Raised Ends?

[L'Albatroce]

As I've looked around at concertina makers, I've noticed many offer an options for "raised ends". It took me a while to figure out what exactly this even meant, but I'm still not sure why one would want them. The option usually costs extra, and so I was wondering, oh concertina gods, why someone would pay extra for this feature? Is it purely esthetic, or is there a practical side to it?

[david_boveri]

As I've looked around at concertina makers, I've noticed many offer an options for "raised ends". It took me a while to figure out what exactly this even meant, but I'm still not sure why one would want them. The option usually costs extra, and so I was wondering, oh concertina gods, why someone would pay extra for this feature? Is it purely esthetic, or is there a practical side to it?

 

it's purely aesthetic. it has an unintended consequence of reducing button height, but you can make the buttons longer to compensate for that, or make buttons that short anyways. it does not sound like a big deal, but they are very slick... for some reason they make a concertina look that much fancier. probably not worth the money, though. try and find a concertina like that, and see if you like it.

[Stephen Chambers]

Is it purely esthetic, or is there a practical side to it?

They look neat, and they save weight. That's it!

 

(At least, according to a certain firm that's been making them for a very long time... )

Edited December 8, 2009 by Stephen Chambers

[wim wakker]

As I've looked around at concertina makers, I've noticed many offer an options for "raised ends". It took me a while to figure out what exactly this even meant, but I'm still not sure why one would want them. The option usually costs extra, and so I was wondering, oh concertina gods, why someone would pay extra for this feature? Is it purely esthetic, or is there a practical side to it?

 

it's purely aesthetic. it has an unintended consequence of reducing button height, but you can make the buttons longer to compensate for that, or make buttons that short anyways. it does not sound like a big deal, but they are very slick... for some reason they make a concertina look that much fancier. probably not worth the money, though. try and find a concertina like that, and see if you like it.

 

This is a very common misunderstanding. The name raised ends is somewhat misleading. They appear to be raised, but actually the rims of the instrument are lowered. The height of the end around the buttons is exactly the same as with flat ends. It doesn’t affect the button height.

 

Lowering the rim reduces the acoustic effect of the space between the action board and top on the sound. Especially with open fretwork, the sound becomes more ‘direct’. If you want to know how your instrument would sound with raised ends (=lowered rims), take the top off your instrument and put the end back on the bellows. You might want to use blocks to compensate for the top.

 

A more technical explanation: Lower rims affect (reduces) the primary sound reflection, which is created by the 90 degree angle between the frames and top. Actually, it (almost) eliminates these reflections if the fretwork is open and continues to the frames.

In an instrument with raised ends the harmonic count is determined by the reed and chamber, without interference of the acoustic cavity. It is the most ‘pure reed sound' obtainable in a concertina.

 

On the other hand, if the top is closed around the rim of the instrument, the effect will be very limited, because there will be primary reflection. The opposite effect of raised ends are instruments with a (wooden) baffle or ‘comma dot’ fretwork.

 

Raised ends are more expensive because they are very complicated to make. The curve is carved out of a solid piece of wood, just like a violin top. The thickness of the top (at least in our instruments) varies at different locations. To my knowledge, there are only a few makers of traditional concertinas that offer raised wooden ends.

 

The sound effect is clearly visible when you use a sound analyzer. People with (musically) ‘trained ears’ also have no problem hearing the difference. If your hearing is untrained, and you barely hear the difference between a metal and wooden ended instrument, don’t worry about it. You probably won’t hear the difference.

 

Wim Wakker

Concertina Connection Inc.

Wakker Concertinas

[david_boveri]

As I've looked around at concertina makers, I've noticed many offer an options for "raised ends". It took me a while to figure out what exactly this even meant, but I'm still not sure why one would want them. The option usually costs extra, and so I was wondering, oh concertina gods, why someone would pay extra for this feature? Is it purely esthetic, or is there a practical side to it?

 

it's purely aesthetic. it has an unintended consequence of reducing button height, but you can make the buttons longer to compensate for that, or make buttons that short anyways. it does not sound like a big deal, but they are very slick... for some reason they make a concertina look that much fancier. probably not worth the money, though. try and find a concertina like that, and see if you like it.

 

This is a very common misunderstanding. The name raised ends is somewhat misleading. They appear to be raised, but actually the rims of the instrument are lowered. The height of the end around the buttons is exactly the same as with flat ends. It doesn’t affect the button height.

 

Lowering the rim reduces the acoustic effect of the space between the action board and top on the sound. Especially with open fretwork, the sound becomes more ‘direct’. If you want to know how your instrument would sound with raised ends (=lowered rims), take the top off your instrument and put the end back on the bellows. You might want to use blocks to compensate for the top.

 

A more technical explanation: Lower rims affect (reduces) the primary sound reflection, which is created by the 90 degree angle between the frames and top. Actually, it (almost) eliminates these reflections if the fretwork is open and continues to the frames.

In an instrument with raised ends the harmonic count is determined by the reed and chamber, without interference of the acoustic cavity. It is the most ‘pure reed sound' obtainable in a concertina.

 

On the other hand, if the top is closed around the rim of the instrument, the effect will be very limited, because there will be primary reflection. The opposite effect of raised ends are instruments with a (wooden) baffle or ‘comma dot’ fretwork.

 

Raised ends are more expensive because they are very complicated to make. The curve is carved out of a solid piece of wood, just like a violin top. The thickness of the top (at least in our instruments) varies at different locations. To my knowledge, there are only a few makers of traditional concertinas that offer raised wooden ends.

 

The sound effect is clearly visible when you use a sound analyzer. People with (musically) ‘trained ears’ also have no problem hearing the difference. If your hearing is untrained, and you barely hear the difference between a metal and wooden ended instrument, don’t worry about it. You probably won’t hear the difference.

 

Wim Wakker

Concertina Connection Inc.

Wakker Concertinas

 

good to know. i have only played two raised ends instruments--one you made, and a dipper. i can hear the difference between a metal-ended and a wooden-ended concertina, but since both of the raised end instruments i played i played when i couldn't tell the difference, that would account for why i thought there was no meaningful difference. i had assumed that they were actually raised because i had misread an email that you sent me a couple years ago. i actually just found it, and you had said that you lower the frames. for some reason i had remembered this as you saying that you lowered the button height. oops.

[L'Albatroce]

So would having "lowered rims", as it were, lessen the difference in sound between metal and wood ended instruments, since it reduces the acoustic effect of the ends?

Edited December 8, 2009 by L'Albatroce