Leaving A Concertina In A Cold House

[David Barnert]

A friend is contemplating leaving a vintage concertina in a house for a few weeks with the thermostat set for 50° F (=10° C) and wants to know if this might harm the instrument. Any thoughts?

[Jim Besser]

A friend is contemplating leaving a vintage concertina in a house for a few weeks with the thermostat set for 50° F (=10° C) and wants to know if this might harm the instrument. Any thoughts?

 

I'll defer to the experts, but will also note that my good, vintage concertina tends to get sticky buttons when the ambiant temperature goes below 65 or so; it's fine when it's warmer.

[JimLucas]

A friend is contemplating leaving a vintage concertina in a house for a few weeks with the thermostat set for 50° F (=10° C) and wants to know if this might harm the instrument. Any thoughts?

If he's just going to store it there, leaving it in its case, there should be no problem at all.

 

If he's going to play it, but plays it at the same temperature it's stored at, there should still be no long-term problems. Short-term effects like Jim B. reports he might want to learn to live with if it's only a few weeks, though I myself have never experienced such problems. If he takes it suddenly into a warm room and plays it without letting it adjust slowly to the new temperature, there might be issues, though based on my own experience, I doubt it. I've played my concertinas in temperatures ranging from below 0° C (32° F) to at least 30° C (86° F) with no ill effects. On a couple of my instruments I have had to seasonally re-seat some of the reed frames in the reed pan, but I believe that was due to changes in humidity, with consequent swelling or shrinking of the wood resulting in the frames being either too tight or too loose in their slots.

[Paul Read]

Dave,

 

As Jim touched on, it is humidity that is the main concern. leaving at a low temperature should be fine but he should make sure the room doesn't get too dry. In the worst case, the action board could split, especially in a northern climate with heating on.

[Pete Dickey]

How on earth did they manage way back in the 19th and early 20th centuries before they had double (or triple) glazing, central heating and dehumidifiers? I have this nightmare where there are cracked action boards lying dead on every street corner

 

On the other hand maybe the well ventilated cool conditions prevailing then were better than our current mollycoddled artificially controlled climates?

[Chris Timson]

On the other hand maybe the well ventilated cool conditions prevailing then were better than our current mollycoddled artificially controlled climates?

Whether they were better or not I don't know, but [name drop mode on] Colin Dipper has said to me on a couple of occasions that 19th century concertinas were built for 19th century conditions, i.e. cooler and damper than our centrally heated air conditioned indoor paradises, and that's why they have such problems nowadays [name drop mode off]. That suggests to me that the concertina of the original question will be fine.

 

Chris

Edited November 1, 2005 by Chris Timson

[Cream-T]

Well, my dear Crane will be very happy in our house on the moors then...

[Paul Read]

Except that you can have too much humidity too! How many cheap Lachenals have I seen witth the end bolts rusted solid

[Cream-T]

Actually, that was meant a little tongue-in-cheek. We've got a dehumidifier constantly running. My guitars and my wife's harp don't like it too wet either, so we're having to run the noisy little thing 24/7 to keep our humidity to roundabout 50%.