Air Economy

[Steve Wilson]

I've recently had the opportunity to play a Lachenal Edeophone treble EC and was surprised that air usage was more than double my Wheatstone 21. Both instruments are six fold with slight leakage, the Edeophone slightly greater. An EGC (c chord) from nothing to full expansion took approx. 11 seconds on the 21 and only 5 seconds on the Edeo.

 

Is this a normal characteristic of Lachenals?

[Geoff Wooff]

Remember Steve, that the crossectional area difference would need to be taken into account. Also a slightly greater leak will make inroads into air efficiency quite quickly.

 

Reed Set, conditon of the valves, the gaskets all need to be taken into account when comparing... but I doubt this difference is normal....

 

Another part to consider is bellows length and the depth of the Bellows folds... i notice that some Lachenals have wonderfull bellows but the folds are not so deep so the extendible length is reduced in comparison with a Wheatstone. For instance the bellows folds on my Wheatstones are 28mm deep ( both original ones and replacements by Wakker)... the folds of my Lachenal are 24mm deep (original bellows). This difference equates to quite a considerable change of total length.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Geoff Wooff

[malcolm clapp]

Is this a normal characteristic of Lachenals?

Not of an instrument of edeophone quality, I wouldn't have thought.

 

So many variables to consider. I think Geoff has covered the main ones, hence the edit.

 

Further investigation needed....

Edited September 9, 2014 by malcolm clapp

[JimLucas]

I've recently had the opportunity to play a Lachenal Edeophone treble EC and was surprised that air usage was more than double my Wheatstone 21. Both instruments are six fold with slight leakage, the Edeophone slightly greater. An EGC (c chord) from nothing to full expansion took approx. 11 seconds on the 21 and only 5 seconds on the Edeo.

 

Is this a normal characteristic of Lachenals?

 

Back when I was starting out with concertinas and I had experienced far fewer of either players or instruments, it seemed generally accepted that Edeophones were not as "tight" as Aeolas. But I never heard of anyone doing serious data collection to confirm or refute this, nor of other models of either maker being entered into the comparison rumors.