I Finally Upgraded My Concertina!

[Shuenhoy]

Earlier this year, I took the plunge and ordered an Eiru Silver from ICC, and it finally arrived recently. Before this, I had been playing a Chinese factory-made Blazefine "Black No.6" for about 8 months (honestly, I wanted to upgrade the second I got it). That one cost me 2257 CNY (approx. 283 Euro), so the jump to my new one is absolutely massive.

 

You might be curious about the actual difference between two instruments with such a huge price gap, so I recorded a tune from each of my two method books using my Galaxy S25.

 

Just a heads-up: I'm still very much a beginner with less than a year of experience. I am sure I cannot yet bring out the full potential of the Eiru Silver (probably not even the factory one!), so please take this video as just a basic reference.

 

 

 

[PaulDa321]

Nice playing!  Looks like the air efficiency is much better on the new instrument. I thought that was a major benefit moving from the Clare to the Vintage. 

[pinnman]

Chalk and cheese! This is a valuable demonstration, made all the better by being the experience of a relative beginner. (Relative to some, of course, as I am some months behind.)

[Shuenhoy]

I do find one thing is better on my old concertina: the pressure of the buttons seems more uniform on that concertina, whereas I feel some extra resistance on some of the buttons (mainly the buttons with a shorter lever) on the Eiru Silver.

This is not significant but it does distract me when I play. Perhaps I should learn how to tweak it someday.

[jgarber760]

I definitely hear the differen but the Chinese one does not sound terrible. Your playing is very nice but I did get a bit confused until I realized that the video was reversed and that the hand shown in the camera is the right hand. 

[Tiposx]

I second that, I also thought that the Chinese one didn't sound bad on the video. I would love to tweak one, e.g. the spring resistance, reed gaps and so on to see how much it changed.

[jgarber760]

4 hours ago, Shuenhoy said:

I do find one thing is better on my old concertina: the pressure of the buttons seems more uniform on that concertina, whereas I feel some extra resistance on some of the buttons (mainly the buttons with a shorter lever) on the Eiru Silver.

Interesting though, according to ICC site: "The button action is set to an equal pressure throughout, meaning that all 31 keys have the same feel and quick response." Perhapos you are used to irregular setting of pressure on your Chinese one. I have a McNeela Swan and I am guessing that it probably is similar that way.

[Shuenhoy]

3 hours ago, jgarber760 said:

Interesting though, according to ICC site: "The button action is set to an equal pressure throughout, meaning that all 31 keys have the same feel and quick response." Perhapos you are used to irregular setting of pressure on your Chinese one. I have a McNeela Swan and I am guessing that it probably is similar that way.

I'm sure they feel different. I close the bellows and press the buttons with the same finger only. I would guess that the climate in Ireland is very different from the climate here in China, so it is still unstable shortly after air shipping, or it needs to be adjusted to the new environment.

[PaulDa321]

On 3/21/2026 at 6:37 PM, Shuenhoy said:

I'm sure they feel different. I close the bellows and press the buttons with the same finger only. I would guess that the climate in Ireland is very different from the climate here in China, so it is still unstable shortly after air shipping, or it needs to be adjusted to the new environment.

Others have reported irregular spring pressure on new ICC instruments.  I've had two and they seemed even to me--both of mine had some initial issues I had to fix and were nice and reliable afterwards.  I understand that it's something you can do yourself with a bit of time and a kitchen scale--unfortunate, of course, that you would need to adjust your spring pressure after spending that much on a new instrument.  

[RatFace]

The new concertina sounds great.

 

Regarding the spring pressure - I really do recommend regulating it. It's been bugging me for ages (decades!) on my Wheatstone (English, but no matter), and a few days ago I decided to go for it, using a digital force gauge (this one - 2N is what you need). I went for 55 +/- 5g, which is probably on the "light-touch" end, but I was relieved to note that it didn't result in any air leakage. My guess is that on an Anglo/depending on preference, you'd go for a slightly weightier action, due to playing style/technique. 

 

The result is that the instrument plays as if it is more responsive (i.e. as if the reeds were responding better). I think that's because, when you have some buttons that are lighter than others, as you go from a light button to a heavy button, your fingers don't know what to expect, and that heavy button ends up being delayed. When they're all the same, your fingers know exactly what to compensate for. It was quite "liberating" playing it afterwards - why didn't I do that in any of the thirty years until now?!

 

I was relieved to get through all the adjustments without breaking any springs! Rather than adjusting the spring coil, I bent (slightly) the spring at the base of the "arm" that goes out from the coil to the hook on the end (where it grabs the lever). I don't know if that's the approved method, but it worked, was quite easy to do, and didn't result in breakages. If you're feeling nervous, you could stock up on spare springs first.

 

I also think this should be part of the things makers/repairers/restorers do - just like reeds, pads and valves... 

[davidevr]

I got an Eiru gold last year. I can confirm that right after getting it had some minor troubles, probably due to the change of environment (from Dublin to northern Italy). In my case, some low pitch reeds (low G and low D)  used to make a grating sound. I just waited a couple of weeks, and the issue sorted out by themselves.
Concertina are quite delicate, and sometimes you get similar issues on season changes.

I never noticed unevenness on the buttons though.