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Interesting Edeophone at auction!?


conzertino

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Here's an update - I bet my money (literally) on this Lachenal Edeophone being a Jeffries Duet and indeed it is, in pretty much original unrestored condition - an absolutely beautiful instrument, 8.5" across the flats, with mint-condition bellows. There's a bit of rust on the reeds, and the valves will definitely need replacing. And the "home key"? Ab!!!

 

Gary

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Here are some recent photos. There is an unusual splice in the left-hand reed pan to accommodate the deep bass note - they cut out the reed pan and attached a piece of wood underneath to get the depth.


As for the home key, Ab is just an odd key - most are C or Bb, there a couple in G. And the feel when playing is more like a stately large duet and not nimble like my 50-button Jeffries Duet in C. The rows on this one are spaced really far apart - it's quite the reach to get to the upper far left bass note. 

 

Somebody went to a lot of trouble and made an 80-page handwritten booklet showing scales and chords in every key, but I don't think they played it much. The bellows look brand new, and the instrument is incredibly airtight. 

 

Gary

L52-4764-JD-1.jpg

L52-4764-JD-2.jpg

L52-4764-JD-3.jpg

L52-4764-JD-4.jpg

L52-4764-JD-Keyboard.jpg

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Can you explain the button diagram in the last photo? If it is a unisonoric instrument, why are there note names both inside and outside the circles?

 

Also, is it possible that the home key was G at a time when standard pitch was a half tone sharp? The button diagram should answer that one, but I don’t know how to discern the “home key” of a Jefferies Duet from a button diagram.

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The button diagram in the book was originally drawn for an instrument in the home key of C - look for the C-E-G pattern on the second row on both sides - but then someone has added in the transposed notes for this instrument in Ab.

 

Jeffries Duets are fully chromatic, but since the two rows in the middle are based on an exploded Anglo row played in a sawtooth manner, the key of those rows is by far and away the easiest to play in, so it is known as the "home key", with all the other notes sprinkled around the edges. Playing in other keys is possible, some are more theoretical than others, and some could result in permanent entanglement of the fingers!

 

The current tuning on this one appears to be "Ab and a half" - old high Ab? 

 

Gary

 

Edited by gcoover
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
On 2/26/2022 at 8:49 AM, skippy said:

I had an Jeffries duet in Ab in the same old pitch and had Malcom Clapp tune it to G and it was more useable for me in G.

 

Dave 

and it now belongs to me 🙂 

it’s gorgeous 

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