Steve Turner has a lot of good quality Anglos and ECs for sale

[Don Taylor]

I went to Steve's website to to listen to some of his music and found that he has quite a lot of mostly high-end concertinas for sale:

 

https://steve-turner.co.uk/concertinas/

Edited April 21 by Don Taylor
typo

[gcoover]

FYI, that Jeffries Brothers "piccolo Anglo" on his site started life as the world's smallest Jeffries Duet. Steve had it converted by Nigel Sture into an Anglo. Though not a very useful Anglo due to the button layout. So, I would say it is now neither a duet nor an Anglo!

 

Also, it is really quite small - when I tried it out a couple of years ago, my fingers naturally fell right at the front point of the instrument.

 

I would love to convert it back to a Jeffries Duet, but not at that price!

Gary

[Ed Stander]

Well done, Gary - I had exactly the same question, and interest in seeing it returned to its former glory.  What instrument could be more esoteric than a Piccolo Jeffries Duet.

Quote

 

 

[wunks]

Gary and Ed, do either of you know what the layout as a JD might have been?  Is it the one in your book Gary?  I'm loving my JD's and had a thought of converting a 30 button Anglo if I were to find the right donor box.  

 

Erik

[Ed Stander]

I wouldn't venture to guess the range or placement of reeds in the piccolo myself without seeing what reeds are inside....

E.

[gcoover]

Here's my best guess, from the button layout, and assuming a home key of C.

 

Gary

[doodle]

If it might help, Steve Turner is at our folk club tomorrow night - I could ask him a question about this, although I doubt he would know details of layout off-the-cuff. Just a thought and bit of a long-shot, but still........

[Ed Stander]

I asked Steve to play the piccolo for me, and came up with the following.  It pretty well matches a typical Jeffries anglo pattern

 

Right side:

C#5/D#5 D#5/C#5 G#5/G5

C5/B5 E5/D5 G5/F5 C6/A5 E6/B5

G5/F#5 B5/A5 D6/C6 G6/E6 B6/F#6

F#5/G5

 

Left Side:

C#4/D#4 A4/G4 A#4/G#4

C3/G3 G3/B3 C4/D4 E4/F4 G4/A4

B3/C4 D4/F#4 G4/A4 B4/C5 D5/E5

 

There you have it.

Best - Ed

Edited May 1 by Ed Stander
Corrected key order

[wunks]

Thanx guys.  It looks like a 30 button anglo conversion would be a winner!

[Ed Stander]

Well, except that there are a couple of key notes missing.  I could perhaps see it as a Danglo, wherein the home key was a proper Duet, but the accidentals were played in anglo fashion (different notes pushed or pulled).  

At least that's what it looks like to me...

[Ryan Galamb]

I had the pleasure of visiting Steve's shop this weekend, investigating if the 38-key C/G (INET16) was a good fit for me.

 

The *only* reason I didn't take it home was because it was too heavy for me to play standing (which I suspect would be an issue with most 38-key concertinas.)

 

She plays beautifully and sounds great. In my testing, all the notes made lovely sound. The fast tunes I played sounded great. I didn't have issues with running out of air.

 

If anyone is looking for a 38-key and plays concertina mainly sitting down (or can get away with a support strap), then this one is 100% worth checking out.

 

For frame of reference, my current concertina is a Clover I've been actively playing for 6ish years. So I have limited experience with super high-end concertinas. Take my review with as many grains of salt as you feel it warrants.

 

IMO, that instrument is fantastic and will make a lap-player extremely happy. (I considered switching to lap playing, but I do too much street performing in historic garb.) If you're interested, I suggest you get on it before I change my mind 😉

 

Also, Steve was extremely easy to coordinate with via email. I didn't get to meet him in person (I only had a small window that I was in town), but his employee Toby let me into the shop and showed me great hospitality.

 

All in all, a fantastic experience and a fantastic instrument. I will be jealous of whoever ends up with it.

[wunks]

On 5/1/2025 at 9:14 AM, Ed Stander said:

Well, except that there are a couple of key notes missing.  I could perhaps see it as a Danglo, wherein the home key was a proper Duet, but the accidentals were played in anglo fashion (different notes pushed or pulled).  

At least that's what it looks like to me...

That's how I've set my 50 button D core box up.   Each Bb is paired with G#, still chromatic through the fiddle range within 30 buttons, C and C# dropped from the Left Hand overlap.