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Since I've been hanging around here I've been amazed by how clean the insides of the concertinas offered for sale are. Even the "as-found" examples on ebay seem rather tidy.

 

I used to restore jukeboxes, most of which spent their lives in smokey bars, and getting the nicotine off of every surface inside and out was always the first disgusting job you had to do. Since the bellows basically function as a set of lungs pulling the smoke in, one would assume that the insides of these beasts would be coated from 100 years of smokey bars, houses heated by coal or wood, kerosene lamps, and general air pollution, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I can't even find any threads where cleaning the insides is an issue. Why not?

 

Thanks

CJ

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CJ,

I've worked on concertinas that were 100+ years old and clean as a whistle and others that smelled like smoked hams. The underside of valves (which are not normally viewed) in particular collect tar and nicotine. The tops of reed tongues can also be collectors for second hand smoke.

 

Valves get replaced and reeds generally get cleaned in the tuning process. Bellows that smell like smoke are another matter. I've had some success with a light rub down of Lysol or Fabreeze but i would be interested in other suggestions for removing a smokey smell.

 

Greg

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You have a good point CJ.

 

Since I grew up in London, before the "Clean Air Act" came into effect at the beginning of the 1960's ( I think), I vividly remember going to school in the winter with a cotton handkerchief held over my mouth and nose to keep out the "Smog". After arriving at school I could see the yellow tar stain on the handkerchief.

 

Many of Concertinas that I examined during my first aquiring period (in London of the 1970's) were quite black inside. Possibly most being offered for sale these days have been cleaned up as part of the restoration programme. One that I was inside recently had nice clean new pads and valves and woodwork but further in, at the bottom of the Bellows folds was a mountain of dust and fibres (possibly wool from clothing or carpets) that had not been cleaned out by the recent refurbisher.

 

Some years ago Tommy MacCarthy called to me with two Jeffries Concertinas, one that he played all the time and one that was his 'spare'. The habitually played instrument was showing signs of needing a 'tune-up' but the spare was OK, both having been put into good order many years before. When I looked inside the 'out of tune' instrument had a good coating of sludgy Nicotine/Tar/Sweat mixture stuck to the reeds. When this was cleaned off the tuning was as near perfect as to need no further intervention on my part. The unused spare concertina had clean reeds and was nicely in tune. One last comment on this story... the one that Tommy played all the time was a much happier instrument to play (it sang) whereas the spare did not want to 'Party'. Question is did Tommy play the one because it was the better box or was it better because it was played all the time ? B)

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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You have a good point CJ.

 

Since I grew up in London, before the "Clean Air Act" came into effect at the beginning of the 1960's ( I think), I vividly remember going to school in the winter with a cotton handkerchief held over my mouth and nose to keep out the "Smog". After arriving at school I could see the yellow tar stain on the handkerchief.

 

Many of Concertinas that I examined during my first aquiring period (in London of the 1970's) were quite black inside. Possibly most being offered for sale these days have been cleaned up as part of the restoration programme. One that I was inside recently had nice clean new pads and valves and woodwork but further in, at the bottom of the Bellows folds was a mountain of dust and fibres (possibly wool from clothing or carpets) that had not been cleaned out by the recent refurbisher.

 

Some years ago Tommy MacCarthy called to me with two Jeffries Concertinas, one that he played all the time and one that was his 'spare'. The habitually played instrument was showing signs of needing a 'tune-up' but the spare was OK, both having been put into good order many years before. When I looked inside the 'out of tune' instrument had a good coating of sludgy Nicotine/Tar/Sweat mixture stuck to the reeds. When this was cleaned off the tuning was as near perfect as to need no further intervention on my part. The unused spare concertina had clean reeds and was nicely in tune. One last comment on this story... the one that Tommy played all the time was a much happier instrument to play (it sang) whereas the spare did not want to 'Party'. Question is did Tommy play the one because it was the better box or was it better because it was played all the time ? B)

 

The 'playability' of my Shire Anglo has certainly improved steadily in every respect over its 32 years of active life and it continues to do so. I feel I am still 'running it in', as they used to say of motor vehicles !

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I don't think this necessarily qualifies as "smoke", but I've noticed with old anglos which I've been restoring that the right hand side is nearly always significantly dirtier and in poorer condition than the left hand side. My rationale for this is that in the old hexagonal cases, the left side is at the bottom of the case and the right side is at the toip - and therefore more exposed to whatever pollutants are around.

 

Here's a "worst case". In this example, the left side was just as filthy!

 

Alex West

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I don't think this necessarily qualifies as "smoke", but I've noticed with old anglos which I've been restoring that the right hand side is nearly always significantly dirtier and in poorer condition than the left hand side. My rationale for this is that in the old hexagonal cases, the left side is at the bottom of the case and the right side is at the toip - and therefore more exposed to whatever pollutants are around.

 

Here's a "worst case". In this example, the left side was just as filthy!

 

Alex West

I have a similarly filthy concertina in the resto pile. I'm wondering what health hazards lurk inside that 'tina.

I'll wear a mask when I finally get around to scrubbing the internals.

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I have a similarly filthy concertina in the resto pile. I'm wondering what health hazards lurk inside that 'tina.

I'll wear a mask when I finally get around to scrubbing the internals.

 

 

Careful, Steve, or you may end up catching the potentially fatal 'concertinaritus' and need to be put on a course of antibiotics. :ph34r:

 

Chris

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I've just opened a 30b Lachenal, basic mahogany version, and this thread immediately came to mind! The RHS was indeed noticeably dirtier than the left, and I can still smell (and taste) the nicotine.

It has an interesting mix of steel and brass reeds, mostly brass (s/n 56868 - originally brass).

 

This is my first attempt at restoration - any suggestions for what cleaning materials to use for the reeds and woodwork?

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There's a music shop in St John's that is the main seller of accordions in the province of Newfoundland (O'Brien's), and they have a neat piece in the front window where they took part of the exterior of a (presumably broken beyond repaid) Hohner melodeon, and cleaned/refurbed half and left the other half as-is. It was a neat side-by-side demo of "here's what we can do for your 'box." It'd be cool to see another photo of the grotty concertina above once it's been refurbished!

 

I've done some similar pics of string instruments I've refurbished, and I have an Appalachian dulcimer that was covered in engrained dirt, so I cleaned half and left half for visual contrast.... :P

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This is my first attempt at restoration - any suggestions for what cleaning materials to use for the reeds and woodwork?

 

When I was doing jukeboxes, I sometimes used denture cleaner (the fizzy tablets) on yellowed plastics and delicate parts.

 

In the good old days before we knew what global warming was, nothing cleaned like freon.

 

I would think that a little bit of cigarette smoke would be probably be a good thing for the bellows. A bit of oil and nicotine tar on the leather would help keep it supple, right?

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