Minor Damages To Concertina: Weather Or Human Made?

[Azalin]

Hello all, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

I recently went to a resort in the Dominican Republic, and something somewhat weird happened to my Dipper concertina. To put things in context, things started happening before the trip at my apartment in Canada. Maybe because of the lack of humidity, some notes were not working properly, so I did the usual fixing procedure by opening the concertina and cleaning the reeds in question. Things were "OK" beside one note playing not as loud as it used to. Since I've had a few other high notes not working for a few years now (notes I'm not using because they're very high) I decided sending it to Paul Read in Toronto for repair would be a good idea at one point, to have everything fixed and adjusted in the process. So anyway, after fixing the notes, I left for the resort and brought the concertina with me. One day some notes stopped working, so I opened the concertina again and kind of fixed one note, but one other note would simply not work. It's the high C, so it's kind of bearable until I get it fixed. So I had my daily practice and put the concertina back on top of my soft camera case in the hotel room.

 

The day after, when I picked up the concertina, many strange things happened. Many notes were playing all the time even when I would not push any button, so I opened the concertina and realized the a few metal rods leading to pads were bent on the side, almost 30 degrees. So the pads were not covering the reed chambers any more. I guess I'm not using the right technical terms but hopefully you'll get the idea. So I simply bent the rods back to position with my fingers and things were "OK". But in the process of opening the concertina, I noticed that three very small piece of wood, the Algerian Tuya wood the concertina is made with, fell down. It took me a few days to realize that the wood on the right side of the concertina was cracked at a few places, and these pieces simply broke! I'm attaching an image, with red circles representing where I glued two pieces back (the third one is glued the same way but not in the picture) and the orange circles is a few examples of cracks, the wood did not detach but it's cracked and I guess must be weaker.

 

So my question is, can these problems have been caused by weather (extreme humidity at the resort, and somewhat dry weather at home). I'm using a humidifier at home during winters but did not start using it yet when problems appeared. One possibility is that the cleaning lady dropped something on it, or I don't know, tried to pick it up and dropped it. I just don't know how the metal rods could be bent so much? Even if the concertina was dropped, why would the internal rods be bent 30 degrees? One more thing I realize, maybe some buttons where pushed overnight, because I simply half put the concertina back in the soft case, and maybe some buttons and pressed in position. I will certainly be more careful in the future and use the hard case when I'm travelling and always put it back in, but I'm not sure what happened.

 

Any thoughts?

 

[malcolmbebb]

My initial reaction - somebody dropped it when you weren't in the room. Or, conceivably, it rolled off after time and somebody picked it up and put it back.

[Geoff Wooff]

This all sounds quite strange ! Do you mean that the levers were bent to one side or radially, by 30° ?!

 

The ends appear to be Verneered with that fancy wood... do you mean that that was what cracked off or was the fret work cracked all the way through ? Not that it would help me, or you, to try to understand how this all came about, but differential wood shrinkage / expansion caused by rapid and huge changes in humidity could cause verneers to part company with the base timber.

 

Your concertina is a recent model from the Dippers , as I recall, and even 'well seasoned' wood will become more stable with time.

 

The wood in Old Concertinas react less, or much more slowly, to changes in Humidity... Dangers of cracking and warping are more likely with new instruments.

[gcoover]

Dominican Republic.....Voodoo?

 

Or maybe someone at the hotel tried to open it up, messed with it, broke a few bits and then put it back hoping no one would notice.

 

I'm sure Colin and Rosalie and John can make it right again if you send it to them.

[Azalin]

My initial reaction - somebody dropped it when you weren't in the room. Or, conceivably, it rolled off after time and somebody picked it up and put it back.

 

Yes it's my initial reaction too. I just got an email from Colin and he's also convinced it was caused by impact. It could be something as simple as the cleaning lady lifting it from the floor and putting it on something while she was cleaning the floor, and the concertina could have dropped a few feet. It's my fault any way, I should not leave such concertina in the open like this.

[Azalin]

This all sounds quite strange ! Do you mean that the levers were bent to one side or radially, by 30° ?!

 

The ends appear to be Verneered with that fancy wood... do you mean that that was what cracked off or was the fret work cracked all the way through ? Not that it would help me, or you, to try to understand how this all came about, but differential wood shrinkage / expansion caused by rapid and huge changes in humidity could cause verneers to part company with the base timber.

 

Your concertina is a recent model from the Dippers , as I recall, and even 'well seasoned' wood will become more stable with time.

 

The wood in Old Concertinas react less, or much more slowly, to changes in Humidity... Dangers of cracking and warping are more likely with new instruments.

 

Hey Geoff! I think the fret work itself is cracked, because the three pieces of wood I recovered were from the fretwork. I glued them back, but when you look carefully you can notice it's not perfectly back in position. I've had the concertina for six years I think, and had it around in Vietnam and Singapore, causing extreme weather differences and I've never had something worse than a few reeds or pads I had to adjust. So yeah definitely caused by heavy impact

[Geoff Wooff]

So, as a point of interest, was it the long levers that were bent and all in the same direction and just at one end ? Or perhaps the levers directly under the broken frets.

 

Wow, it sounds like some impact indeed , one that I would have thought would have left some sort of bruise on the outer rim of one end...

Edited December 25, 2013 by Geoff Wooff

[Dirge]

Wow, it sounds like some impact indeed , one that I would have thought would have left some sort of bruise on the outer rim of one end...

My thoughts too. Indeed I'm sceptical that the levers would bend at all.

 

How about someone's kid (that suspicious looking cleaning lady's boy probably) poked a spike (your fettling screwdriver?) into the frets hard to see what happened, damaging the wood in the process?

[Azalin]

 

Wow, it sounds like some impact indeed , one that I would have thought would have left some sort of bruise on the outer rim of one end...

My thoughts too. Indeed I'm sceptical that the levers would bend at all.

 

How about someone's kid (that suspicious looking cleaning lady's boy probably) poked a spike (your fettling screwdriver?) into the frets hard to see what happened, damaging the wood in the process?

 

 

I think there were two somewhat long levers that were out of angle, and from memory, both were bent on the same side, more like 15 degrees to the left. When I think of it, 30 degrees is more than I thought, it's really more like 10-15 degrees (to the left). I really don't think someone played with it. The resort was Club Med in Punta Cana (paid by the job, not that I have the money for this!) and the staff is highly professional. They would not be allowed to bring the kids around. We also saw our cleaning lady work (and others) and they work either alone or by teams of two. The other possible thing is that since I only half pushed the concertina into the camera soft case (duh!), it's possible some buttons were constantly pressed and these two levers might have been on heightened position on impact... maybe this could explain this?

Edited December 26, 2013 by Azalin

[Rod]

Is 'vandalism' an appropriate word in this context ? My dictionary would suggest so.

[RP3]

I have taken my Dipper to high humidity environments (Pete Gibbons' yard in August for NHICS) with no major issues caused by the humidity change other than a reed starting to buzz by being squashed in its holder by the rising humidity. That being said, the increased humidity would have been nothing like the changes your instrument would have faced in Vietnam and Latin American. And I'll say again that IMHO both of these trips were inadvisable for an instrument of that quality and expense -- it is just not made to withstand those extremes. Nevertheless, there is NO way that humidity can bend a metal lever in the manner you described. But leaving a Dipper out or only in a soft case is just asking for trouble. If it was on the floor, it could have been kicked accidentally, knocked by a vacuum or mishandled with painful results. A hard case isn't an option; it is a must in all situations. It isn't large or heavy but it is the only way to protect your investment. Hopefully the damage can be properly repaired. I imagine that you have learned a valuable lesson about what not to do with an expensive concertina. If you need to have concertina with you in these exotic environments, why not pick up a second, less valuable instrument to take with you.

 

Ross Schlabach

[Azalin]

I have taken my Dipper to high humidity environments (Pete Gibbons' yard in August for NHICS) with no major issues caused by the humidity change other than a reed starting to buzz by being squashed in its holder by the rising humidity. That being said, the increased humidity would have been nothing like the changes your instrument would have faced in Vietnam and Latin American. And I'll say again that IMHO both of these trips were inadvisable for an instrument of that quality and expense -- it is just not made to withstand those extremes. Nevertheless, there is NO way that humidity can bend a metal lever in the manner you described. But leaving a Dipper out or only in a soft case is just asking for trouble. If it was on the floor, it could have been kicked accidentally, knocked by a vacuum or mishandled with painful results. A hard case isn't an option; it is a must in all situations. It isn't large or heavy but it is the only way to protect your investment. Hopefully the damage can be properly repaired. I imagine that you have learned a valuable lesson about what not to do with an expensive concertina. If you need to have concertina with you in these exotic environments, why not pick up a second, less valuable instrument to take with you.

 

Ross Schlabach

 

You can be certain I learned a valuable lesson. As to bringing the Dipper to Vietnam, I was there for 8 months two years ago so I really had to bring it with me.

[Stephen Chambers]

I will certainly be more careful in the future and use the hard case when I'm travelling and always put it back in, but I'm not sure what happened.

 

 

This certainly sounds more like impact/mishandling damage, which that should have prevented, but I think anyone travelling with an instrument would be wise to keep it shut up in its hard case all the time, when they're not playing it, to (hopefully) lessen the effects of severe changes in (or the lack of) humidity - indeed, I'd put it out of the way in the wardrobe/closet too if it was mine.

 

As an illustration of what a change in climate can do - there was a Canadian girl in my shop (during the Irish "Summer"!) who'd been travelling around Europe and by the time she got to Miltown Malbay her "Big Baby" Taylor guitar had become unplayable, with the strings buzzing on the frets all the time. Under the circumstances I immediately suspected that the guitar neck had developed a back-bow (because of its wood swelling with the moist air of West Clare) and this was confirmed when I sighted along it - so off came the truss-rod cover and, having slackened-off the rod, I was able to hand her back a playable guitar again, explaining that the rod would need to be re-tightened again when she got back home - after all, it's what they're for! (It's a pity concertinas are not as easily adjusted... )

[John Dipper]

Our workshop experience tells us that the damage described above can ONLY be from an impact. Note that only one side is affected. The levers being bent will have been caused by the corresponding buttons being depressed on impact. None of this is weather related.

We understand that this particular instrument has gone through massive changes in humidity in its relatively short life, but this is all within our design parameters. We have been able to rescue and restore to full working order, several of our instruments that have met with disaster. One that spent a week submersed in a flooded cellar, one that was beneath a burst water pipe in another cellar, one that was used in a paddling pool as a posh super-soaker (presumably the child in question will be removed from the will), one that was driven over by a car, and one that was attacked by a jealous wife with a bread knife!

We have sadly seen instruments that have had botched (4 tubes of Epoxy) repairs that have meant that a proper repair was impossible (even though it could have been returned to perfect condition had the botch not been perpetrated).

It is essential that anyone with a problem get in touch IMMEDIATELY with the relevant maker BEFORE reaching for Gloy, Prittstick, superglue, Araldite, PVA or the internet.

We are delighted to hear about the lives of our mechanical creations, wayward or well behaved.

We would advise:

1. A case is your first line of insurance. ALWAYS use a hard case with properly fitted blockings to protect the fretwork and mechanism. You never see a violin carried round in gig bag - why on earth chance your concertina to other people's clumsiness!?

1b. It would seem cellars are not good places to leave concertinas.

2. Contact the maker as soon as you realise your concertina has suffered a catastrophe!

3. Don't get happy with the glue - or it may be "Game Over" for Tommy Tina!

4. If you don't get any joy from the relevant maker, then ask for help on here.

A very Happy New Year and joyful squeezing to all,

John

Edited December 28, 2013 by John Dipper

[Azalin]

 

We would advise:

1. A case is your first line of insurance. ALWAYS use a hard case with properly fitted blockings to protect the fretwork and mechanism. You never see a violin carried round in gig bag - why on earth chance your concertina to other people's clumsiness!?

1b. It would seem cellars are not good places to leave concertinas.

2. Contact the maker as soon as you realise your concertina has suffered a catastrophe!

3. Don't get happy with the glue - or it may be "Game Over" for Tommy Tina!

4. If you don't get any joy from the relevant maker, then ask for help on here.

A very Happy New Year and joyful squeezing to all,

John

 

 

Thank you John. I learned my lesson about the hard case and will be using it at all times in the future. I'd like to make clear I was not asking for advice in this thread, more like an opinion on if the damages were probably weather related or human made. I would not have done anything to try to repair the concertina from advice here before hearing from you guys. But the first thing I did before reaching out to Colin or the internet, was to glue the three pieces back. Yack!

[Geoff Wooff]

Funny that I am spending the weekend making a very solid Double Concertina case for my two smaller models... it makes the case a good length to turn up on end and use as a seat. It will be properly 'blocked' and have insulation /shock absorbing linings.

 

This has been planned for a while but your Topic here, Azalin, did get me out of the Armchair.

[Azalin]

Funny that I am spending the weekend making a very solid Double Concertina case for my two smaller models... it makes the case a good length to turn up on end and use as a seat. It will be properly 'blocked' and have insulation /shock absorbing linings.

 

This has been planned for a while but your Topic here, Azalin, did get me out of the Armchair.

 

I'm glad my situation can be used as a case study of what not to do with your beloved concertina :-) It's sad because I always treat my concertina very well, I take it slowly with both hands, always make sure I drop it slowly on the table while in a session, I always keep it close to me and even bring it to the toilet with me while in a pub. I just did not see that one coming At least now it's in Toronto for minor adjustments by Paul Read, so it will be playing like new very soon :-)

 

One thing positive, having the Dipper away gives me an opportunity to focus on my Bb/F small size Carroll concertina, and it's really a gem to play. I wish more sessions around here were in C instead of D!