English Button Help Please

[JimmyM]

hello I've just received a Scarlatti SCE30 which i bought second hand privately.

A quick look on the internet tells me that my buttons should be as per the attached foto

This would seem to make sense to me HOWEVER on the left handside the F and F# buttons are reversed. The right handside is exactly as per the foto

 

(Where my picture says it should be a high F its an F# and where it says the note should be an F# its an F)

 

The instrument is in as new condition and I'm guessing that the guy that sold to me did not realise this -an error in production perhaps?

 

Anyhow my question is, how easy is it to put this right?

[RWL]

I wonder if the previous owner swapped them for some personal preference. I don't know what the inside of a Scarlatti looks like, but in my Lachenals I think I'd be able to move the F reeds to the F# places and vice versa.

[linrose]

Maybe you should verify the notes with an electronic tuner (maybe you have already) but if the notes DONT match the photo you attached, then you definitely have a problem. Then as RWL said you'll have to perform some surgery...it doesn't sound like something done on purpose.

 

Good luck

[Chris Ghent]

Presumably it is an accordion reeded concertina and much will depend on how the reed assemblies are attached to whatever passes for a reedpan. If they are screwed on then a simple swap should do. If they are waxed on it will require a little more skill but still achievable at home. Any accordion repairer would be able to do this for you.

[Theo]

It is a common problem on cheap Chinese concertinas. An importer near me had a large batch delivered that all had a similar problem.

[JimmyM]

thanks for the replies folks.

 

I have checked it with an electric tuner and just those two are reversed. i will ask the original owner if he had it done but somehow I think you'd tell any prospective buyer before hand

 

I suspect, as Theo says, that it probably came from China like that. Who knows? maybe it'll be worth loads of money like when the post office produce a defective sheet of stamps or something? I think this marks the end of my Chinese acquisitions -though my Sutherland Bronwyn Anglo has been a great starter instrument

 

I bought it because it was cheap and i wanted to try out the English system -I can see the appeal; logical layout of the buttons and unisonoric but i think i may have travelled too far down the Anglo road already. I'll keep hold of it for a while longer at least and certainly either swap the valves around myself or get someone else to do it.

thanks again

Edited December 20, 2015 by JimmyM

[bellowbelle]

I read this thread earlier but hesitated to share my recent blog article. Anyway, for what it's worth, my current one-and-only blog entry may be of interest, re the English concertina buttons. My blog is http://moonsagotunestheblog.blogspot.comand the article is Same Opposite Same etc.. (I see that your question has pretty much been answered, Jimmy, though.)

 

There's a photo I used and some of the info on it is old. I am no longer using the 'bellowbelle.net' but it's still in the photo.

 

I speak not as an authority, just someone who plays the EC and finds the geometry of it interesting.

[JimmyM]

I read this thread earlier but hesitated to share my recent blog article. Anyway, for what it's worth, my current one-and-only blog entry may be of interest, re the English concertina buttons. My blog is http://moonsagotunestheblog.blogspot.comand the article is Same Opposite Same etc.. (I see that your question has pretty much been answered, Jimmy, though.)

 

There's a photo I used and some of the info on it is old. I am no longer using the 'bellowbelle.net' but it's still in the photo.

 

I speak not as an authority, just someone who plays the EC and finds the geometry of it interesting.

thanks for your input Wendy. I read your blogpage - I cant say I understood all of it :-) I'm sure the English system has a lot going for it. I attended a concertina reidential weekend organised by the West Country Concertina Players and i would estimate that maybe 70% of the players there were English system players. Which suprised me. I am quite new to the world of concertinas and until fairly recently was only really aware of the Anglo system. So that was the system i originally went with -and its fine. I've spent a year getting to know it and will probably spend the remainder of my life doing so :-)

 

I discovered that the B and Bflat on the left hand side are also reversed. I spoke to the guy i bought it from and he hadnt realised either. He said he bought it new from a major chain of folk music instrument suppliers here in the UK -so they obviously hadnt been checking what they sold either.

 

At some point I may attempt to swap the reads round myself. They are accordion reads and waxed into place. But in the mean time i shall pick up my Anglo and put the English up on the shelf as a little reminder that, mostly, you get what you pay for :-)... and the gig bag that came with it is ok ;-)