English concertina repairs & maintenance, Cambridgeshire

[Remster]

Folks

 

Does anyone know of a person in the Cambridgeshire area who's competent at carrying out repairs and maintenance to English concertinas? I have leaky bellows (I think) plus a couple of other things I'd like someone to look at. I don't fancy trying it myself.

 

Best wishes

 

Remster

[DickT]

Hi Remster,

 

Try Steve Dickinson, he is in Stowmarket and trades under the Wheatstone and Co name. He does a very good job, is meticulous and has an encyclopedic knowledge of concertinas.  I know that he repairs Wheatstones but you would need to ask if he does other makes. For contact details do a web search for C Wheatstone and Co.

 

Dick.

 

[Paul_Hardy]

Steve Dickinson is an excellent suggestion, but he tends to have a backlog of work.

 

Where in Cambridgeshire are you? I live just to the west of Cambridge. I'm not a professional repairer, but I do maintain my own concertinas, and I could possibly give advice.

 

I find that the combination of Dave Elliot's Repair Manual (http://www.concertina-repair.org.uk/page7.html) and Concertina Spares (https://concertina-spares.com/) for parts lets me fix most small problems myself.

 

If you don't want to do things yourself, and Steve can't help, then sending the instrument to Dave Elliot is another possibility.

 

The other question is what kind and make of concertina is it? The construction of the traditional Wheatstones, Lachenals, etc with their individual radial reeds, is very different to the modern cheaper models like the Jackie, Rochelle, Stagi etc which use accordion reeds in blocks. These cheaper instruments may be more familiar to an accordion repairer, which may be easier to find.

 

Regards,

[OLDNICKILBY]

Try David Robertson in Norwich

[Remster]

All terrific suggestions, thank you. Both Stowmarket and Norwich are well within range. The instrument is a Wheatstone from the late 1890s, so no problems there (it may even have been Steve Dickinson who restored it). I've just been reminded that I bought a copy of the Dave Elliot book when I bought the instrument; but no good can come of my tinkering.

 

Paul, I'd like to take you up on your offer of advice, since it could very well be that there's nothing worth doing. I'm east of Cambridge, but I have transport. Is it possible to send private messages on this site?

Edited August 9, 2018 by Remster

[Paul_Hardy]

You have a private message. To send them, click on the name of the person you want , to go to their profile page, and there is a button for sending a private message (and a slot for a public message).

 

In case you have problems reading the message, if you Google for Paul Hardy Concertina, you should find my web pages that have an email contact.

 

Regards,