Geoff Wooff

Usually Bone.

Hello Wolf, well, the 444hz. accordion went back to the shop and the owner sold me a new box that he tuned down to 440hz. from the 442hz. that it came in from the manufacturer. Quite a few chromatic button accordions have come and gone since then and I now play a small Italian 5 row/96 bass made in Castelfidaro which was 440hz from new. I also have several vintage models with 'diapason' from 435 to 440hz. but have , so far, avoided those boxes tuned above 440. France is full of secondhand accordions at reasonable prices but it is a minefield where 'Quel diapason ?' has to be my first question... which can in itself be too much for someone selling grandfather's old squeeze box.

Long fingernails can tap on the metal or wood of the ends. It is very easy for a metal button to come into contact with a metal end with a small degree of sideways movement cause by worn bushings. The bushing between button and lever are also very likely to be worn . I do not know what instrument Caitlin Nic Gabhann plays but I have seen many Jeffries where they have been played so hard and long that the rivet holes in the levers are worn out and every actuation causes a click.

Do you mean a 'beat' or pulse ( as in accordion wet tuned reeds) or a harmonic tone of of some other pitch ?

Wolf, so this is the George Case I have played when it belonged to Simon ? So, if Colin Dipper tuned it to itself in 1/4 Comma then it should remain basically correct apart from the odd note as you suggest. You certainly do get 'wordy'... must be the Lawyer in you coming through. So, you have a D reed that is out of tune because you swapped the suck and blow reeds and two F#'s that appear wrong.. is that correct ? If so, measure the pitch of the other F#s which sound fine and note the difference in pitch between the goods and tha bads... Do this with the simple ET setting on your tuner and do not worry about those other temperament settings. Or, if you are concerned give us a list of the pitches of all the notes, in 'cent' deviations from Equal Temperament and someone here will be able to suggest where the zero point is.

I was not making great sense of you last post here Wolf... I know it is not easy to explain these things... but reading it through a few times I get the conclusion that you will just tackle the slightly odd sounding notes and leave all the others. This sounds like a good plan. As this instrument is still in Meantone and at a different pitch standard we can assume it has not been tuned 'in modern times' and in fact probably no work has been done on those reeds for perhaps a 100 years. So, with that in mind I would be inclined to clean each and every reed as grime build up on the tongues will alter the pitch, flattening notes . Well, good luck with the project. Geoff.

Be very carefull sharpening those brass reeds they are delicate .

Nice concertina Wolf !! Firstly I never use these pre-programmed temperaments that modern tuners provide and I suggest you question your tuner as to what values it is actually ascribing to each note. If the actual basis of its 1/4 Comma setting was C then it might well show you a best fit of 449 hertz for A. When actually the pich might be is closer to 452hz. with A as the centre point of the Meantone values. I'll admit I have not thought this through completely yet but see if you can discover what your tuner is programmed to. Electronic tuners are made to measure 12 notes to the octave and the EC has 14 so this is the way I would proceed: Turn off the 1/4 Comma programme and start with the ET setting. Measure the pitches of the D#'s and Eb's and find where they are equally sharp and flat and see if the A's are sitting at the centre point between the D#'s and Eb's. That should tell you IF A is the Zero point of the Meantone and what pitch it was originally ( or the last time) tuned to. So usually Meantone EC's are tuned with the A as the zero point , because this gives a reasonable spacing of the enharmonics.,.. which might be sharp or flat of today's standard pitch... If you require actual 'cent' offsets for each note I have them to hand or you'll find them on the forums somewhere.

I have found serial numbers on Wheatstones in unlikely places. When you take it apart next time look at the inside edges of the end frames, where the top and pallet boards sandwich together... a place where nobody would see it but a repairer. Serial numbers are often stamped into the wood of these frame areas but more usually on the inside faces of the Reed Pans. Good luck with this beast, Geoff.

Looks like a Wheastsone by the rivetted action and the type of buttons.

There are Uilleann Pipers who play pipes that are a semitone lower than D. So the B/F# Anglo would work with these C# pipes. Jacqueline MacCarthy plays an A/E Jeffries in duet with her husband , Tommy Keane, on his B pipes. The traditional pitch of the Northumbrian Pipes is a nominal F , nominal but often more like F#. So, I would suggest offering your B/F# to those who play with Pipers. It is worth a try .

A fun and cheerfull couple of tunes to brighten a very wintery period. Thanks RAc !

I have a recent bellows , on one of my EC's, that was made by Wim Wakker. I am happy with it, totally airtight, flexible and a very nice 'weight'. But as he is living in the USA I'm sure you would like to find a bellows maker in the UK. Try: Mark Lloyd-Adey at concertina- spares .com C&R Dipper Steve Dickenson

Well, I cannot remember exactly what the 'ends' situation was and Chris A says he recently traded-in this instrument... which leaves us all to contemplate IF the ends are original or have been made elsewhere at a later date..... Mr. Algar's judgement would have a lot more experience backing it than most of us but somehow I doubt I noticed anything strange about the instrument when it was on ebay.

Simon, you could ask Rich C R about this one because he went to Chris A's to view it recently but he bought the 64 instead.