What Makes A "great" Concertina?

[BruceB]

Hi Everyone,

 

A while back I wrote about a Lachenal "New Model" (serial #48883) metal ended treble english concertina that I received in a trade for a "New Model" crane. I said that I thought it was really excellent except for being very loud and almost harsh sounding. I was having trouble trying to play it with less volume. The reeds were exceptionally responsive and it was in great condition.

 

Anyway, I emailed Wim Wakker about it and ended up sending it to him for evaluation. He liked it too but said a new riveted action and resetting & tuning the reeds would do wonders. I went ahead with this (new pads, valves & bushings too), and got it back Monday morning.

 

It's great. The harshness is totally gone and now it's easy to play from soft to loud (mostly due to the reed resetting, according to Wim, if I understood him correctly). It's a really fast concertina, and feels like a little rocket when played. Wim said it will play & sound even better in a few months when it breaks in. I know from experience that is true as my Concertina Connection rebuilt tenor Aeola easily improved as it played in. The Lachenal is going to be my primary concertina.

 

I'm not sure about this yet, but I think I'm going to sell my CC rebuilt tenor Aeola (33402) because I don't really need two high end englishes and I could use the money. (I also have my Morse, which I think is a great concertina too.) There is a picture, description & sound file of the tenor at the Concertina Connection website under "Recently sold concertinas". It's a great concertina, totally rebuilt, with a pure, beautiful tone. I'll have it at the NE Squeeze-In this weekend if anyone wants to try it out. I'll be there Friday afternoon and probably leave Saturday night after the concert. I'll have a name tag with "Bruce" on it. I'm a 6' tall skinny guy with glasses and an english concertina.

 

 

So, why do I prefer the Lachenal over the Aeola, and generally, what attracts someone to one concertina over another? After I played the tenor for a while I started to think of what Randy Hudson wrote when he put an excellent, rebuilt TT Edeophone up for sale. He said he realized that he's not really a tenor-treble kind of guy and mostly went back to his treble concertina. I think this is true of me too, I'm a treble kind of guy. I prefer the smaller, more compact treble just a bit more even though I found the lower notes of the tenor very useful at times. I find it sometimes messes me up just a bit switching back & forth from tenor to treble, mostly when working on new tunes from "Dancing With Ma Baby." Once I know a tune well it's not a problem, but on tunes I don't yet know I find myself hitting notes a row above or below what I want. This did surprise me as I was sure I'd much prefer a tenor or TT over a straight treble.

 

Another factor that attracts me to the Lachenal is it's tone. I think the Aeola probably sounds more beautiful & pure, and most people would probably prefer it's tone over the Lachenal, but for some reason I prefer the Lachenal. It's a bit brighter, more of an edgy sound perhaps. It's kind of a sassy, in your face tone, maybe with more harmonics (upper partials?) or something. Anyway, I just like how the Lachenal sounds, more than almost any concertina I've heard. Both have very responsive reeds that feel much alike and since Wim reset the reeds on both I guess that makes sense. If I was buying another concertina I'd mostly go by how it sounds anf fix/replace whatever else I wasn't happy with.

 

BTW, even with the "New Model" & Aeola I still love playing my Morse, which I recently got back from someone after not having it for several months. It's so effortless to play (easier than my other ones) as it's so light and has such a great, quick, light action. I really like it's tone too. It's loud, bright, and the tone has just a little bit of a growl (like the tone has a slightly dirty component to it?). It's sounds really different than a vintage concertina, but in a good way. It also seems immune to temp & humidity changes, which is nice. I could be very happy with only a Morse, actually.

 

Anyone else want to say why they prefer one concertina over another possibly equally good one?

 

bruce boysen, from northern NJ

[Ken_Coles]

A fascinating topic. As someone who primarily plays anglo, I'm considering what to keep because two instruments I ordered long ago are being completed this year. For example, how to choose between two similar instruments of the same make and layout? I am sure I will keep only one (they are Rosewood/bone Lachenal anglos in C/G). When I record my self or close my eyes, the tone is very similar. I'm not sure I could identify them on a recording, one from the other. But one is clearly more responsive, and I had the reed set adjusted on each one once already. Do some have better sets of reeds than others? Maybe they do. Frank E. has said so.

 

And last night I compared the Tedrow baritone I have on loan with the Geuns-Wakker baritone Bob sold me a while back. Both are responsive and superbly made, but the tone is different. The Geuns I might call nasal, while the Tedrow is more reedy. This would come down to what you prefer, which is what Chris Timson told us long ago in the concertina.faq.

[Stephen Chambers]

Do some have better sets of reeds than others?

They certainly do, steel reeds were hand made, not machine-profiled, so they are of very variable quality depending on the individual reed maker, though Lachenal's brass reeds were mass-produced by being profiled on a milling machine. Lachenal's top reed maker, a Mr. Green, was so good that Wheatstone's wanted him badly.

 

I am reminded of the time that John Doucet brought two Cajun accordions in D with handmade reeds, that I had ordered, to my motel room in Lafayette. One had Salpa reeds, the other Binci "Professional", and though I preferred the look of the one with the Salpa reeds, I immediately knew that the Binci reeded one was the one I was going to keep. But if I had only ever played the one with the Salpa reeds, I would have been happy enough with it !

[Cecil]

Bruce,

What is a "tenor-treble kind of guy" ??

Does not the music decide? Either you use the top 7 notes (more) and you need the treble or you use the bottom 7(8) notes (more) and you need the tenor...?

If you need both...sell something else...

 

If the sound decides..you may need one for each piece of music..buy some more..