JD Rogers

You also may be able to tidy up the belt leather to be fairly comfortable. Mark's straps are comfy and nice looking (especially with the bells and whistles like gold tooling). But for functionality, you can probably get pretty far by cutting the straps to the shape you are aiming for, slightly oversized, and then sand down any sharp edges to create a bit of a bevel.

I second that. It would be good to have low expectations on delivery time, but he will come through eventually. Sometimes, for various legitimate reasons, I have waited a long time. Once due to customs and recently many months for straps as he had to wait on leather supply (along with the rest of the world supply chain lately). He also responds to email, and it is worth following up via phone or email since you haven't heard from him yet to make sure your order didn't fall through the cracks.

I am a big fan of a well-made, aesthetically pleasing case. My suggestion does not fall into the aesthetically pleasing category, but if you are looking for something for gigging, you might consider pelican or nanuk cases as they are watertight. The advantage is that they also help keep the humidity up if you live in a climate that has to deal with heating in the winter. I know many use the pelican storm im2075 for single concertinas, but the nanuk 918 works well for 2.

This particular flavor has been coming up a lot lately, usually a couple posted at the same time for the same $2.90 or $2.75 and the image that says don't bid, contact us for direct sales. I think this is at least the 4th round in the past few months. Also frequently listed as a "wheatstone lachenal" or "Jeffries Wheatstone" or similar juxtaposition with a modern maker's name.

I can't claim expertise on this topic, but I have spent enough time tweaking reeds on enough instruments that I may be able to add something.. Clarification questions: is this english, anglo, hybrid, etc? Valves: The no valves thing raises a red flag in my mind. If other reeds behaving well at similar pitch are valved, but the opposing reeds on the inefficient buttons are not valved, that could be a factor. My understanding (and would love for others to fill me in if this is an incomplete understanding) is that the highest reeds don't need valves because they are unlike

Hi All, I think this is a fascinating topic. I assumed the levers on Lachenal's were round rod/wire stock bent to form the correct kinked profile and then press or rolled. I imagine this flattening gave better stiffness in the direction of action, but perhaps work hardened the metal some as well? It would be interesting to know what equipment has been preserved by Wheatstone from the Lachenal acquisition. I'd be curious if anyone knows more about the process or the rationale. I know the levers can also be replaced with riveted action constructed de novo, but it is inter

Hello Paul, I am curious what the person you have lined up will be using, i.e. CNC or laser? What file format would they require? I have not done this, but I have pondered it some. I imagine that a good photo (would need to take care to correct for distortion or possibly use a flatbed scanner) could be processed with thresh-holding to get the pattern as a jpg/png/bmp format. It might then be possible to convert this to paths or SVG and eventually to a CAD format required. I would be moderately concerned that depending on the way this is done (image processing and physic

Thank you Geoff! This information is a valuable resource and I'm so glad you decided to make it available. As one in possession of two instruments form the first page, it is fun to have an idea of where they fall in the history of this great family of concertinas. There are some very interesting notes that you have included. Any idea why the numbering started with 8071? I am not at all surprised they start at a high number, but one wonders if it was an arbitrary number, or had some meaning. It is curious that the stamped numbers were not used consistently for resol