Geoff Wooff

Many ( perhaps most ?) concertinas made before the current International Pitch Standard was agreed in 1939 will be in the pre-war A= 452hz pitch , which is not far off half a semitone sharp. A good carefull re-tune would be needed if playing with other instruments but, note that not everyone tunes to A440 and do check the temperament as per Little John's comments above.

I believe there is something to what you say Robert. Although I wonder whether a hand is controlled by one side of the brain and the other hand by the other side , I did find playing the English concertina was most helpfull in recovering from a Stroke. I attributed this more to gaining control of the coordination of the two hands . A side effect was to re-train my brain to imagine a sense of touch where it was somewhat diminished. I practice every day, looking for pieces that are chalenging for the fine end of coordination. Seven years on and most of the downsides of that stroke have repaired and , yes , my concertina playing improved too.

Happy humbug to all.

Agreed . Great forum, thanks Paul and Ken .

Sold £4000.

Thanks Myrtle's cook . Job done!

This concertina has now been sold and a suitable donation will be made to C.net. Errrrrrr... where 's the Donate button these days ?

Those screws will be for wrist straps.

Probably easier to think of it as the bottom 48 notes of a Tenor Treble. So the lowest note on the right hand side will be C an octave below Middle C. Wim Wakker also offers this layout on his new EC's and calls it Tenor . I suspect, for many of us, this could be an ideal range, certainly the majority of music I play will fit nicely.

I think you'll find that the VAT is only charged on the auctioneer's commission not on the sale price + commission.

Err..... yes indeed ! So, the big question is 'what's it worth ?'

Heads up for an auction on the 19th November in Sidmouth UK. www.potburysauctions.co.uk A Dipper EC . Looks like a 48 Tenor. Amboyna veneered 10 sided ends... catalogues will be out soon.

Pictures could be helpfull. Are you sure these are Wheatstone concertinas ?

I think would follow Chris' comments and tune that Baritone to 1/4 comma if you intend it for song accompaniment Steve.

A friend has a metal ended 64 Baritone Aeola with 'Bronze' reeds. As far as I recall I tuned it down from pre war pitch in 1978 and I'm told the tuning is still fine. The tone was very nice and I can only imagine what an improvement 1/5 comma would make. Anyone interested can listen to several recordings of my Baritone Treble Aeola ( in 1/5th comma tuning) on the Tune of the month forum... starting with "The Fiery Clockface" from March 2013 which is embedded on page 3 , or some others on my Soundcloud page.