3D printed English

[department of WackyIdeas]

I have been messing around with 3d printers for a bit, and have discovered two examples of 3d printed concertinas on YouTube.  Edward Jay has designed an printed a concertina with every part made on a 3d printer except for the reeds and bellows.  https://bibliolore.org/2020/09/01/a-3d-printed-concertina/  There is also a Russian guy, Nikita, who has several videos out playing what he says is a 3d printed English box.    https://www.youtube.com/@НикитаЧернов-ж3ж 

 

I was wondering if anyone here has ever encountered a concertina made by either maker, and if so, what it was like to play?

 

 

 

[JimR]

Search for Edward Jay concertinas. There are several models with videos.

[pohaku]

I ordered a concertina from Edward Jay and I never got the instrument nor a deposit refund. He said he was having supplier problems and money problems. This is the only such loss I've suffered from a maker, and I've ordered and received several dozen instruments of various kinds, from all over the world.

[department of WackyIdeas]

26 minutes ago, pohaku said:

I ordered a concertina from Edward Jay and I never got the instrument nor a deposit refund. He said he was having supplier problems and money problems. This is the only such loss I've suffered from a maker, and I've ordered and received several dozen instruments of various kinds, from all over the world.

I'm so sorry to hear that.  I hope he makes good on your purchase.  If he is abandoning the project, it would be very cool if he published the .stl files used to generate the 3d prints.  

[Mike Franch]

I know two people with Jay concertinas. They both love them. One is an Anglo, the other is an English.

[John Wild]

15 hours ago, pohaku said:

I ordered a concertina from Edward Jay and I never got the instrument nor a deposit refund. He said he was having supplier problems and money problems. This is the only such loss I've suffered from a maker, and I've ordered and received several dozen instruments of various kinds, from all over the world.

I have not heard of this happening before. Edward Jay has built up a good reputation over the last few years. Have you tried contacting him again more recently?

[John Wild]

I have purchased a Jay Tritone. This is a different system. I bought it because I found I understood the system and thought I could make a go of it.  Of course having played an English concertina for many tears, I am not giving that up. The tritone is a second instrument. I am very satisfied with the instrument. There is just a small problem with one valve, which I expect to sort out. I like the tone, and it is very light compared to similar sized traditional-construction concertinas.

[caj]

I'm glad you brought this up.  I have an Andrew Norman accordion-reeded concertina that is disassembled, and missing one of its parts --- a reedpan.  It was a very responsive instrument when it was all together, and I've always been impressed with the precision and quality of workmanship of that box, so I want to get it back together and I was thinking of 3d-printing a replacement reedpan.  I was also considering what it would take to 3d-print a concertina-reeded reedpan that exactly fit the rest of the box.

  

A single replacement reedpan should be simple because the accordion-reeded "reedpan" is just a flat piece of wood with rectangular channels routed out, no bezels or slots or anything.  However, the proof will be in the playing.

[RAc]

we had similar discussions before. I vividly recall OldNickilybs comment here:

 

 

obviously, he was proven wrong by Jay, but I think there is a point about acoustic properties of plastic as opposed to wood.

 

I do not know if you were involved in 3d design before. I have designed several concertina parts using FreeCAD and know about some of the pitfalls (there are many), please feel free to get in touch via pm if you need help.

Edited November 10 by RAc

[department of WackyIdeas]

I encourage folks who design replacement parts, upgrades, or even entire instruments, to post their designs and .stl files to public repository sites. While there may be a business model for a few folk, and I understand keeping IP private, I think that for most people, there are benefits to making your models some flavor of open source. The main one is that other people can find ways to improve your design to the benefit of everyone.  
 

That being said, I’d really like to get my hands Jay 74 button Hayden. I think I’d probably want a leather hand strap but I’m willing to be convinced. 

Edited November 10 by department of WackyIdeas

[DickT]

I have a Jay tenor and although it is not the same as an Aeola TT it is very good. The accordion reeds do not have the same sound as traditional ones but are in no way unacceptable, just a bit different. The bellows, the only standard-design part, have been very supple right from the start and are a pleasure to play. It still needs a bit of tweaking on some of the reeds to get a more even response but this is a minor point; I play quite softly for song which shows up the slightly slow response to one or two reeds but at tunes volume it is fine. A Wheatstone-playing friend tried it recently and was quite impressed despite having had reservations over the sound of accordion reeds. On the whole I think that Edward has done a remarkable job in both redesigning the structure of the concertina and using 3D printing to reduce the cost and construction time. The innovations to the structural modules make it very easy to do minor tweaks and maintenance; another bonus is that it can be fitted with removable boom mics very easily. I am very happy to take it out to sessions instead of an Aeola and do not think that the average audience would notice the difference.

 

Edward's service has been very good and responsive; he takes pains to set it up to suit you. I was not happy with the volume balance from bass to treble so he just printed up new ends with redesigned porting and sent then to me. His design is evolving so will only get better.

 

At less than 2/3 the cost of an Aeola TT it is a very good buy to get a new instrument that is easy to maintain and with good support.

[department of WackyIdeas]

I got a response from Nikita, the Russian guy who shows off his 3d printed english box on YouTube.  I asked if it was his design, what material he used, and if he would consider releasing his .stl files:  "Yes, this was absolutely my project. Only the bars with reeds are borrowed - they are taken from a German accordion. I don’t distribute 3D models, it’s quite a lot of work. Printing material - PETG."

[Little John]

On 11/10/2024 at 3:10 PM, caj said:

 I was also considering what it would take to 3d-print a concertina-reeded reedpan that exactly fit the rest of the box.

 

Why not simply ask Andrew Norman to make a replacement? He's still operating.

[RAc]

On 11/10/2024 at 12:29 PM, John Wild said:

Of course having played an English concertina for many tears

Apologies, but I just couldn't resist this... autocorrection certainly can produce some involuntary irony... 😉

[David Barnert]

On 11/10/2024 at 10:10 AM, caj said:

I was also considering what it would take to 3d-print a concertina-reeded reedpan that exactly fit the rest of the box.

7 hours ago, Little John said:

Why not simply ask Andrew Norman to make a replacement? He's still operating.

 

Of course you’d still need to source a set of concertina reeds. And are we talking about only replacing the reedman on one side?

[John Wild]

18 hours ago, RAc said:

Apologies, but I just couldn't resist this... autocorrection certainly can produce some involuntary irony... 😉

Thanks for that. I'm not sure it was auto correction - possibly a simple typo, but still involuntary!🙂

[caj]

12 hours ago, David Barnert said:

 

Of course you’d still need to source a set of concertina reeds. And are we talking about only replacing the reedman on one side?

 

Only the pan, I still have the reeds.  The problem was that I had foolishly disassembled the thing long ago, and one of the reedpans was exposed to moisture and damaged.  

 

It's worth emphasizing here that because it is accordion-reeded, the "reedpan" is just a thick hexagon with roundrects routed out of it; it's not like a concertina-reeded reedpan with bezels and separators and gaskets and such.  In fact, the missing piece is simple enough I can route out of wood myself, and I've routed pans like it before; I'm just planning to 3d-print it because it's less painful to do it twice if the first time needs adjustment.