MandolinRefugee

Well, after 2 years of me forgetting about this concertina, I finally made some time to take a look at this wonderful concertina. Oh, boy, when I took the end off, the buttons went everywhere! I measured the pads, and they are between .094" and .130", averaging about .116". Time for a change? There are some pads that haven't worn flat, but a lot of them still look normal and flat. Anyway, to make the buttons manageable so I could get the end back on, I just used a bit of card stock under the pads to hold the buttons in their locating holes. It'll be in there until I get new pads and replace them. Any reason why there are 14 14mm pads and 10 16mm pads in this? Is that normal, and should I replace the old pads with the same size ones (i.e. not all the same size)? Thanks again, I hope the next update isn't 2 years from now!

Hi, there! Probably I'm no help, just see if you can find a Rochelle. But, when you come back to Japan, let's have a few tunes. I'm a learner, but enjoying it a lot! By the way, I live in Tochigi ken. Have fun in Ireland!

One other point that I was wondering about was the riveted vs. screw-held reeds... Would a reed held in by screws be considerably easier to do the final tuning of? Does the pitch change as you apply pressure to the base of the reed via a screw? I`m curious about this and thousands of other things, too... (some of them are even non-concertina related )

In a similar vein, I've been wondering for a long time now why concertina reeds in general can't be made easily. It would seem that with all of our materials technology, manufacturing technology, engineering capabilities, strobe tuners, computerized profiling, stamping technology, etc. we should easily be able to do what was done 100 years ago without any of these cool new tools. Any particular reason(s) why the reeds could be cost effectively made by hand then, but not now? Cheers!

Jeez, how does that circular fret work? The ends are made of 2 independent components, I assume?

I`m thoroughly from Newfoundland, although I`m having an extended stint in Japan right now. When I left there 4 years ago, I didn`t play the concertina, but hopefully by the time I return, I`ll be proficient enough to take the instruments out of my kitchen (which pretty much describes my playing location so far in my concertina carreer...) Do you currently have a concertina? Are you looking for a teacher, too? Cheers, Daunt

It makes for some great entertainment when we don't, though!

My wife uses sonic stage on our computer, and it works like a charm. We were using windows media player as the media library manager, but I bought a set of powered studio monitors, and everything sounded scratchy. I thought that it was the monitors that were the problem, but we tried different software, and they were crystal clear. It`s pretty easy to manage the files, as near as I know, but our version is in Japanese, and I`m still trying to wrap my head around it. C.D. quality is in .wav format, but it really takes a trained ear (IMHO) to tell the difference between .wav and .mp3 when you are playing them through speakers worth less than $1000. Cheers, Daunt

Indeed; I couldn't imagine switching over on guitar or mandolin. To me, this is amazing!

Right on! That sounds like a good bit of fun! Sorry about the first post...

I saw this, <url=http://cgi.ebay.com/LACHENAL-CO-ROSEWOOD-20-KEY-ANGLO-CONCERTINA_W0QQitemZ190293199177QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL?hash=item190293199177&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A2%7C294%3A50>a twenty button</url> but with a button for the pinky on the right side, and another thumb button on the left. Says I, "That`s pretty cool! I wonder what they do?"

Jeez, that's an early one. Anything of this age would have brass reeds, I assume?

Here are pictures of Sean`s instrument. It`s pretty!

indeed... curiosity has me gripped. Sorry it's not about the concertina, though, Dirge.

BTW, why not ship it to Paul Read, or just drive to his house? Hamilton to Toronto is about an hour or less, isn't it? Anyway, I just thought of that after reading Azalin's post: Azalin's post!

Hi, Bill, glad to know you've been to Newfoundland! I've sent many an instrument to the U.S. over the last 6 or 7 years. In the early stages, I was under the impression that FedEx was one company and that there was just a choice of cost and in transit time between FedEx Ground and regular FedEx (more expensive and faster). In the interest of saving money, I shipped with FedEx ground. BIG MISTAKE! FedEx has their own customs clearance folks; FedEx Ground doesn't. After the following experience, I decided I would only ship FedEx, and never the "ground" subsidiary again: On the same day, I shipped a mahogany and spruce bouzouki to one state, I shipped a rosewood and spruce ovtave mandolin to another. Both were shipped by FedEx ground. Since FedEx ground has no customs brokerage, the actual American customs officials unpacked the instruments for inspection. Upon approval of meeting the NAFTA requirements (of course my instruments were made in Canada...) they proceeded to pack up the instruments in THE OPPOSITE BOXES, and shipped them to the wrong customers, after a delay of 2 weeks. My customers were unhappy with the wait, and of course they were really unhappy about receiving instruments that they hadn't ordered. I managed to get the customers to ship the instruments to each other, but one of them became "lost", and so I had to make another rosewood and spruce octave mandolin. (I hope that the missing instrument is being enjoyed by somebody, somewhere...) FedEx is great, fast and no hassles. Never FedEx Ground!

A big question that I`ve wondered for a while... Is this level of Lachenal a step up from a Rochelle in terms of playability, or would the two instruments (in general comparison) have similar action feel / response? By the way, I am just curious. I`ve heard people say that modern hybrid `tinas are an upgrade from this kind of Lachenal, so I wonder about the comparisons...

Jeez, the Jeffries is a looker, hey!!?? Twenty buttons and a non standard pitch might keep it affordable; a bit like getting a Dino 308 GT4 2+2 since you've always wanted a Ferrari...

Are we allowed to factor in currency exchange and use Yen figures? I'm sure if I bought something in Canadian dollars right now, it would be the bargain of the century for me!

Since I live in the future here in Japan, it is already Christmas, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to thank everybody on Cnet for a great year... During this year, I have been consumed by the study of concertinas, be it structure, brand name, style, etc, etc. and everyone here has been so helpful and sharing. 2009 will be my first complete year with a concertina in hand, so hopefully by the time my 2010 Merry Christmas note rolls here, I'll have some tales of Tokyo sessions to tell (without reference to mandolins, of course ) Daunt

I sure will! The owner thinks 1890's... BTW, my thoughts exactly (although I hadn't figured out the moths as the culprits ). I'll see tomorrow if our deductions were correct.

Well, I finally made the trip to Tokyo and got the concertina in question. I was surprised to find that it was not a treble, but rather a baritone English!! Anyway, here are some photos of the instrument in its current condition: A bit of a closer look at the buttons shows a bit of the problem... they aren't lined up with the holes (so I assume the linkage, too). The buttons that aren't straight don't work; I can't press them without a lot of jiggling. The good news is that the reeds work after the button has been depressed. In the morning, I will take the ends off and see if I can get a better idea of what's locking the buttons in the up position.

Hey, you old pirate, which dead man's chest did you get that treasure chart from? At any rate, I've saved it to my anglo files. For the beginners and waiters for concertinas: it shows the left side of a 31-button anglo with a C/C drone on the thumb button. No charts like that when I was learning - no Internet either. So, the button which is placed between the right and left side is a drone button? I always thought that a 31 key referred to the air button Are drones very common? Also, these charts are for a C/G, am I correct? Thanks

Best yet I reckon , just needs a tweak How about this one: To avoid squeezebox innuendo They played so their notes well did blend-o Whilst in a duet They started to sweat And together, they reached their crescendo. (I'm all about continuous improvement )

This instrument looks like the ends are sooooooo fragile, although lovely. The Lachenals that I have seen have more "meat on their bones" when looking at the ends. Is this a normal model?