Help With New Purchase-Generic Italian 48 Button English Concertina

[portland]

First, my apologies-I am a total newbee and barely know the terms. (I am musical but dont play this type of instrument. This is to be a gift for my son, who plays accordian and other instruments.

I purchased the concertina pictured below from an older man who, unfortunately, lives in a damp, cool environment with inadequate heating. He said he bought this instrument, new, from a local music store in 1980 but never learned to play it. It has been stored in a closet-in a hard wood case-for the last 33 years!

 

There are no numbers or names on the instrument, only a transparent sticker that reads "Made in Italy".

 

I'm curious what it is. From internet surfing, the fretwork looks closest to a Bastari. It has one black key to inflate the bellows on the side not pictured.

 

I'd also appreciate a little advice about its condition. It looks new. The bellows (there are 8 folds) are not cracked, and I don't think they leak (when I inflate the bellows and position it vertically, it takes about 10-12 seconds for the bellows to deflate). The buttons all work smoothly, and do not feel loose. The notes all play normally on both in and out directions and all but one of the highest notes are in tune. The one problem is a low B note-on the out direction it is wheezy and weak, but it sounds strong when inflating the bellows.

 

The instrument smells moldy, though there is no visible mold. It doesnt reek but is noticeable.

 

 

So, my questions are:

1) what instrument is this?

2) how much, generally, would it cost to repair the B note? I am semiproficient in taking things apart, but dont want to get into a situation where I may damage things by not knowing what I am doing. I know there are repair instructions on line, etc. I also assume the note wont fix itself over time, but is this this possible?

3) How can I get rid of the moldy smell? I noticed the hard wood case, which also smells moldy, also smells of cinnamon and I assume the previous owner tried this to absorb the odor.

 

I appreciate any ideas or suggestions. There are accordian repair shops in town but dont know if they also deal with concertinas.

Thanks very much for reading this.

 

[Don Taylor]

I can speak a little about the mouldy smell as I bought a concertina that smelt of mould and, I think, cigar or pipe tobacco.

 

I bought a new non-smelly case for it and I left the concertina exposed to the air for a few hours each day with a small fan blowing on it, turning the concertina around occasionally. After a few weeks (yes, weeks) the smell dissipated and is now gone. I only store it in the clean case.

 

You can also wipe the bellows with a moistened (not wet) cloth to clean the surface. Do not get the bellows wet as they might come apart on you, you can clean them - but not wash them. One normally uses a bleach solution to kill mould in a house, but I would not try that on a concertina unless I was truly desperate.

 

If it is a Bastari and you live in the US then the Button Box in Maine is probably the best place to get any maintenance work done on it:

http://www.buttonbox.com/

 

Other concertina fettlers can help, but the Button Box seems to be the only place that talks about servicing Stagi/Bastari's. If it is a Bastari then you can try an accordion repairer as these boxes use accordion reeds. If it has concertina reeds inside (unlikely if it was made in Italy) then you probably do not want to take it to an accordion shop unless they can prove to you that they know what they are doing.

 

More pictures might help in identification. You probably don't want to take an end off, but a picture of the reeds would be interesting.

 

Don.

[Wolf Molkentin]

As to the kind of instrument I'd second Don's opionion.

 

My guess would have been Stagi (whereas Bastari widely meant the same manufacturer), it is most likely accordion-reeded. If so you could unworriedly take it to the lokal accordion repairman.

 

Good luck to you exploring the EC universe...

[MatthewVanitas]

Is there any safe way (particularly now that it's winter) to let sunlight help deodorize the instrument? Perhaps it it were left opened up and exposed to light on a shelf by a window, so long as it wasn't exposed to great heat or great cold, that would help, along with the other suggestions of careful cleaning.

 

 

Clearly a much less delicate object, but I received a small soft gig bag for guitar effects panel off eBay that simply stank of cigarette smoke, but wasn't worth the postage of returning. I tried all kinds of things like pouring baking soda into it, soaking it in soapy water and wringing it out (which permanently wrinkled the surface, but whatever), but it still had plenty of lingering smell. I finally just shrugged and jammed it into the window-frame of my east-facing window, held between the window and screen, and left it there for a few weeks at a time, turning it occasionally to expose all sides, and now it has no cig or staleness smell at all. I would definitely try airing out in the sunlight on your empty wooden instrument case, but for the inside of the actual concertina you'd want to be very sure you're not overheating the reedblocks, though now being winter might be much safer.

 

 

I had some success with detaching bellows from a musty accordion and winding a dryer sheet in and out of the folds of the bellows to soak up the smell.

 

What you really don't want to do is use any kind of powder on any part of the instrument, because if you get little bits of baking soda or whatever caught in the reeds that could cause all kinds of nasty clogs. I would idly wonder if putting whole coffee beans (ensuring they aren't crumbly/dusty) kotted in a cheescloth and tucking them inside the body or bellows while they air out would help. Again can't really do any harm on the wooden case, but I'd defer to the experts here about the insides of the instrument itself.

 

If you google up some terms like "moldy accordion", "stinky accordion", "smelly accordion" this is an issue that (perhaps unsurprisingly) gets a fair bit of discussion on online forums. Usually due to buying old vintage ones that have sat in a basement or attic, or been exposed to lots of cigarettes by playing in bars.

 

In whatever case, simply airing out the insides of the concertina has got to help.

 

 

Other than the smell and one buzzy reed (and some poster here may come along in a day or so with an easy fix), so long as you got a good price on this it sounds like a great addition to your son's sound. What kind of music will he be using it for?

Edited December 18, 2013 by MatthewVanitas

[portland]

Thanks to all! I did wipe each fold of the bellows out with a dampened piece of cotton gauze, and it is currently in a room with a fan turned on it, bellows as open as I can get it safely.

 

I am hesitant to remove the end, fearing that various small parts will fall out-or perhaps I wont be able to get the end back on securely. If this is a silly worry, I'll chance opening it up and perhaps there is a makers mark inside. To paraphrase a saying, "After all, what could possibly go wrong?"

 

At least I could air out the insides better in that case as well. One article I read cautioned against leaving the end cap off too long for fear of things warping.

 

The tone of the instrument seems less brassy (ie softer, more rounded tone) than what I have seen posted on you tube concertina clips, so I assume it has accordian and not concertina reeds.

 

 

I think I got a good price-$450-for a 48 key instrument; I reasoned that the Jackie or the Rochelle, though good and new, are starter instruments and have less keys.

 

My son is classically trained and a cellist, but taught himself accordian and plays some new composition stuff with friends. I think he will be up to the task of being presented with a complicated, challenging instrument. A piano accordian is easier, but he did well with this in a couple of months. I figure if this plan bombs, I would then like to know better what I have.

[gcoover]

Very likely this is one of the Bastari instruments brought over and sold by Oliver Heatwole in the 1980's, so it would definitely have accordion reeds in a very unusual format - double stacked. There should be no problems with opening it up (removing the 6 screws on the end) - it's not like a Saturday morning cartoon where all the innards are going to spring out. This would also give you an opportunity to make sure the interior is clean and free of crud or mold. Just don't tighten the screws too much when you put the end back on - snug is good, but it's not intended a test of strength. Airing it out is probably the best thing, perhaps there is some sort of charcoal filter material that would be good at absorbing odors.

[Don Taylor]

The potential problem with taking the ends of an unknown Stagi/Bastari is not that it will spring apart, but that the buttons will be tricky to line up to get back inside the holes in the case when you put it back together again. It might be easy, or it might be an exercise in patience.

 

It is going to have to come apart eventually, so you probably have to bite the bullet.

 

Read this: http://www.concertina.net/gs_stagirepair.html

 

and this thread: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=13950

 

These are about Stagi Anglos, so maybe not the same action inside yours.

 

Don.

[Wolf Molkentin]

These are about Stagi Anglos, so maybe not the same action inside yours.

 

But in fact that had been (and still would be) my (minor; see below) concern as well - not only due to the Stagi/Bastari brand in general but also because the buttons don't seem to stand consistently in parallel but somewhat erratic, which might be an indication of the above-mentioned kind of action.

 

OTOH, you might well dare removing the ends; reassembling the buttons would be nothing impossible, just a matter of patience and some amount of time...

 

I dealt with that problem myself some years ago when trying to "cure" my eBay 20b Stagi bisonoric "German" concertina (which I never came to play properly due to persistent problems with sticky buttons)....

Edited December 19, 2013 by blue eyed sailor

[MatthewVanitas]

Well, one way to address the (very minor) pondering of permutations is to post us some nice clear pics whenever you take the keyboard off the ends. Based on my very limited experience with Anglos, a lot of Stagi/Bastari concertinas have a basic "see-saw" action of aluminum levers, but some weird subset of them have a finer system of narrow wires that join button to pad. So worth taking a photo of when you open it up. I can't speak to the above comment on risk of warpage to the soundbaord over time, but given how many years it's sat, opening it up entirely and posting us a photo within a few days sounds the least of all comparative risks!

 

So far as removing and putting the ends back on: again personal opinion supplemented with online reading, but though lining the buttons back up with their holes as you reassemble is a minor pain, it certainly shouldn't keep you from further inspection. Personally, based largely on 20-button mid-century cheap Italian jobbies, if you try to place the end back atop the buttons, and they don't want to line up, I found that pencil (mechanical or wood) with a sturdy eraser is invaluable in lining up buttons as you reassemble. Particularly if you have an extra person handy (unlike this poor combat-vet bachelor). If you're sliding your end of 20-some holes back onto its soudboard with equivalent buttons, and things aren't quite lining up perfectly, it's easy work to have someone reach over with a pencil eraser and stick it through the hole and carefully nudge the button back into alignment with its hole. Easy-peasy.

 

Now, while you have the ends open, a vital thing to check out on Bastari/Stagi is whether the linkage between button and arm is formed with a little rubber cylindrical piece. There are a number of writeups about how said linkages decay and need replacing over time; the basic breakdown is at http://www.concertina.net/gs_stagirepair.html . Long/short, at some point the Italians figured that rather than having complex mechanical joints at junctures, they could just use flexible rubber tubing. Great idea, but over the course of a half-century the tubing gets all cracked and dry and can't fulfill its role as substituting for a proper mechanical linkage. This is precisely why, if you look at eBay for old Bastari/Stagi/Silvagn/Italian/etc WWII-1980s concertinas you see an absolute ton where buttons are "missing"; largely fallen down inside the action and rattling around. So, when you open up your ends, take a look at the joint between button-shaft and the lever/wire. It may be somethig complex, but quite possibly it's a bit of antiquated rubber tubing that's dried out and rock-hard and flaking apart. Fortunately, you can buy replacement tubing that'll last for years for about $1/ft on eBay, but still yet another reason it's good to take the ends off and shoot us a good photo.

 

 

 

My son is classically trained and a cellist, but taught himself accordian and plays some new composition stuff with friends. I think he will be up to the task of being presented with a complicated, challenging instrument.

A cellist? Sure, English should be quite an easy experiment for him. Not that it matters hugely either way, but it'd be useful to to figure out what octave your English plays in: either the same octave as a violin, or the octave below that which fills the position between the modern viola and 'cello. For odd historical reasons there's no "Classical"equivalent to that, except by calling it a "violin an octave low". But neither answer is wrong in the slightest.

[portland]

This is an update, with pictures as suggested. I had the occasion to take the instrument apart to repair a sticking button, and this is what the insides look like.

 

Is this still likely a Bastari? Please note that the button and the "see saw" lever that opens the air channels has a riveted joint, not rubber.

 

Incidentally, this was a super easy repair. I was fearful of how long it would take, but I was able to hold the little stubby aluminum part that the button is attached to, and the button-which was slightly out of parallel with the longer lever-was easily bent back. By holding the box that holds the reeds and levers upside down so the buttons all dangled downward, I was able to get the wood cover with the holes on it reinstalled.