English Or Anglo? Other Questions...

[Daniel Hersh]

 

Do you mean so that you could fit a set of vintage concertina reeds to the Clover kit? That wouldn't be a trivial thing to do because they are a different shape from accordion reeds. For a start you would need to make a new reed pan with accurate tapered dovetail slots on both sides. It would probably be simpler to rebuild a poor-condition vintage concertina.

Good point, I don't have any idea how much work would be involved in such a project. Certainly Greg J. or Wm Wakker(The Concertina Connection owner) could tell you. It might not be a project for a first time instrument builder. At any rate they don't seem to be commonly available.

 

The steel reed set that I saw was $350, or somewhere in that neighborhood.

 

Those reeds are listed here and described as follows: "Rare set of 'super reeds' for a 30 key Wheatstone C/G anglo. These type of reeds are not used in any hybrid concertina. Only 1 set available. $345". It's hard to know from this description what kind of reeds these are. I had guessed that they were very high-end accordion reeds for a concertina with a Wheatstone layout, not traditional concertina reeds - they're on a page titled "Replacement (accordion) reeds". One would have to ask Wim to be sure. I agree with Alex that fitting concertina-type reeds into a hybrid reed pan would be very difficult or impossible.

 

Concertina-type reeds are available for purchase from other vendors. Jurgen Suttner seems to sell them here :"New tongue and used frame" or "New tongue and new frame". Concertina Spares sells used reeds, and used reeds may also be available from Button Box or other vendors too.

 

My apologies for contributing to thread drift here!

[Wolf Molkentin]

regardless of the build-kit, an already-made clover is another option for you along with morse ceilis, marcuses, lachenals, etc. i believe the clovers have "hand-finished" reeds, aka TAM reeds. but then, i like the accordion-reed sound also. can't say necessarily that i prefer it to the concertina-reed sound, but i like it just as much.

 

At least the Clover kit - and I'd guess the already-made ones as well then - is advertised as having a-mano reeds...