Fixing 20 button Anglo Renelli Concertina

[Victor F]

A colleague of mine gave me their father's old concertina they had lying around. Image attached.

 

It seems to have sticky buttons that won't come out otherwise seems in good condition.

 

I do not know much about concertina maintenance or repair but seems like a fun project to get it fixed up.  Do people know what tools I may need or if it a lost cause to repair?

 

 

 

[Tiposx]

It might simply need new rubber tubes that attach the buttons to the mechanism inside. I forget the inner diameter, there are 2 sizes sold for aquarium pumps. You just need to remove the rotten old sections and replace them.

There could be other things wrong with it though.

You may only need a couple of screwdrivers. Those concertinas are not worth very much, even when working properly. They are fun to play, and one that I worked on actually sounded ok.

Edited January 13 by Tiposx

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Nice old instrument like my first concertina ( mine was made in Kligenthal) .

This in pic is very chunky, made, looks like mahogany veneer on it.

Have a go at repairing it and enjoy it .will be in two different keys (musically speaking) 🌝

 

[Anglo-Irishman]

Victor, as your photo clearly shows, the buttons do not emerge straight from their holes. They are at a slight angle. This makes them rub against the sides of the holes, and hinders their movement.

Why are they at an angle? In this type of Italian concertina, the bottom ends of the buttons have slots that fit over the shafts of the levers that lift the pads to sound the notes. The position of the buttons on the levers is not fixed, so when you press the buttons while playing, you also give them a little push away from you, and the lower end of the button - logically - slides towards you. This effect is imperceptible at first, but in time it causes the buttons to jam in their holes.

I have a Stagi concertina with this kind of mechanism, and in my 20 years of playing it in public I've adopted a habit: when I pick up my instrument to play it, I check to see whether there are buttons that are pointing away from me. If there are, I just pull the tops pf them towards me (without pressing them down). This straightens them up!

 

If this method works, but has to be repeated more frequently than is convenient, you may have to do what @Tiposx says: replace the rubber muffs that are supposed to keep button and lever from sliding about relative to each other.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

John

[Zdenek]

The old chinesium concertina started having this problem as a last fit of defiance before hopefully being replaced soon, I am thinking about just hot-gluing the rings to the shaft, as the left D/E button can now get stuck during even the course of a single tune (i checked and the rubber is ripped/ruptured/sliced by the shaft, idk). Aquarium tubing seems like an interesting idea though, I will be in the proximity of a pet shop today, so I may take a button with me and check if they sell something that could help.

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Edit: I tried the aquarium tubing and it works like a charm!

Edited June 21 by Zdenek

[wschruba]

FYI, you can cut the tubing with a bevel, and slightly longer (doesn't take much to keep them "locked" in place.  The bevel helps keep the button level), and they don't wander as much.

 

They're still not fixed in place like buttons with a tail/socket, but they move less.

 

At one point, Bastari crimped them on the levers through holes, to keep them from wandering.  Then, they rattled like mad.