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LeadFingersErnie

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Posts posted by LeadFingersErnie

  1. Thanks for all those useful replies chaps.

     

    I measured the screws from the box on which I am currently working. The long screws from the thumb straps are 1 1/16" by 1/16", the slightly shorter screw from the finger rest is 15/16" by 1/16". The little screws that secure the rests and straps to the fretwork end are 1/2" by 1/16".

     

    Because I have no carpentry training, I do not underatand the dimensions that "No. 1" or "No.2" refer to. Can anybody help there please?

  2. Why is it, fellow repairers, that almost everry time somebody brings me a box that needs one or more buttons replaced, I haven't got one that exactly matches? Does anybody else have this problem?

     

    Anyway, I have a need for a steel button for an early 20th Century Wheatstone English, and would glady part with a few shiilings if anybody has one that they could send me.

     

    A picture with dimensions in mm is attached.

     

    post-8719-0-64573400-1428233120_thumb.jpg

  3. I am looking for a Lachenal Edeophone tenor/treble English concertina.

     

    Has anybody out there got one for sale?

     

    Sadly, it needs to be in Europe, as UK customs duty would add 20% to the price.

     

  4. Welcome Mattew to a really good and friendly community.

     

    I join with the others in recommending Dave Elliott's book. I would discourage anybody from "interfering" with reeds until you have got the action absolutely right. Altering anything, including replacing the valves, because of the structure of the internal accoustics.

     

    Finally, glue? I use Evo-Stick Resin W for valves amd pads. Really good.

     

    Best of luck,

     

    Ernie

  5. I was playing in a pub session the other night, and a member of the public came up and asked me why concertinas are hexagonal.

     

    A very good question, and none of the other musicians could answer it either. Yes, I know that some are octagonal, but why not round or square? The only possible answer I could give is that if you are playing on a ship, it stopes the thing rolling away.

  6. I have been asked to restore a Rock Chidley English Concertina that is in very poor condition. Nothing unusual there, but when I undid the screws on one end the action did not lift off as you would expect it to. So I started gently leavering, and found that the reed pan was coming out with it.

     

    On finally extracting the whole I saw the arrangement shown in the attached photo. Somebody had screwed the reed pan to the bottom of the action board. Has anybody ever seen such a thing? Why would anybody do this?

     

    Amazing what people do. Perhaps we should start the NSPCC, i.e. the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Concertinas!

     

    By the way, no serial number was visible anywhere on the instrument, only the "Rock Chidley" stamp on the action boards. Did he often make them with no serial number?post-8719-0-85965400-1395857757_thumb.jpg

  7. Sorry to be the bearer of bad new folks.

    Our friend Ralph passed on to the great music session in the sky this morning.

    One of the best concertina players on the planet, and a damn fine sound engineer as well.

    Kind of leaves a gap in all our lives.

    Ernie Warner, aka LeadFingersErnie

     

    Reading back, I see that someone got there first. Sorry to repeat.

  8. As Stephen Chambers said below, I have confirmed with other sources that Cramer was a musical instrument dealer who badged both Wheatstone and Lachenal concertinas, mid-19th Century.

     

    The box is on eBay, and the seller is in Cheshire, Could well be Chris Algar being anonymous!

     

    As a restoration project it might be interesting, but only to keep as another ancient concertina in my collection. If I sold it after "resurrection", I might get my money back but can;t see it being worth a fortune; - after all, it isn't a Jeffries or an Aeola!

     

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