I'm New To The Concertina

[scottstephenson]

where can i find a cheap one? that the wax hasen't dried up yet.

 

i cant' remember about the wax thing but, the secratary at my high school is an acorrdian player, and she said something about rods and wax. (i think) we've got an acorrdian in the band hall but. it's in desperate need of repair. umm, i think that's about it

 

thanks

scott

[Richard Morse]

Probably the cheapest concertinas readilly available can be had on eBay where you can get poor quality old ones (usually unplayable) as low as $25 and new low quality ones for about $100 (which can/may also be virtually unplayable). Somewhat better ones start around $200 and are best gotten from someone (or a store) that knows what they're doing and will make sure that the one they sell to you is put in reasonable condition.

 

The rods and wax thing is an accordion thing. Very, very few concertinas use wax to secure their reeds and none have rods. It sounds like your teacher isn't familiar with concertinas. Is it a concertina or accordion you'd like to get?

[bill_mchale]

Ironically of course, Richard fails to mention that his concertinas (available through the Button Box) use Wax... and are in all probability are far and away the best concertinas to use wax to hold the reeds in place (as far as I know none of the other mid-range or high end concertina makers use wax to secure their reeds to the reed pan).

 

The makers on this list I think are sometimes a little to modest for their own good .

[Richard Morse]

Yes, our Morse concertinas use wax to secure the reeds and to provide the air seal at their plates. AFAIK - with only our concertina as the sole exception - all high quality concertinas (even back to the dawn of concertinatime) had reeds installed without wax. OTOH, a good percentage of cheap concertinas have waxed-installed reeds, starting from the German-made ones around the turn of the previous century right up to current day Stagis and Chinese-made ones.

 

Waxed-installed reeds doesn't necessarily mean a cheap box, but it IS a much less expensive way of installing the reeds. It also provides a great air seal and keeps the reeds from becoming loose or getting pinched too tightly when the seasons change. We chose the wax method for those reasons despite the chance of bad PR.

 

Sure enough when our boxes first came out we got snubbed, teased, and ridiculed for choosing that method though I don't hear those folks ragging on the accordion industry for choosing the wax method for their top-of-the-line boxes which cost over 10 times what our concertina does.

 

But practically speaking, are wax-installed reeds better? Historically - no. The wax formulations (mainly a mixture of beeswax, rosin and a bit of oil) up to about 20 years ago were prone to "drying out" - becoming brittle within a few decades, which wouldn't then hold reeds down well.... they'd leak air, buzz (frame vibrates), and finally break loose entirely. Older formulations of wax also had a low melting point which caused havoc on a warm day when parking your box in the sun and guaranteed a dead box if left in the trunk of your car!

 

The wax we use is a proprietary partially synthetic mixture which has been formulated to flow at higher temperatures and last much longer than the "traditional" wax mixtures.

 

Is there a practical downside to modern waxed-in reeds? Yes, it makes the reeds harder to work on (valve, tune) than dovetailed or screw-secured reeds. Harder for folks without the knowledge and skill that is. OTOH, valving and tuning is a rare event and best left to the pros anyway.

[bill_mchale]

Sure enough when our boxes first came out we got snubbed, teased, and ridiculed for choosing that method though I don't hear those folks ragging on the accordion industry for choosing the wax method for their top-of-the-line boxes which cost over 10 times what our concertina does.

10 times? Yikes... who the heck charges that much for an Accordion? Mind you playing Irish Box, I have never looked at Piano and Chromatics.. but 10 times would be like $16,000-$20,000.

 

--

Bill

[Richard Morse]

The current list price for a new Hohner Gola is about $38,000. Used they seem to go for a lot less. I just googed up a 35 year old one for only $16,000. Pigini/Jupiter Super Bayans are even more pricy... something like $50,000 for a new one.

Edited November 17, 2004 by Richard Morse