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Peacock Hayden Duet Located In Eu


psmooze

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As new, to finance some other concertina related purchases:
Peacock Special with black finish.

Asking price 2200 euro.

I'll post pictures later, interested parties can come and try it out or arrange

for a skype or google+ call. Pictures on demand.

 

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I wonder if anyone would notice if I slipped away for a couple of days. B) :ph34r: .

Maybe your customers? :ph34r: .

 

Narrh,

I only get two or three customers each year ( who arrive here) and as I had one on Saturday to collect his instrument which I had spent the last six months making.... I guess I am entitled to a day or so's rest ..... so I'll celebrate in some way ??.... perhaps raise a glass to yourself and wish you a happy birthday! :) :)

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Having taken my Peacock apart recently, it struck me how (relatively) easy it would be to convert it from accordion reeds to concertina reeds.

 

Wim seems to have designed it to be as close as possible to the structure of a vintage concertina: a separate sound board and reeds flat on the sound board. The use of chamois leather for gaskets, no accordion wax, no reed boxes.

 

Geoff, if you do get a chance to visit this Peacock then I would be very interested to learn what your experienced ear makes of the sound that Wim has achieved.

 

Don.

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I wonder if anyone would notice if I slipped away for a couple of days. B) :ph34r: .

Maybe your customers? :ph34r: .

 

Narrh,

I only get two or three customers each year ( who arrive here) and as I had one on Saturday to collect his instrument which I had spent the last six months making.... I guess I am entitled to a day or so's rest ..... so I'll celebrate in some way ??.... perhaps raise a glass to yourself and wish you a happy birthday! :) :)

 

That's very kind of you Sir, thank you for that! :D

 

We'll have my eldest son for dinner later on, still some work to do in the office...

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Having taken my Peacock apart recently, it struck me how (relatively) easy it would be to convert it from accordion reeds to concertina reeds.

 

Wim seems to have designed it to be as close as possible to the structure of a vintage concertina: a separate sound board and reeds flat on the sound board. The use of chamois leather for gaskets, no accordion wax, no reed boxes.

 

Geoff, if you do get a chance to visit this Peacock then I would be very interested to learn what your experienced ear makes of the sound that Wim has achieved.

 

Don.

Don,

did you take any pictures of the inside of the Peacock? Your description of the internals sounds interesting and I liked the tone that Steven Arnston produced on his video....

I have been intrigued, to some extent, as to why the Peacock was the same size as the Button Box's Beaumont , so the difference in construction would account for that I guess.

 

I will try to make a visit with Psmooze in Belgium to try the Peacock... it is only about an 8 hour drive from here.... !!

 

Geoff.

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Don,

did you take any pictures of the inside of the Peacock?

Geoff.

Yes, here are a few:

 

This is the LHS end with the action board and the sound board still fastened to each other. You can see what looks like two layers of clear pine(?) sandwiched together but I think that this is just one layer with the edges of a chamois gasket showing below it:

006.jpg

 

 

This picture shows the LHS reeds attached to the sound board fastened to the board with screws. Almost full, but I suspect that there would be room for one more note (high A on the LHS) which would be realy nice to have:

003.jpg

 

 

This is the inside of the RHS sound board after detaching it from the end. The action board and the sound board are held against each other with four small wood screws - you can see the holes in the chamois. This board is a separate unit, unlike the Button Box concertinas, so I imagine that it could be replaced with traditional concertina soundboard with routed slots and concertina reeds. Or it could be replaced with a board with sensors on it to implement a midi concertina. In both cases this would be a reversible change.

006-1.jpg

 

A top view of the RHS action board showing the riveted lever arms. The action board itself is also clear pine(?). If you look closely you can see the four empty holes for the screws that fastening the two boards together.

007-1.jpg

 

Here is another view of the action:

008-1.jpg

 

That is what I have.

 

Please do not drive 8 hours on my account.

 

Don.

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Yes lovely photos Don, thanks for posting them but some more questions:

 

What seals the reed frames to the wood?... it hardly looks as if there is anything like a gasket at that point.

 

As you say it appears that there are two pieces of wood sandwiched together to form the reedpan but in your photo it looks as if the grain matches perfectly... or is this just Saw marks ? I ask because you have obviously needed to reduce the picture 'size' ( MB's etc) to be able to post them here and some definition is lost.

 

Do you notice any sound or tonal difference between the notes that have their reeds on the outer perimiter and those of the 'inboard' reeds... the four reeds in the middle of the Right hand side and the three in the middle on the Left hand side ? I ask this because Wim told me that he was not happy with the tonal balance that these inboard reeds had (in his Concertina reeded duets) in comparison with those on the periphery and this caused him to redesign those models... but here in this later design he uses inboard mounted reeds again....

 

What amount of dynamic range would you describe this instrument to posess ? I am finding that my little 46 Wakker has a very plentifull volume range but due to its small size there is a distinct delicacy of touch needed to access the gradations from Pianissimo to Mezzo Forte... flat out is flat out and there is no delicacy required for that :rolleyes: .

 

 

Any more recordings available of the Peacock..... anyone ?

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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First off, I feel a bit guilty for hijacking psmooze's for sale thread, maybe a moderator could move posts #5, #7 and onwards to a new thread called "Inside a CC Peacock" in the Construction and Repair forum.

how is your own ear finding the sound of the P?


Well, I am not really a good judge as I have little to compare it against. I do have a 48B wooden ended Crane and compared to that they are similar with the Crane sounding more 'complex' and the Peacock a little more flute-like. Compared to a Stagi and an Elise then the Peacock is more complex. I hope this makes sense.

What seals the reed frames to the wood?... it hardly looks as if there is anything like a gasket at that point.

I will check next time I open it up, but no I do not think that there is a gasket there. Maybe Wim feels that having the reed frame in direct mechanical contact with the sound board, like a vintage reed frame, contributes to the tone?

As you say it appears that there are two pieces of wood sandwiched together to form the reedpan but in your photo it looks as if the grain matches perfectly... or is this just Saw marks ? I ask because you have obviously needed to reduce the picture 'size' ( MB's etc) to be able to post them here and some definition is lost.

Again, I will check next time, but I think that they are saw marks.

Do you notice any sound or tonal difference between the notes that have their reeds on the outer perimiter and those of the 'inboard' reeds... the four reeds in the middle of the Right hand side and the three in the middle on the Left hand side ? I ask this because Wim told me that he was not happy with the tonal balance that these inboard reeds had (in his Concertina reeded duets) in comparison with those on the periphery and this caused him to redesign those models... but here in this later design he uses inboard mounted reeds again....

I have not noticed, but that is not to say that there is not a difference. I am going to have to listen a lot more carefully. However, I would point out that if reeds were only placed on the perimeter then the box would have to be unacceptably (to me anyway) bigger. Maybe a sound compromise that Wim had to accept. After all, this is not a professional level box.

What amount of dynamic range would you describe this instrument to posess ? I am finding that my little 46 Wakker has a very plentifull volume range but due to its small size there is a distinct delicacy of touch needed to access the gradations from Pianissimo to Mezzo Forte... flat out is flat out and there is no delicacy required for that :rolleyes: .

Again, I am not much of a judge. There is some, but my cat would say nowhere near enough!

 

I do find the sound level balance between the LHS and RHS to be a problem - the LHS is much louder than the RHS which is why I have installed a baffle on the LHS ( described here: http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=17355&p=165454). With the baffle in place, the sound balance between my Crane and my Peacock is about the same. Without the baffle, I cannot hear the RHS if I play a drone on the LHS. My baffle is easily removable and I was provoked into installing because I plan to 'reed' in the haggis at a Burns supper.

 

Any more recordings available of the Peacock..... anyone ?

I do not have a decent microphone but when I get some time I will try to record some samples with my computer microphone. If they are any good then I will post a link here.

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