Chris Ghent

I tried leather for bushes about 20 years ago. The problem with the leather I used was it continued to compress with use quickly until it was paper thin anywhere the player was bearing to one side while pushing the buttons. Piano bushing cloth (baize) had a natural returning tendency and while it also will compress it takes much longer.

If it is a buzzy rattle that happens on the low notes when you transfer from push to pull without lifting the button, learn to live with it. It can be avoided mostly if you lift the button and put it back down between push and pull.

Good advice…

The “brass framed with clamp” reeds look like a concertina reed but the ones I have seen have the vent geometry of an accordion reed. Instruments using them could be called semi-hybrid! Some makers using them alter the vent to be like a concertina.

Because it has not been mentioned ( not meaning it hasn’t been done), when assessing whether a reed is too close to one side of the frame it is necessary to push the reed down so that it is just inside the top of the slot. You can also look for witness marks at the top of the slot where a reed might have been scraping. You need magnification to spot this and it is likely to be a tiny mark. Look for a spot that is shiny compare to the surroundings. You have to be looking from underneath. If it is near the tip it will likely be smaller than if it is further down the reed.

i agree with Wally, only I’d put it, bite the bullet. Learn to play well in A and you will add to your ability in other keys.

Stephen, have I ever said, you are a living treasure…

I have a Henry Harley here at the moment and it could be one of those. Its a lovely player, beautiful tone.

Also, the black on the partition chamois is a sign of a leak between the chambers. It may be that the reedpan support has shifted a little in that corner.

If it started suddenly and dramatically on all three at once then it may be as a result of humidity changes and could reverse over time.

Best advice, get yourself a teacher. If there are none near you try Caitlin Nic Gabhann online lessons. This will save you years and many bad habits.

Well done for what you have done so far Wally..! And good luck with your future plans…

Another thought, you could create holes in a solid part of the case to thread them into for storage.

Do they thread into a brass captive nut? If so you will need to remove that and deepen the hole in the wood behind. And check they won’t foul any action parts if they protrude into the action box. Have you considered shortening the threaded part of the screws? Sometimes they have more length than needed…

If you would consider a secondhand instrument, the Morse Ceili, made in NE USA, is a terrific instrument and they can be found used at the top of your price range.

When I last scored German Silver the only source was jewellery supply houses. It was not 5mm! They had .8 and something thicker, maybe 1.6. To add to the list of potential end materials; about 15 years ago I cut out two sets of .7mm titanium ends. One of them is out there somewhere, the other is here somewhere on a shelf. I did it by engraving right through the metal (quite a few passes) with a 60° cutter with corner sharpening software. The titanium was OK to look at, not harsh like chrome or dead like SS. I prefer german silver for its warm yellowish tone and its constantly changing finish. The titanium would probably stay shiny for ever.

The EC does not lend itself to very sudden changes in direction due to the holding technique. I imagine this lowers the opportunities for expression on the change?

You say the D/E, and suggest both notes are dull. If this is true, look for leaks in the chamber, down between the pan and bellows frame or across the top of a partition, or a leaking pad.

I think I’d better make one with a similar offset and compare the sound.

I’m surprised this has not been mentioned as it is an important point. The more sides a concertina has the smaller the square area (when comparing concertinas with similar AF measurements). A smaller square area is important when trying to optimise response. I did the maths a long time ago and don’t have the results to hand but my recollection is a 6” octo is around 8% smaller than a 6” hexagon concertina. As the number of sides gets larger the percentage decrease in sq area with each step diminishes and the amount of work increases and going beyond 8 sides seemed pointless. So a square might offer the most space but it is also the least efficient. When I say optimised response, I mean fast to speak, but also requiring the least effort.

There was a bloke called Old Nickelodeon (edited to add, I remember, it was Old Nickelby) or something close to that on this forum who had a lot and was handing them out about 5 years ago. Something to consider is the screw itself is unlikely to have lost its thread, and the problem is actually the wood it screws into has been chewed out (though sometimes the screw head has been damaged by the same issues that chewed out the wood, usually a heavy handed user thinking that tightening the screw is the solution to all problems). This means a replacement screw will also not lock up in the wood. The solution is a slightly larger screw, which may look oversize at the head and protrude too much, or repairing the wood. You could try a sliver of wood in the hole before putting the screw in, not terribly elegant but kept many things working in the old days, or drilling the place the screw goes in and turning a wood plug to glue in to the hole. Very important to use a screwdriver that fits the screw perfectly with these tiny heads.

All concertinas are compromises and the 26 key is just one such. Plenty of good music has been and still gets played on a 26 key.

Really good observation and question 4 (for short). A long time ago while playing with a ruler on the edge of a table I realised when the ruler is pinned back from the edge of the table it makes a noise but none when the clamping is at the absolute edge. I also realised when the clamping is back from the edge the up amplitude and frequency must be different from the down amplitude and frequency because the ruler is longer in the up direction. What must this do to a) the tuning, b)the partials (harmonics) and c) the efficiency of the swinging action? I decided to make the clamp edge and the frame slot edge as closely aligned as possible in the interests of efficiency. The inefficiency of having them misaligned comes from the energy in the tongue being absorbed by the frame when the tongue comes from the longer half cycle and hits the edge of the slot. More recently I have been wondering about the effect on harmonics of the combination of a longer half cycle and a shorter half cycle. I know its a small difference but it is a difference. I took apart a couple of Jeffries reeds I have lying around and the mismatch between the edge of the clamp and the end of the slot was large. Inconsequential so disregarded, inattention to detail, or deliberate policy? Don’t know.

456, I suspect keeping the better craftsmen together during the war might not have been hard because they would have been older men. They might have had to do war work in the factory though. I’ll send Dana a prod..!

PS. I feel like I saw a Dipper concertina a long time ago that had the stepped draught slot.