Last Aeola?

[Mike Franch]

I bought a late Aeola EC, despite their poor reputation, at what seemed to be a good price. It wasn't in as good condition as I hoped, but Greg Jowaisas turned it into something I'm very happy to have and to play. (It would be a digression to go into what a pleasure it was to work with him, and how I valued his counsel as to what to do, but it should be said!) Greg's work on the instrument confirmed the quality problems on these late Wheatstones. As he commented in an email message, "Crazy that they ever let this instrument leave the factory!"

 

Which gets me to the subject of this post. I'm thinking that this was the last EC before Boosey & Hawkes shut the operation down. My concertina is No. 37071. While there are later anglos, Ledger SD03, p. 115 here lists ten completed concertinas, the last being my 37071 on August 8, 1974. There are higher numbers listed as completed, but they were done earlier in the year (I wonder why that would be).

 

I also wonder what happened to the others that weren't finished? Did they go to Steve Dickinson? Were they scrapped? Did Boosey & Hawkes rebadge them for the brief period they produced concertinas under the own name?

 

I probably should be practicing rather than writing this long posting, but I'm curious, and I don't know a better audience to express that curiosity to.

 

(Not sure the program is putting the URL to the Wheatstone ledgers in properly. It's www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD03/PAGES/D3P1150S.HTM.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Mike Franch

[Chris Ghent]

An anecdote on numbers and dates. I have a Norton Commando in the shed and anoraks have looked into every aspect of Commando production. Of great interest was a long period when the numbers went backwards compared to delivery dates. A person who had worked in the factory eventually supplied the reason. They had run out of one particular part and the only place they had to store otherwise completed bikes was in a very long narrow room with only one door, at one of the ends. So when the parts arrived the bikes came out of the room last first, reversing the number direction.

[cjmiller]

Greg's work on the instrument confirmed the quality problems on these late Wheatstones. As he commented in an email message, "Crazy that they ever let this instrument leave the factory!"

 

 

Would you please go into a bit of detail on what the problems were? Was it lack of quality in the materials, or machining, or assembly?

[Greg Jowaisas]

As the most recent repair person for this instrument I'll jump in and say the most tedious work needed on this concertina concerned the bellows. 50s and 60s Wheatstones went with a butterfly covering for the valleys. In some cases folded card with no linen or leather valley hinge was used. In this case and with some other Wheatstones I've worked on from this era (error!) there was no conventional valley fold leather, just the butterfly to cover and seal the valley and cover both exposed sides of card. I'm not a fan of the butterfly covering. With the right material and carefully applied it can work. But I think there can be a lot of unnecessary stress in the crease in the valley. As the bellows are stretched and the "butterfly" speads its wings the "valley floor" can be stressed and, in this case, work loose causing leaks.

 

Valley leaks can be difficult to seal. In addition I discovered there were leaks in the top runs or ribs of the bellows. As I played "whack-a-mole" tracing down these leaks I found the top runs appeared to have been glued with a contact(?) type adhesive which was no longer viable. I gave up looking for individual leaks and pried up the top runs wholesale and glued them back down properly. Quite the repairman's nightmare.

 

(The 50s and 60s Wheatstones that were shipped to South Africa and now resurface have often had their bellows replaced. Irish Trad aficionados may tremble at the Africaners preference for 8-fold bellows but I'm beginning to appreciate some of the S.A. bellows construction as possible improvements over the originals!)

 

The good news was, that in the end, the bellows on Mike's Aeola were fairly tight and the instrument much more playable.

 

I also spent considerable time making sure the reed shoes were tight and properly fitted in their slots. This included a few instances of modifying dovetail slots so the reed tongues would clear the underneath vents. I felt the aluminum shoe and steel tongue reeds were good (but not outstanding as one might associate with the name "Aeola").

 

The bellows appeared to me as factory originals. While no one can really tell what indignities the bellows may have suffered in storage and treatment the past 40 years I suspect that if I had been on the quality control end I would have never let them out of the factory.

 

Greg

 

Edited several times for pesky spelling mistakes

Edited June 22, 2012 by Greg Jowaisas

[Mike Franch]

. . . I suspect that if I had been on the quality control end I would have never let them out of the factory.

 

Thanks for the comprehensive reply, Greg (and for your comprehensive work on the instrument, and, OMG, especially the bellows).

 

I think your answer reinforces my sense that this Aeola was the end of the line. They were down to a few employees, they were only producing a few of these, from the ledgers it looks like their main effort was on anglos, and that the surviving staff was just shoving out the door what few instruments they could. It wouldn't surprise me if there was no quality control, period.

 

So the general view that it is better to avoid these late instruments is probably correct. I imagine that if I'd consulted the collected wisdom of the C.net community, that is the answer that I would have gotten. On the other hand, thanks to Greg's ministrations (and he had to do far more than the bellows work he described above) I've gotten something that is really very nice to play, sounds nice, and which I am enjoying enormously. Plus, it comes with a great tale. I'm happy!

 

Mike