and basic editing. Sorry again for being OT. Andrew

I'd have said the same thing. The duck call hints at music hall use in the past, I think. You're right Dirge. Definitely music hall type of stuff, Up the Old Kent Road! Andrew

Thanks. I didn't realise that they would screw reed frames to the surface of the reed pan but it does look exactly like your picture. Looking at it more carefully it appears that the left hand end had 3 rows and the right hand end had three rows + 2. And the there's the single button right out on its own on the left. Andrew

You're almost certainly right. There are two "rogues" on each end. I wasn't sure if the isolated button on the left (a mirror of the RH air button) was original. Seems an odd place to put an extra button. Andrew

Thanks for that Ross. There are some more pics here. Unfortunately the bellows are leaking like a sieve. However I think a re-bind and a selective gusset here 'n there will do it. Most of the leather is sound. It's also a really good excuse for me to get that Sharf-fix skiving machine Quite a few of the reeds are v. rusty, but I think they're all salvageable. As you can see from the photos, someone has done a fairly decent job of adding the extra notes. The reed frames have been screwed onto the surface of the reedpan, rather than cutting into it, which is good. Only problem I have is I'm getting a bit obsessed already, it's 10.30 pm and I'm still working on it. Thanks again Andrew

It's been a good week for me. Acquired my first Jeffries Anglo. Never thought it would happen until much further down the line. It's an interesting one, having had an extra 4 notes added on the left and 8 notes added on the right, including an awful sort of duck squawk! It now has 43 buttons + air. It's got a fair bit of sellotape on the bellows and the reedpans are v. dirty but I am thrilled with it. Doesn't really play much at all but that's a minor problem However, one thing I'm a little concerned about is the end bolts. They've been screwed down to the point where the metal has distorted and the wood underneath has compressed and bulged, as they do. This isn't the worst, but it illustrates it well. I would love to rectify this, by packing it with a fillet, re-ebonising and straightening the metal. I'm not worried about doing it, just worried about whether I should be doing it. I know some purists would say it ought to be left, but I'm not really in that camp. I'd appreciate opinions on the old restoration vs. conservation argument. Andrew

Good point. I can't imagine how many M1.4 taps I'd get through in the process. I think Brass is definitely the fave, if only it weren't for the fact that lasers don't like it much. Andrew

I did try that approach, but the company said that it would use far too much electrode and it would be very expensive. Wouldn't be a problem doing one at a time but they threw their hands up in horror at a whole sheet! Andrew

Haha If only it were that easy to get them made! I've even thought of 3D printing them but I think it's still way too expensive. A further question to all. Why brass? I understand why the original makers would have used brass, nice for hand tooling and stamping. However, brass is problematic for lasers. Is there any reason, in a new instrument, why the frames shouldn't be stainless steel or even mild steel? Any acoustic reason? Cheers Andrew

I'm still hoping that the blanks will have an angled cut, thus minimising the hand finishing of the slot. Andrew

I've got a sample of titanium on my key ring that's been waterjet cut. It gives a perfect angle because the jet splays very slightly at the bottom of the cut. The unfortunate thing is that the cut width is near 1mm, so you haven't got quite the accuracy, and of course round corners on the slot which need more finishing. Andrew

Hi Johann. It needs a 5 axis machine and probably YAG rather than CO2, which can be v. expensive, so hourly rate is high. I'll let you know when it happens. Andrew

Hi all. Here are my first 60 reed frames. They are just virtual, of course, for the moment! I measured a Wheatstone and have spent far too much time doing a CAD drawing of them. They have a 3 degree angle on the edge and a 2 degree angle on the slot. I've put the clamp round the wrong way so there can be a tag holding both parts to the sheet. Now all I need is a modestly priced laser cutting firm. £200 a sheet? Andrew