Adam-T

Thanks Alex, The big one Looks massive , the small one the same as my G/C (or thereabouts) one. shame the big one didn`t have steel reeds, it`d sound sharp and powerful like a 3 voice melodeon .

Thanks for the Info, I thought it was worth a look for next to nothing, intertesting to pull apart and hear its wheezy brass reed sound and I can`t lose money on it ... as for the multi voice Scholers, shame they didn`t do a dry tuned LM setup for a Bandoneon sound (assuming they didn`t) because anything else with more than 1 voice which uses standard reed plates in vertical block will end up sounding like and will be, really a concertina shaped Melodeon.

if its anything like the cloth on the bellows in player pianos, it`d turn your concertina into a bullworker

This one does have the Scholer badge on and its all wood, Yours looks a lot newer, is it one of the really large ones with 2 voices of melodeon type reedblocks ?, from the pic it looks like celluloid covered plywood like the chinese boxes rather than plastic, the straps look the same light brown leather and Nails as my old one.. I have fixed the lazy reed now (Muck in the underneath one), the brass reeds give it a mellow sound. the Chinese one sounds fine (rather like a Chinese accordion on one rank as you`d expect) but the lever mech isn`t reliable. When I say "Sounds fine" you have to take into account that I come from a world of PAs and Melodeons where reed blocks and steel reeds are the norm - LOL . there are two sizes of Chinese 20 button Anglos, Both are all wood believe it or not (Bogseat celluloid coating) the one I have is the smaller of the two and even that dwarfs the old brass reed Scholer as you can see... the larger Chinese model is quite a bit bigger than the one here.

So its around the 70s then - Thanks .. I paid next to nothing for this one, it hasn`t the bite or power of the chinese newies and I`ll have to clean the reeds to get that wheezy one up and running properly (I`m not sure whether the pull reed is on the top or underneath) .. BTW it`s about half a semitone sharp of A440 which makes it useless for accompanying other instruments bar synthesizers which have easy global fine tuning. this seems to be common in Klingenthal boxes (well the melodeons anyway)

I know Scholers are the equivalent of the current Chinese boxes being made in Klingenthal and the lowest of the low for their era but wondered all the same how old this one was . it`s a lot smaller than the smallest Chinese Anglos, has what looks like riveted mouth-organ reeds (they`re brass anyway) and a wooden pallet lever mech which leaves the chinese thin aluminium rubbish for dead.. The end straps were leather and nailed on (??), they were perished so I replaced them with camera bag webbing using the same method. The thing actually plays fine bar one slow reed at the low end and is amazingly leak-less given the age, the 3 screw end fitment and ccontinous card-stock bellows construction . Sound-wise, it`s not got the raucous power of the Melodeon Steel-reed powered chinese junkers, softer as you`d expect given brass reeds. I wish the chinese boxes had these pallet levers Thanks Pics

I`m primarily a PA/Keyboard player but have always played guitar alongside and played brass in my dim and distant youth .. I recently took to learning the melodeon with a B/C two row and have just swapped my tatty underused Mandolin for one of those red celuloid coated plywood chinese C/G Anglos much despised in this parish, after cleaning out all the sawdust and wood bits (which will end up fouling the reeds)and loosening the thin aluminium pallet lever pivots (button jam) it should work fine for a while - it`s no Jeffries but plays and sounds OK, as a total beginner at learning the concertina as a sideline to the other Squeezers it should do the trick Don`t ask me HOW I`ve gained an Avatar of Anne Hathaway, I haven`t a clue but she`s a damn sight better to look at than I am ! ;-)