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Inside A Cheap Chinese Concertina


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I just bought a cheap Chinese computer off eBay to use as a bellows donor for a DIY midi concertina. I thought that folks might be interested to see its innards.

 

It is this model, the cheapest 20B Anglo there is, sold under various brand names, you have probably seen pictures of the like on eBay:

 

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The ends are fastened with 6 wood screws through some finishing washers:

 

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Looks like some thin neoprene for a gasket:

 

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I was surprised to find individual reeds waxed in to a little reed block. I was expecting to find a single strip of reeds like the East German concertinas. The valves are pretty shoddy, but the reeds look like somebody has at least tried to tune them.

 

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As you can see in the last picture, the reed block is held in place by a couple of flanges. The reed block is easily removed by unscrewing the screws and turning the flanges. I like its serviceability, I have a CC Elise where the blocks are glued to the board which makes it pretty tough to get at the inside reeds.

 

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Onto the action board, look familiar? Sort of Stagi like, but I thought it might have been made out of wood. Better than I expected it to be.

 

The action is nailed down to the board and the ends of the nails protrude through to the other side of the board.

 

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Don't you love those rubber spacers?

 

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Finally, the bellows, which are quite jolly - 9 folds (or 11 depending upon how you count the folds) and a pair of nice snaps to hold the bellows tightly closed when not in use. These snaps seem to be a good idea, why do they only appear on the cheapest concertinas? The bellows are paper on the inside and some sort of plasticky material on the show side.

 

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The box is mostly in tune-ish, except for the lowest G row button being a G/D instead of a B/A. Does not sound horrible, but it is wheezy and some of the notes are a bit reluctant to sound. The bellows are stiff, but it is brand new so hopefully they will work themselves in a bit over time.

 

With a bit of work, it could probably be made serviceable. New valves, a touch tune, some neoprene tubing to replace the rubber on the buttons.

 

I am happy with my purchase, $60 for some nice red bellows and some reeds to practice tuning on, and ...

 

it is very red!

 

Don.

Edited by Don Taylor
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I'd say, pretty much like the average 20b Stagi, as to the looks. This is including the accordionish reed blocks. I still have one of those (Stagi boxes, I mean) sitting on a shelf, with just about half its rotten rubber spacers replaced by pieces of hand-soap tubes... :D

 

Don, good luck with your experimenting...

Best wishes - Wolf

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I have one of those. Bought it years ago in San Francisco. More than $60 but a good deal at the time. I keep it on my boat. It seems to survive the damp and what ever. I've made a couple of small mechanical repairs to the action but nothing serious. That G row G/D instead of the B/A is a problem when I switch from my Wheatstone (which I won't keep on my boat). But the G/D is the same as my old East German Scholer (which still plays fairly well but an octave lower). Something to squeeze is better than nothing -- especially when having a beer while sailing.

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