Kensington Concertinas going dark

[Dana Johnson]

Hi All, 

illness forced me to cut short my concertina making activities more abruptly than I expected.  I am shutting down the Kensington Concertinas website, and with it, my dana@kensingtonconcertinas email address.  I should still get PMs from concertina.net.

however, all repairs or tuning requests should go to Bob Snope at the Squeezebox Garage in Asheville NC.

https://www.squeezeboxgarage.com  I’m leaving you all in the best of hands.  We’ve worked together on and off for the last 30 years, and nobody does tuning and repair better than he does.

 

Hopefully I’ll come through this alright, but I want to give myself a chance to explore interests I never had time for

hope all your concertina journeys are as rewarding as mine has been.

Dana Johnson

[Joe G.]

Dana, I wish you a swift recovery and, yes, plenty of time to explore whatever interests you. Thank you for your attention and care with Kensington Concertinas. I really appreciate the service you gave to me; I admire your workmanship every time pick up my concertina.

-Joe G.

[Dimble]

I'm so sorry to hear that you've had to deal with this illness. Best wishes in overcoming your health challenges and exploring your next interests. 

[Clive Thorne]

Best wishes Dana.

[digver]

Dana,

I'm glad for the correspondence we've by email, but it seems we will not have the opportunity to meet face to face.

I'm hoping the best for you and sending you good thoughts to help you through your ills

[alex_holden]

Best of luck Dana, I hope you enjoy your well-earned retirement. Your advice and encouragement have been invaluable.

[MartinW]

My best wishes to you for the future Dana, 

I very fondly remember the day just before Christmas 2017 that my late wife and I collected my concertina from you. It was a privilege to meet the person who made such a lovely instrument, and I count myself privileged to have been able to enjoy playing it ever since.

[Dana Johnson]

Finally got the site taken down today.  
all requests for tuning or repairs should be directed to Bob Snope at the Squeezebox Garage in Asheville NC.  He is one of the best repairers around and still has a lot of good years left.  He inherited a lot of my stuff, so is more likely to have original materials that suit these instruments, though there are other good repairers who can probably manage just fine in most cases.  
I’m in the process of putting together an ebook and downloadable pdf I’ll put on my Dropbox for those interested.  It deals with all the aspects of Kensington Concertinas I can think of from manufacture to repair. ( I may include reed profiles for my instruments, but people wanting to make concertinas should really think about making their own.  My style of reed may not be what suits others. )

meanwhile, I can be pm’d through Concertina.net. 
best wishes to all 

Dana

[Alex West]

I'd definitely be interested in your Dropbox link, Dana.

Enjoy your retirement

 

Alex West

[Oberon]

I too would be absolutely interested. 

Would Bob be in possession of some of your parts? (Ie- pads, valves, springs, maybe an odd button). I always figured I should have grabbed a few spares at some point.

 

Thanks again for your amazing contributions to this instrument ❤️

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

That is a very kind thing to do making an ebook of your concertina knowledge. Indeed I too would love to read it.

[CaryK]

Best of luck, Dana and a speedy recovery.

[richard]

Hi

 

I just thought I'd offer my enthusiastic recommendation for Bob Snope's concertina repair work 

based on the excellent work he has done for me over the years. He is very thorough and I always appreciated that he would go over the whole instrument and offer objective assessment of what was needed and then let me decide I would have done, in addition to attending to the work I had sent the instrument to him to perform. 

 

He can offer clever ways to achieve a goal, and the price was always reasonable considering the improvements to my instruments, maximizing the playability and sound of my concertinas.

 

And good luck and health to Dana!

 

Richard 

Edited August 18 by richard