Lachenals Need Help...

[John Sylte]

Hello Everyone,

 

I used to be a regular here, but stopped trolling the forums two or three years ago... I wanted to own a nice vintage anglo concertina back in 2005, but there was nowhere to shop for one in my area. At the time I worked for a software company and had decent paychecks coming in on a regular basis. The strategy I employed was to buy nice looking Lachenals on Ebay, fix them up, and turn them over. For a couple years I really enjoyed learning how to fix them up, and was proud of my work. When I finally found the beautiful metal ended Lachenal I wanted to call my own, I kept it and spent more time playing than fixing. I still play a lot, and I love my Lachenal. The problem is, I have three or four others I haven't finished fixing, and I don't ever seem to find the time to complete them. I have a considerable amount of money tied up in them and they're just sitting in my house. I would like to either fix them up and sell them, or possibly just sell them to someone who could finish fixing them up and put them back into circulation. I was good at fixing concertinas in many regards, but tuning the reeds took a bit of trial and error. I learned many important lessons, and now I am great! Unfortunately, I rendered a few reeds useless working my way through the learning curve... If I am to finish fixing these, I need to find a source for some replacement reeds. I'm not sure it makes sense to order a bunch of replacement reeds from Button Box or David Leese, because I would have to ask for quite a few. So a couple questions:

 

Are there any repair persons here that would be interested in completing these projects? All of my concertinas have great bellows, fully functioning hardware, and all bodywork is in solid condition. Reedwork is primarily all that remains. I really don't want to sell these at rock bottom prices, but I would entertain reasonable offers. I would of course provide pictures and complete descriptions... I should probably just go ahead and do this for each one.

 

My other option is to find some wrecked Lachenals that I could use as reed donors. Is anyone here sitting on some fixer upper projects with GOOD reeds that they would be willing to sell me for a reasonable price?

 

Are there any other options I am not considering? Is anyone selling brand new reed sets that would fit in Lachenals? I would entertain bulk sale offers too, but I wouldn't expect any offers until complete photos and descriptions are available. This on it's own seems a daunting task...

 

I'm just trying to dip my toe in the water here. I need to get these beautiful Mahagony ended Lachenals back into circulation.

 

I have:

 

-30 button steel reed Mahagony ended Lachenal with good original bellows

-30 button brass reeded Mahagony ended Lachenal with good original bellows

-26 button steel reeded Mahagony ended Lachenal with brand new Leese bellows

-20 button Mahagony ended Lachenal with no reeds

 

I would appreciate your feedback!

 

Thanks-

[mory]

Hello Everyone,

 

I used to be a regular here, but stopped trolling the forums two or three years ago... I wanted to own a nice vintage anglo concertina back in 2005, but there was nowhere to shop for one in my area. At the time I worked for a software company and had decent paychecks coming in on a regular basis. The strategy I employed was to buy nice looking Lachenals on Ebay, fix them up, and turn them over. For a couple years I really enjoyed learning how to fix them up, and was proud of my work. When I finally found the beautiful metal ended Lachenal I wanted to call my own, I kept it and spent more time playing than fixing. I still play a lot, and I love my Lachenal. The problem is, I have three or four others I haven't finished fixing, and I don't ever seem to find the time to complete them. I have a considerable amount of money tied up in them and they're just sitting in my house. I would like to either fix them up and sell them, or possibly just sell them to someone who could finish fixing them up and put them back into circulation. I was good at fixing concertinas in many regards, but tuning the reeds took a bit of trial and error. I learned many important lessons, and now I am great! Unfortunately, I rendered a few reeds useless working my way through the learning curve... If I am to finish fixing these, I need to find a source for some replacement reeds. I'm not sure it makes sense to order a bunch of replacement reeds from Button Box or David Leese, because I would have to ask for quite a few. So a couple questions:

 

Are there any repair persons here that would be interested in completing these projects? All of my concertinas have great bellows, fully functioning hardware, and all bodywork is in solid condition. Reedwork is primarily all that remains. I really don't want to sell these at rock bottom prices, but I would entertain reasonable offers. I would of course provide pictures and complete descriptions... I should probably just go ahead and do this for each one.

 

My other option is to find some wrecked Lachenals that I could use as reed donors. Is anyone here sitting on some fixer upper projects with GOOD reeds that they would be willing to sell me for a reasonable price?

 

Are there any other options I am not considering? Is anyone selling brand new reed sets that would fit in Lachenals? I would entertain bulk sale offers too, but I wouldn't expect any offers until complete photos and descriptions are available. This on it's own seems a daunting task...

 

I'm just trying to dip my toe in the water here. I need to get these beautiful Mahagony ended Lachenals back into circulation.

 

I have:

 

-30 button steel reed Mahagony ended Lachenal with good original bellows

-30 button brass reeded Mahagony ended Lachenal with good original bellows

-26 button steel reeded Mahagony ended Lachenal with brand new Leese bellows

-20 button Mahagony ended Lachenal with no reeds

 

I would appreciate your feedback!

 

Thanks-

Hi John, dont know if its any help, but some of the rebuild work using old reeds that has been done by Connor and Wakker for Chris Algar (Barlycorn), reputedly use reeds from unrepairable and less desirable (price wise) Duets and basic English, I'm in touch with Connor, in fact I'm seeing him later this week and if you provide a list I can ask, but maybe the purchase of either mentioned would be better, you'd probably find the time if you had the reeds? good luck mory send me a pm

Edited March 28, 2011 by mory