44 key Jeffries Concertina

[brianhaitz]

Dear musicians,

 

I have here a 44 key Jeffries Concertina for sale or rent. It was owned by my late father. It is in good condition i.e. has no major defencies and needs little or no maintenance (as far as I can tell playing it). I'm an irish musician myself but not really on the concertina. See attached some photos.

 

The concertina is in Stuttgart, Germany. If you are interested please send a mail to brianhaitz@hotmail.com.

 

Regards

[michael sam wild]

Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?

[Ptarmigan]

Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?

Michael, can you tell me how you definitively tell the difference between the one & the other?

 

Cheers

Dick

[RP3]

Do note that this instrument -- though apparently made at 23 Praed Street -- is a Jeffries Bros instrument and not a C Jeffries concertina.

 

Ross Schlabach

[Dirge]

Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?

 

He doesn't actually say it IS an Anglo anywhere that I can see. Could be a duet pure and simple.

[Geoff Wooff]

Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?

 

He doesn't actually say it IS an Anglo anywhere that I can see. Could be a duet pure and simple.

 

 

At the least it probably started life as a Duet.

[Alex West]

Gentlemen

 

There seems to be a general assumption around that because the Jeffries family made duets to their own system with as few keys as 45 and because a number of Jeffries duets have over the years been converted to anglos, that every Jeffries anglo with more than 40 keys started life as a duet.

 

I don't know about this instrument in particular, but to my personal knowledge (I've seen, touched and delved inside them, measured the reeds and looked carefully at the reed pans) I know of a 46 key Jeffries anglo and a 50 key Jeffries anglo that have always ben anglos, were never ever duets and have not been re-tuned nor the reed pans reshaped to take differnt reeds on push and pull. I'm pretty sure I've also seen correspondence on this site about large Jeffries anglos which were built that way.

 

There's a flaw in the logic here:

 

"Jeffries made large concertinas; Jeffries duets are large concertinas; some Jeffries duets are known to have been converted into anglos; therefore all large Jeffries anglos were once duets"

 

This might be a good hypothesis if there wasn't some evidence that Jeffries made some anglos which are large.

 

One of the confusions does seem to be that the external appearance (fretwork pattern, arrangement of buttons) of a large Jeffries Anglo is very similar to that of a Jeffries duet, but outward apearances aren't everything.

 

By the way, Wheatstone made some pretty large anglos. The standard largest might have been 40 keys but (if memory serves) they made a 56 key anglo in 1914 (number 26513) and other specials after this. As another aside, they also seem to have made some in the early 1900's to a Jeffries pattern, for example No 26114. No suspicions that Wheatstone duets have ever been converted into anglos are there?

 

All that I'm really saying is that it's impossible to generalise without knowing the specifics of the instrument in question.

 

So, Brian; can you tell us a little more about your instrument? Does it play the same note whether you push or pull the bellows? Do you know what keys it's in? Might you have a chart showing which buttons play which notes? And finally have you looked inside the instrument and seen what the reeds and reed pans look like? These might be very relevant questions to a buyer and could make a lot of difference to the value.

 

Looks a nice instrument though

 

Alex West

[michael sam wild]

Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?

Michael, can you tell me how you definitively tell the difference between the one & the other?

 

Cheers

Dick

 

Dick

The buttons give the same note on push or pull on the duet all the 'push' notes on one row and the 'pull' notes on a separate row but related to an Anglo layout.

 

I garee we need more info then it would be easily clarifeid for this one.

Cheers

Mike

[Ptarmigan]

Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?

Michael, can you tell me how you definitively tell the difference between the one & the other?

 

Cheers

Dick

 

Dick

The buttons give the same note on push or pull on the duet all the 'push' notes on one row and the 'pull' notes on a separate row but related to an Anglo layout.

 

I garee we need more info then it would be easily clarifeid for this one.

Cheers

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

 

Your question read as follows:

 

"Is this an Anglo or a converted Jeffries Duet?"

 

So what I wanted to know was, how are you able to tell the difference between a 45 key instrument that was originally made as an Anglo & a 45 key instrument that was originally made as a Duet, but converted to an Anglo?

 

Cheers,

Dick

[michael sam wild]

SorryDick. I have a friend who had one with the buttons labelled that was a give away. Also if you took it apart I suppose the stamped pitch on the reed shoe would let you know. So I hope the original poster lets us know.

[Dowright]

Is it a Jeffries Anglo original or a Jeffries duet conversion? How does one tell? Open it and look for solder on some of the reeds. I have owned 45-key and 50-key Jeffries Anglo originals and Jeffries duet conversions (including a 50-key duet that is now a 50-key Bb/F Anglo). To get the reed pitches needed for the conversion, it is necessary to lower the pitches of some of the reeds. Extensive filing, if possible, would both heavily weaken reeds and destroy the wonderful Jeffries tone. So solder is applied to the tip of the relevant reeds--just a few of them. If you find such solder, it indicates that the instrument started out as a Jeffries duet. If you do not find such solder, it almost certainly started out as an Anglo. I say 'almost certainly', because it is conceivable but extremely unlikely that, in place of the solder, new reeds (beware: likely non-Jeffries reeds) may have been substituted or the Jeffries reeds were radically filed (beware: extremely weakened and break-prone thin Jeffries reeds) in lieu of adding solder to make the conversion.

How do the reeds sound? Remarkably, the reeds that have been soldered still have that wonderful Jeffries tone--on, or nearly on, a par with the Jeffries reeds that have not been soldered.

What about the extra weight of these 45-50 key Jeffries concertinas--originals or conversions. Sure, if you have 90 to 100 reeds and corresponding reed shoes, the instrument is heavier, but what I would describe as "marginally heavier." In my view, too much is made of a few extra ounces of weight for some makes of concertinas. First of all, the concertina usually rests on the knee. (But consider the large Maccann duets that professionals such as Percy Honri and Alexander Prince played while standing and usually without a neck strap!!!! And they seemed to manage just fine!!!) So adjusting to the extra ounces of weight should not be much problem, except maybe for a child.

What to do with all those keys? In my case, I simply ignore a bunch of them (even though they are in tune) and just play the core keys, pretty much those of a 30-key Anglo. But the extra keys are there for the player who is highly chord-accompaniment oriented.

My 50-key Bb/F conversion is a fine instrument with that wonderful Jeffries tone. I have a buyer who is just waiting for the funds to acquire it. He loves it!!

What about the fact that it is in Bb/F? In my view too much is made of C/G/ C/G C/G ....unless it is someone who has only one instrument and is a sessions player. The professional Anglo players have known for a long time that Bb/F is a great key combination, but now the Bb/F is becoming more and more popular with non-professionals also. (Of course, G/D, Ab/Eb, A/D, et al also have their places.)

Edited September 19, 2011 by Dowright