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Tenor, Baritone, Bass sizing?


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I'm confused as to the relationship between size and scale.  I have two Jeff Duet pattern instruments both 52 button.  The Jeffries is 6 1/4 inches across the flat and pitched somewhere around  C#.   I'm guessing it's in old pitch centered on D.  The other is a Wheatstone 8 1/2 inches centered on C.  The smaller one actually reaches lower on the scale (including the outlying thumb key, although that's not the lowest note).  while the larger has more overlapping notes in the center.  Both have the same tone range.  Is the Wheatstone a Baritone because of its size?  If not, why would it be so big.  the finger pattern is not more spread out, and it's not louder than the Jefferies.  It has 7 bellows folds.  The Jeffries has six.  Custom built for some reason?

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reason for a concertina being (called) a "Baritone" could only be its sounding an octave lower than a "Treble" instrument - thus with lower notes at the low end.

the body's size can relate to the scale of the reeds however (which would actually make the sound somewhat "bigger" but not lower).

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Treble, baritone, and so on get their name from their range.  A treble will comfortably play an octave higher than a baritone.  There will be some overlap.  The physical size of the instrument is irrelevant to whether it is treble or baritone.

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The one 62-button Wheatstone Jeffries Duet I've seen was much larger than a similar 62-button made by Jeffries, so perhaps it's just due to two different makers. Treble, baritone, etc. are usually used to describe the different ranges of EC. 

 

Would love to see some photos!

 

Gary

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Thank you gentlemen.  The size is still a mystery but Wheatstone (others?) made some Jeff Duets.  I'm taking them both out to the Button Box for evaluation soon and I'll get some pics' with serial #s and any other internal marks.

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21 hours ago, wunks said:

pitched somewhere around  C#.   I'm guessing it's in old pitch centered on D.

 

this would make it rather "C", certainly not "D", as old (philharmonic) pitch appears to have been like A = 452.4 Hz, which will make a difference of slightly more than 50 Cent (one quarter tone) , so the A sounding somewhere between A and B-flat (in terms of 440 Hz pitch), and the C somewhere between C and C#, the D somewhere between D and D#.

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That makes sense.  I was thinking of "other" old pitch references below A 440 but now I read Philharmonic old pitch came in around 1890, probably close to the time of build for this instrument.  Testing against my piano however, C sounds to my ear dead on C# or ever so slightly above (C being determined on this by the corresponding button on the Wheatstone).  Maybe it's purposely tuned to C#.  I seem to remember something about some concertinas being tuned this way.  Might make it good for Horn Keys, Jazz etc.!

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