aPeacefulWarrior

Hmm... perhaps I would have better luck on an accordion forum? Any ideas? Thanks.

Hi there, I have wanted a concertina for a long time now but have never had enough money. I recently aquirred an accordion and would very much like to trade it for a concertina. A little information about the accordion: It is a lage piano accordian made by Guerrini Company I do not know much about it or what it is worth but here is some info... It has 41 treble keys and a whopping 140 bass buttons. It is made of wood with a black finish and is highly decorated. On the outside on the bass end, there is a plate on the back that says "special". The number 257 is on a few places in the inside. The accordion is in fairly good condition, although I am by no means an expert. Currently, the accordion doesn't make any noise when no buttons are pressed. All of the mechanisms(action?) work well but a few of the keys squeek when pressed. I suppose that can be fixed with some lubrication. The reeds all work except for one on the base side and the ones that do work probably need to be tuned... but I'm pretty tonedeaf so I don't know. The outside of the accordion seems to have little specks of white paint on it for some reason. All the hardware is intact except for one of the side closures and one button on the bass side. I am basicly looking for any concertina that is in fairly good condition(playable) although a minor fixer-upper is fine with me. Smaller concertinas are a definate plus. Either anglo or english systems will do Let me know if you are interested and/or have some questions. Thanks! jesse@nbtsc.org

The blue meany is very interesting... Took me a minute to figure out the diagram, but I think I see how it works. I think my design is more simple. It works, but I haven't been able to test it enough(and not in a concertina) to be able to tell you how well. I will try to post a diagram soon.

alright, I'm agitating! Make it happen!!! please?

Was this project ever posted anywhere? I've emailed Richard and am waiting for a reply...

Wow, in another post something was mentioned about a concertina that uses the same reeds for the push and pull. This really got me curious, so I started experimenting with it. I actually came up with something that worked and was amazed at how simple it is. I don't know if this sort of thing is common knowledge or not among builders, but I can understand why it's not used often. It takes up about the same amount of space as having 2 reeds(maybe more space?). And also, the push and pull seem to have two distinctively different tonal qualities(although that might be fixable). On the other hand it may have some advantages, such as having half the amount of reeds to retune. Eitherway, it was interesting to experiment this and it feed my curiousity. I can post more info on this if anyone is interested.

Alright, thanks Richard... I will do some experimenting with what youve said in mind. I've also emailed the people you mentioned... I'm really curious about that same reed for push/pull thing. Maybe I will do some experiments with that.

Thanks for the info Richard! I have a few questions about your response. First, how noticable is the different tonal character of different leveled reeds? Any ideas on how this could be corrected? And while still thinking about tonal character... Would you think that perpendicular reeds would have a different tonal character then parallel reeds? I'm considering what a design might look like that uses both perpendicular and parallel reeds since it sounds like parallel ones would fit better under the bellow folds but perpendicular ones could work in the void.(although it sounds like there are no concertinas out there that actually have reeds that extend into the void) Now, I realize that in order to have the perpendicular reeds in the void, I would pretty much need valve holes in the button guide board(with my button layout anyway)... which isn't exactly possible(well actually, I think I remember seeing that somewhere). But anyway... I am considering a design that will redirect air from one hole to another using layers. I guess that sounds pretty crazy, but I'm just having fun thinking about it and designing it... Sorry... I don't know if all that made sense! I suppose I could just use higher pitched reeds... But thats just not as fun! Oh yes, and my last question: do you have any idea how that blue meanie works? I mean the system where it uses the same reeds for the push and the pull... thats pretty trippy. Thanks for all your help! --Jesse Borges--

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone with a mini concertina could post pics of its inside or give a description. I'm wondering how they cram all the action, reeds, etc. into such a small box. I know that there are less buttons... and perhaps higher pitched reeds too. I am also wondering about reed placement. I've heard that sometimes concertinas have reeds on different levels. Sounds very interesting! Also, couldn't a concertina fit more if the reeds were perpendicular instead of parrelel(like in an accordion)?