Mike Jones

24 key Silber & Fleming concertina: to restore or not restore, help required I recently “won” (as they say) a 24 key Silber Fleming anglo concertina on e-bay. It resembles a Lachenal but has some significant differences, although it is very similar to the one illustrated in the Concertina Museum as specimen C-304. The keys are marked 1-10 on both sides with the extra keys on the left as G#A and right as C#D. One # sign acting for both notes I assume, as I would expect B flat and E flat respectively. Superficially the pictures showed some holes in the bellows and some low keys indicating broken springs and the usual rubbish leather wrist straps and missing knurled nuts to adjust the straps so I thought it worth buying to see if it was possible to refurbish to playing condition as my first restoration project. Following its arrival and a visual appraisal, I removed the first end bolt and it came out easily, followed by the two pieces of mahogany forming the side of the key box that the bolt went through. Then the pads and leather discs tumbled out of the hole, those that were not wedged in the springs, together with the corner pieces and bits of spring. Being optimistic I proceeded with dismantling. No matter how careful I was, all the end bolts sheared, either the heads came off or they broke further down the shaft. It took me two days of careful work to get the end bolts out sufficiently to remove the ends and get to the action. I did have to resort to drilling out some of the bolt heads. All end bolts were steel and, apart from the first one, had heavily corroded within the wooden parts/sides, so I had to resort to some mild heat and a drift to get the corroded parts out of the wooden sections, leaving more broken bits in the captive nuts for later. Having removed the ends and the sides of the action box the (cardboard) action plates fell off complete with levers, keys, springs and the remaining loose pads etc. this was the same on both sides. The instrument was never fitted with supporting pillars between the ends and action plate. Surprisingly, none of the (bone?) keys or levers are damaged. No woodworm either, however its (original?) wooden box has some worm holes and is in rubbish condition, although I do have some ideas about how to salvage and improve it. The reed pans were in reasonable condition and still well fitting. Shoes are brass as are the reeds, which are held in by two bolts. Reed shoes are marked with the note. The pans and action boards are numbered 18273 The green leather bellows are not too bad, the gussets appear to be whole, some repairs needed on a few corners, perhaps a rebind in places, may suffice temporarily, but they are old and the internal card is beginning to denature and become powdery. Some lost pads, sampers and other bits were also wedged inside the bellows. These extraneous bits look like new, not dirty and showing no wear, so I am presuming they were dropped during assembly and left there. Further investigation and appraisal shows that the glue has dried and is no longer effective in all areas. The air button spring is broken and is of a different size to the other springs. Some levers are fitted with two springs. The end bolts are different length and diameter to Lachenal end bolts and the thread pitch and count is also different. I've not had time to measure the shaft diameter with a micrometer yet or count the TPI, but end bolts from my Lachenal Anglo and Wheatstone Model 21 don't fit, they are too large diameter and too short! I have also carefully raised the chamois leather from the inside of the reed pan box to expose the captive nuts, which are simple flat brass plates drilled and tapped and inset into a hole the width of the wood and then glued in place, the tapped hole lining up with the holes for the end bolts. I managed to remove one as the wood holding it in was so damaged by iron corrosion if fell apart. Use of a blow torch and a clamp on the metal screw end got the stump of the end bolt out. I could not have got this far without using David Elliotts book on concertina maintenance. I now have to work out if it is worth trying to restore this 'tina, and I have some questions the Concertina.net community may be able to help with to enable me to make up my mind. Assuming new end bolts of the correct size are not available I will have to fit what I can get hold of. I am fairly sure that the captive nuts for these will be too large for the size of wood I have, but I may be able to redrill and tap and existing captive nuts. Where would I get a suitable tap from? Unless you know of a source for end bolts of the correct size? Are springs of a thicker/stronger material to normal concertina springs made and available? Who from? I only need one for the air button. I need more springs for some of the other keys but these appear to be similar to those I know are available. Would one from a melodeon fit? ( I don't want to take my Erica apart to find out). Costs for these would also help if known. If I decide to go ahead and repair I have also been thinking about the additional buttons and the accidentals. Why would anyone need two G#A buttons and reeds on the left? To my way of thinking it would be better to have one of these as an A push E pull reversals on this side ( I use the A push on the accidental row quite a bit on my 3 row) and on the right instead of two C#D# change, these to an F# push C or G pull. Any advice as to what might be better than what I have or propose would be appreciated? I don't suppose anyone has an inkling as to the age of the concertina? I know the Silber Fleming factory/department store burned down in the 1860's and were bought out in the 1880's, but none of that helps with dating. Does anyone have a working Silber Fleming Anglo? How does it play and sound? I know there are others out there as questions have been posed in 2010 and 2002 on various forums about them. Thanking everyone in anticipation Mike

Got one at the weekend when Fendragon played at the Kemp's Men's ceilidh. Even though I thought I knew most of the tunes from sessions I used to go at Wilbraham, I am hearing something new in each one and the standard of play on the CD was much better than the session as well (probably 'cause I was not there). Excellent. I'm trying to play Juliana again, correctly this time, as I think this is a lovely piece. Support for Cancer Research is also important to me as my son is currently in remission from colon cancer for the second year and now has a chance to see is daughter grow up.

I'll be going with a couple of others from Norwich, two of us in the Sandra Kerr concertina workshops, the other playing melodeon.

Hi Malcolm, my first posting, I mostly watch. However, I have a "Gremlin" which I believe is from the 70's with the same action and have exactly the same problem with it. I solved the problem by buying a 30 button Lachenal from Pete Grasby. The Gremlin is now almost unused and unusable. The action is dreadful, one button lug has broken(I moved them round and now have a hole for accidentals I rarely use) and the 'tina is not even in tune with itself. It was supposed to be a G/D but Its more of a C/G but I don't think a single reed is in tune anyway. I'm happy to let you have it for spares if it will keep another player playing. PM me if you are interested. Mike in Norwich