Cheap Concertinas not working properly

[John Kirkpatrick]

Help! Twice recently I have started online lessons with players who have cheap Anglos - new but cheap - and when they try to play notes on both sides at the same time, only one side sounds. I've never come across this before. Is this a common fault? Can it be repaired, or do they just have to throw the boxes away and buy something better? In one case I got my pupil to take the concertina apart to see if there was anything blocking the passage of air inside, but there was nothing visible.

Any help would be very gratefully received

Thank you

John Kirkpatrick 

[Ken_Coles]

Greetings John!

 

The experts will chime in shortly, but I could speculate that the reeds in question might vary in set or just quality and thus start at different air pressure, so one before the other. I'm sure folks with more experience here will be happy to help with some credible suggestions. 

 

Ken

[Alex West]

Doesn't sound like a common fault John.  Happy to help if I can - you have my email address so no problem your learner(s) getting in contact with me and I can try and fix by Zoom or other means

 

Alex West

Edited January 10 by Alex West
Bad spelling

[d.elliott]

I agree with Alex, two questions

1. Is it one particular make of instrument?
2. Is it usually in a common direction, say the Pull direction?

If any of your students find Sheffield accessible then point them to me and I will help if possible. As with Alex, get them to email or phone 

 

Dave Elliott

[Chris Ghent]

If an answer is found for this I would love to hear what it is. If Ken’s suggestion is right then they must be very marginal instruments.  A couple of questions come to mind, first, does this happen if two notes are pushed on one side, perhaps a very low note and the highest note on the same side, and second, what brand and model? 
 

A few years ago at a festival someone brought me a Lachenal 20key, rosewood ends, in the beautiful condition except for one important detail, none of the buttons made a sound.  Hypothesising someone had removed the reeds, I took it apart and they were all there but the pad for the air button had fallen off and this lowered the achievable pressure such that no other reed could sound. When I fixed it I found the concertina was very hard work.  The reeds were truly terrible.