Search the Community

To Whom is Skilled and Generous with Their Time: I am a guitarist that loves the sound of reed instruments. I wanted to add an instrument to my music, and the harmonica or mouth organ sound too thin for me. So I chose the concertina. I purchased a Jackie, as it is a new beginner instrument that was not junk, for $500. During an emergency I had to leave it in my not hot, but warm car. When I got it home there was a big rattle of one side, and as I checked the buttons, about ⅓ did not sound. So I opened it up for the first time and discovered that 4 of the reeds had detached. And as I inspected the damage, I noticed that the reeds have no markings on them to help me know where they belong. There are some scuff marks on them however, that seem to be some sort of marking in length? And the reeds themselves are different lengths. So by matching the length of the reed to the air chambers I was able to determine where they belong, and by matching the wax patterns on the edges of the reeds, I am pretty sure I have them all facing the correct direction. The reeds kinda stuck back on to the wax, but I just loosely placed them. I live very far out in the country, and I doubt if I could find anyone to repair the instrument within a 3-5 hour drive. Also I should note that I work as a luthier, and can fix anything. I know I need to test the reeds with a tuner to make sure they are placed correctly. But as I am new to this instrument, I wanted to make sure I am repairing this correctly, and ask how I should reattach the reeds. In particular, do I need to obtain some new wax? If so, what brand is the best, and where do I get it? And what kind of tools are used for this? And where can I get those? As I have a strong inclination to believe this type of repair will need to be performed many times in the future, and I might as well have the correct tools. I've worked in wax before for encaustic paintings, and we had hot wax "pens" for this, but I don't own any of these currently. I think they might work well for this, but I'd rather use the tools of the trade. What are my steps to a repair that is going to be superior to the factory? Thanks in advanve to anyone who replies. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to answer my questions. God bless you! patrick scheidegger fom tooley ☞ UPDATE ☞ my laptop had a meltdown of ram chips right when i sent this first part, and it took me a couple days to get it fixed. anyways, i decided to press the reeds into the wax and give it a try. Everything worked, except 2 of the buttons wouldn't sound the reed on extension, but would on compression. The reeds make the same note forwards and backwards. If this is true, is there still a front and a back? I was happy to have places all the reeds in the correct locations, and I played for a moment; then one popped back off. So I definitely need some informational help in terms of: ☞ am I doing the repair correctly? ☞ where do I order wax from, and what brand is the best? ☞ are there any tools i need? ☞ etc. Thanks again and a special blessing for anyone that helps. patrick scheidegger fom tooley

Beautiful, mostly unused Frank Edgley 186 Anglo Concertina. Practiced on a separate one, so this rarely sees daylight. (Actually, neither see daylight) 586 four nine one 4858 or, slower response to idontcheckitbutits@hotmail.com Metro Detroit area Have had inqueries about this piece, which i knew very little information. I emailed Frank directly, and received this response.... From: Frank Edgley <> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2021 10:37 AM To: <idontcheckitbutits@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Few questions about a piece my girlfriend bought It looks like a professional Model, wooden ends of bubinga wood. Depending on whether it needs tuning or other repairs, it should be worth 2000 to 2300 . On 07/03/2021 16:06, > She asked me to list it for her, but I know nothing about them except > what I am reading in the last few days. Hoping u remember this one. > It really is beautiful. If you can tell me the model and some > things about it, I would appreciate it. > > And , any idea of a fair market value or resale price would be great. > She said it has a soft case. Thanks so much , Patrick. Thanks for reading.......

Just to mention that the MIMO (Musical Instruments Museums On-line) website has been upgraded and can be seen at: http://www.mimo-international.com/index.html From the announcement: It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the launch of a significantly updated and improved version of the MIMO website. The new site will go live on 28th March, 2014. This has been made possible by contributions from, five of the original project partners (The University of Edinburgh, Cité de la musique, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Muziekinstrumentenmuseum, Association "Amici del Museo degli Strumenti Musicali,"). The site is being launched in beta mode and will initially only be in English and French, however, all six of the original partners' languages will be added over the next few months. We invite you to view and test the site and would be grateful for any feedback you can offer. Please respond via the Contact link. Further improvements will be added later in the year as a result of a generous contribution made by CIMCIM. Other positive news is that, since the announcement at last year's CIMCIM conference in Oxford of the two African collections that were about to join, we have added two more museums to the partnership - the Museu de la Música in Barcelona and the Royal College of Music in London. We are also very close to confirming the addition of a major collection in Asia, details of which we hope to announce shortly. In addition to new content in MIMO, this will mean that additional languages will be incorporated into the search functionality. Not too much in concertina entries yet, but maybe some people are unaware of. To search, select "Search the Collections" on the page mentioned. Then put terms in the search box and press go. I got 37 hits for "concertina". If you then click on the magnifying glass for any entry, you get to see all the details and an image (if available). Click on the image thumbnail for a bigger version.You can go back to the search page, or click "next" or "previous" to tab through the hits. There's more, but that should get you started. Here's an image from MIMO of an instrument at Edinburgh: As I say, early days for MIMO yet, but a resource for the future in the making, and might already help locate something of interest. Terry