Bellows Advice Please

[VIN]

I'm hoping that someone will offer me some advice, I recently bought Lachenal English treble, dating I believe, to the mid twenty's, I like it very much but I'm finding the bellows very hard work. I have left them hanging overnight with some weight suspended from the bottom on several occasions but they still seem to want to pull back in. I'm sure its slowing my already very slow progress and is certainly spoiling my fun. It's a very nice concertina but I find that I keep picking up the student model that I bought as a starter. I have read on the concertina connection site that English and Anglo bellows are different to each other in as much as the English in thinner and more supple and if this in the case I am wondering if I may have a set of Anglo bellows fitted to my box. I very much want to use and enjoy my concertina so if it means having new bellows fitted so be it but who can I go to for a good job and also is it worth fittings six or even seven fold bellows?

I have uploaded a couple of photos, one with the concertinas side by side for comparison and I would really appreciate members opinions.

[Geoff Wooff]

The bellows on your metal ended Lachenal look very heavy. I fitted a new bellows to a lachenal last year. I bought them as a kit from Ireland, usually advertised on ebay. They are made to one weight standard for fitting to any concertina, so perhaps a little heavy for an English but I did not find them at all stiff and they played in quite quickly.

 

As a contrast I have a virtually new Concertina Connection English bellows on a Wheatstone and it is lovely and supple, a joy to use..... there is quite a price difference though.

[John Adey]

Since you're in South Yorkshire it might be worth sending Dave Prebble, a member here and an experienced restorer, a PM asking him to have a look before you take any radical steps like changing the bellows. He's not far from Doncaster, a really helpful and straight guy.

[Jody Kruskal]

Dave Prebble straight?

 

I always thought him quite round. But then, I haven't seen him in a few years.

[Stephen Chambers]

As Geoff says, they do look very heavy, whilst I'd expect an instrument of that quality to have much slimmer bellows. Either somebody has made a very heavy new bellows for your New Model Lachenal (and I do know a bellows maker who builds them very heavily "to last 100 years" - but I could never get across to him that people don't want to spend the first 50 of those years "playing them in"... ), or the original ones have been heavily repaired.

 

But 5-fold is perfectly normal on a high-quality English concertina - that's what both my c.1902 Wheatstone Aeola and my 1910 "best hexagonal" have and I don't find them lacking in wind, though 6-fold started to become common in the 1920s.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Stephen Chambers

[Rod]

VIN's bellows may well have dried out and lost their elasticity and they may benefit from the application of a good quality cream ( black ) shoe polish, with particular attention to the folds and the gussets. Allow plenty of time for the polish to be absorbed into the leather before exercising them gently, and if necessary apply more. Worth a try I would think. Forcing them could do more harm than good.

[david robertson]

I'm a big fan of the New Model, but if they have a fault, it is that, in my experience at least, the bellows never seem to open as fully or as freely as you might expect. Has anyone else noticed this, or have I just been unlucky?

[Stephen Chambers]

I used to have a glass-buttoned 56-key treble New Model I was very fond of David, with bellows less than half the thickness of VIN's that were very easy to play...

[Rod]

Here in the Uk ' E45 ' offer an extensive range of medicinal products for treating dry skin..... Neglected bellows ?.....Just a thought.

[Rod]

Back in the 1950's ' Ponds Cold Cream ' was the best lubricant for our trombone slides. Probably still is.

[SteveS]

I'm a big fan of the New Model, but if they have a fault, it is that, in my experience at least, the bellows never seem to open as fully or as freely as you might expect. Has anyone else noticed this, or have I just been unlucky?

I'm also a big fan of New Model concertinas - and yes, David, the bellows don't seem to open as much as one might expect.

[Stephen Chambers]

I'd be very wary about putting anything liquid or greasy onto a concertina bellows to try to soften the leather, because there's a risk that it will weaken/dissolve the glue that holds them together - especially old bellows, which were made using hide glue or simply a flour and water paste...

 

Whilst black shoe polish is likely to rub off onto your clothes or hands.

[Geoff Wooff]

I have also noticed the lack of extension on New Model Lachenal bellows. The folds are not as deep as the Wheatstone type and being only five of them does not help. It is the main reason I fitted a new bellows to a New Model last year, stiffness and lack of extension, made a great improvement. Shame in a way because the Lachenal bellows is very well made .

 

I have recently aquired another New Model which has a more supple(original) bellows .

Edited March 11, 2016 by Geoff Wooff