How to make a concertina ?

[ceol of eire]

I am new to concertina.net and I saw people talking about making concertinas, can anyone please tell me how to make one or a webstite that will tell me.

I would also like it to be a C/G concertina if that means anything to you guys...

Thanks.

[Bill N]

Go to Bob Tedrow, Homewood Music web-site. There is a photo-essay that takes you through the whole process.

[ceol of eire]

Go to Bob Tedrow, Homewood Music web-site. There is a photo-essay that takes you through the whole process.

Thanks but its very complicated to understand. (I'm only 13).

[Bill N]

Thanks but its very complicated to understand. (I'm only 13).

 

Are you looking in the right spot? Bob took pictures at each step, and put a caption under each explaining wht the photo shows. About as simple as it gets, I think!

 

http://hmi.homewood.net/twitterzephyr/

[Larry Stout]

Go to Bob Tedrow, Homewood Music web-site. There is a photo-essay that takes you through the whole process.

Thanks but its very complicated to understand. (I'm only 13).

 

I'm 63 and it's still complicated! There are a lot of parts and making a concertina is a big project. Wim Wakker showed all the steps to make a high end G/C anglo at

 

http://www.wakker-concertinas.com/making%20of.htm

 

Since that time Concertina Connection has produced a kit to make an anglo. Others have used the kit to make their own (it's called a Clover). I'm guessing that that would be a bit ambitious, but keep it in mind if you develop woodworking and leather working skills. Making instruments is great fun (it's been one of my hobbies) but I don't think I'd start with a concertina. (There are over a thousand parts!)

[ceol of eire]

Go to Bob Tedrow, Homewood Music web-site. There is a photo-essay that takes you through the whole process.

Thanks but its very complicated to understand. (I'm only 13).

 

I'm 63 and it's still complicated! There are a lot of parts and making a concertina is a big project. Wim Wakker showed all the steps to make a high end G/C anglo at

 

http://www.wakker-concertinas.com/making%20of.htm

 

Since that time Concertina Connection has produced a kit to make an anglo. Others have used the kit to make their own (it's called a Clover). I'm guessing that that would be a bit ambitious, but keep it in mind if you develop woodworking and leather working skills. Making instruments is great fun (it's been one of my hobbies) but I don't think I'd start with a concertina. (There are over a thousand parts!)

Thanks for the advice, what would you say I should start with?

[richard]

Hi

 

You are very ambitious!

 

How about starting by getting an old concertina that is a REAL fixer-upper and getting that into working order. That would familiarize you with all the elements.

 

Richard

[JimLucas]

Thanks for the advice, what would you say I should start with?

A well equipped workshop.

[Geoff Wooff]

The 'old' concertinas that most of us play were made in a factory situation. This is where no single person made the whole instrument. It was made by a team of people , each having the specialised skills for producing the parts under their control.

 

It is only in very recent times, during the current revival of interest in playing and making Concertinas, that some instruments are produced entirely by one person. There are a lot of different skills needed for this and each one has to be learnt and perfected individually.

 

So, your question of where to start:

 

Begin with the skills that you have, with the passion that you have for an instrument, with the instrument that you can already play.That is how I started.

 

If it really is the Concertina that you want to make then the two suggestions above ( build one from a Kit or restore an old one) are good places to start.

 

If you wish to get a 'Course' in instrument making then as far as I recall there is (or has been)one in Cork for Violin making. In many areas it is possible to get an Evening Class in Guitar making. There are two or three Colleges in England

that give full time courses in musical instrument making .

 

Best of luck,

Geoff.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Geoff Wooff

[Anglo-Irishman]

Thanks for the advice, what would you say I should start with?

 

If your aim is to play music on an instrument you've made yourself, my advice would be start with a stringed instrument of some kind. These have a lot fewer parts than a concertina, and require a lot fewer tools. There are kits for guitars, mandolins, banjos, even Renaisssance citterns, on the market, and if you decide to build from scratch, you can buy things like tuning pegs, bridges, even fingerboards prepared for fretting.

 

I wasn't as young as you are when I did my first scratch-building project, but I was still at school at the time. My project was a langeleik, a Norwegian zither, which had taken my fancy when I read about it in a book on musical instruments. All I bought was the wood, the tuning machines and the strings. It worked fine - and still does after almost 50 years - but it's a very simple kind of instrument, no comparison with the concertina for complexity of construction! And the only tools I needed were a fine back-saw, a fretsaw, a hand drill, sandpaper and a screwdriver to screw on the tuners. For this modest investment, I learned a lot about woodworking, acoustics and music theory. And I had a fun instrument!

 

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

John

[Dave Gray]

I built my first guitar at your age with just a set of plans and very few tools. I used the materials I had to hand, it had a plywood top, formica sides and it sounded awful. However, I played it for a number of years and it was a great introduction to instrument making.

 

There are many other "simple" projects that you can start with, such as whistles made of pvc pipe. However, if you have your heart set on a concertina I would try to get a fixer-upper and get familiar with the workings/parts and develop your skills.