Stucked Key

[Azalin]

Hello all,

 

I realize there's another thread about "sticky" button but I'm not sure my problem is the same. I have an Edgley Anglo G/C and have been having this problem since I got it two years ago. Don't get me wrong, I love this concertina, but I think there's a small problem with my high C# button, which is on accident row second column on push on my concertina.

 

The button gets totally stuck, from time to time. It's not sticky, it's simply stuck. It's *not* because it's touching the sides of the hole, I verified this and it's not touching it at all. I also identified when this happens the most. It doesnt happen at home, and it always happens when it's warm. Everytime I feel it's warm at the place I'm playing in, the problem occurs. So it seems to be that it's something that "grows" with warmths and causes the problem.

 

Last night I played in a small session and my C# was getting stuck a lot. A few times I had to grab it with my thumb and index and pull it out. So it seems something inside is getting stuck. When it's stuck and I push it on different sides it doesnt get unstuck and I can clearly see it's not touching the hole. So the "stucking" comes from the inside, maybe the spring?

 

I would email Frank Edgley, as he's always been helpful, but I thought asking here first to get quick advices. It's never been a problem for me so far as I mostly play the concertina home, but I will be playing the concertina at a ceili in three weeks using newly bought dual concertina microphones and it's simply too risky at the moment to play in such a place.

 

Thanks a lot for any advice.

Edited September 19, 2006 by Azalin

[Azalin]

I've been told it's "stuck" and not stucked, but it seems you can't edit the subject. Oh well, excuse my french :-)

[Bruce McCaskey]

Reading your post, it's not clear to me whether you've actually taken the end off to examine the inner workings. Doing so might make clear what the problem is, I'm thinking that perhaps an adjacent arm is a little close and occasionally conflicts.

 

On the other hand, my first suspicion would normally be that the button bushing was tight. I've interpreted your comments to indicate that you're confident that the button isn't tight in the bushing however. I don't know if Frank sells any models that are un-bushed for that matter.

 

If you haven't had the end off and feel comfortable removing it, I'd say start by doing that and see if anything obvious is visible with the mechanism or pad positioning. Beyond that, I encourage you to contact Frank directly. I own two of his instruments and know several others with them, and in the rare instance of problems he's been very supportive in getting them quickly resolved.

[JimLucas]

I would email Frank Edgley, as he's always been helpful, but I thought asking here first to get quick advice.

Well, Frank is a member here, and he will certainly see your post.

 

...excuse my french :-)

Since I can't speak French, I would hardly criticize yours.

... Or your English, for that matter.

[Azalin]

Thanks for the hints, I will have a look inside my concertina tonight.

 

I would email Frank Edgley, as he's always been helpful, but I thought asking here first to get quick advice.

Well, Frank is a member here, and he will certainly see your post.

 

I'm going to email him but I'm just a little bit lazy and thought here would be more central :-)

 

...excuse my french :-)

Since I can't speak French, I would hardly criticize yours.

... Or your English, for that matter.

 

What's bad is that I checked google beforehand and found "stucked" everywhere so I used it... but I have to keep on reminding myself that google is not necessary a source of accurate information :-)

[Michael Reid]

I had a stuck note problem with my Morse last year that also involved the second button on the RH accidental row. It was driving me nuts for a while because I couldn't see where the problem was.

 

Eventually, and with guidance over the phone from the Button Box, I found that the pad for that button was occasionally hitting the side of the action board -- I think that's what it's called -- by which I mean the raised platform on which the buttons, etc., sit. The problem didn't occur consistently because the arm connecting the pad and the button has a small amount of side-to-side play in it.

 

The solution was to remove the pad and trim it a bit on the side closest to the action board. The pad overhangs the hole beneath it sufficiently, so the trimmed-down pad size wasn't an issue.

 

It hasn't given me any problems since.

[JimLucas]

What's bad is that I checked google beforehand and found "stucked" everywhere so I used it... but I have to keep on reminding myself that google is not necessary a source of accurate information :-)

Nor necessarily even a source of information. In researching details for one of Dominique's concerts, Google gave me absolutely nothing, though by knowing from her where the concert would be, I found a very informative web page at McGill University. Very public information on a very public web site at a very public institution, so why didn't Google find it? I did several alternate searches (including "Labelle" and "McGill"), each of which should have brought it to the top, and they all came up empty. Ditto with trying to find my sister's professional web site. I have the distinct impression that recent searches by Google have been far from thorough, and I wonder why.

[Azalin]

Yeepi! I'm pretty sure I found the problem. The little metal stick that holds the C# button almost goes on top of the springs' left side, so the spring's tip get stuck under the metal stick and the button can't come back down! I'll try to move the spring's tip away from all this, but I'm sure it's gonna work :-) Thanks all.

[Cream-T]

Hurra! And if you can fix it, it was definitely only "stuck".

 

I suggest a new entry in the concertina dictionary:

 

stucked -

adj : caught, or fixed, beyond reasonable repair; "this button is totally stucked"

 

[JimLucas]

I suggest a new entry in the concertina dictionary:

stucked -

adj : caught, or fixed, beyond reasonable repair; "this button is totally stucked"

My understanding, from a friend who once worked as a researcher for a major dictionary, is that a word-definition should only be included if it can be found in at least three independent usages in print.

 

To quote a previously unrelated joke, "That's once!"