Two New Concertinas

[Frank Edgley]

I have just posted pictures of two newly made concertinas, one destined for Moscow, Russia, and one which will be sent to Rhode Island. Please check out my blog at http://edgleyconcertinas.blogspot.com .

[MitfordRI]

I have just posted pictures of two newly made concertinas, one destined for Moscow, Russia, and one which will be sent to Rhode Island. Please check out my blog at http://edgleyconcertinas.blogspot.com .

 

Frank, the ebony concertina is just gorgeous!! Can't wait to play it later this week. Color me thrilled!!

 

Lucy

[MitfordRI]

I have just posted pictures of two newly made concertinas, one destined for Moscow, Russia, and one which will be sent to Rhode Island. Please check out my blog at http://edgleyconcertinas.blogspot.com .

 

As I posted elsewhere a few moments ago, I am the owner of the very beautiful ebony and curly maple concertina on Frank's blog. To anyone who is struggling with which concertina to buy, I can't recommend my experience with Frank enough. He is endlessly patient, generous with his time and stays in communication throughout the process. I.e., after the reed pans were finished, Frank sent me an email telling me the concertina was ready to be assembled. After it was assembled, he sent me an email to let me know he was fine-tuning the tuning. When I asked for my concertina to be "special" (go ahead, roll your eyes - I would), he called me to discuss wood choices and offered to 'cap' the handles in the curly maple. My only regret is that the photographs on his blog don't show the handles so you can't see how very beautiful this concertina is.

 

The craftsmanship is truly beautiful. I expected Frank's woodworking to be beautiful as he taught woodworking for many years. But I was even impressed by his leather work. My other hobbies are letterpress printing and leather bookbinding. So I am fussy about leather work and skiving.

 

The concertina has an absolutely gorgeous mellow sound, which was exactly what I had requested. In other words, Frank will not only build a concertina out of different woods at the purchaser's request. He will also explain how the various woods affect tone and then he will tweak the reeds (to the extent possible) to produce the tone desired by the player.

 

The concertina plays like a dream. Despite being straight of the box new, the bellows are supple and respond quickly. I had expected that the bellows in particular would need a breaking in period. But I can see that the Edgley really isn't going to need a break in period at all. The button action is incredibly quiet! And, as expected with an Edgley concertina, the reed response is superb.

 

All in all, I can't recommend either Frank Edgley or his beautiful concertinas enough. He is a wonderful man who makes very beautiful instruments. And he doesn't charge for emails or phone calls. But maybe he should ... :-)

 

Thank you so much Frank,

 

 

 

Lucy Maddock

Rhode Island