Scholer

[Samantha]

I have been sent a PM with some technical/mechanical questions about the interior of a Scholer concertina. It seems more complex than the instrument I started out on, so I'm putting these questions out here so that someone more knowledgeable than I can answer them.

"I opened up the scholer out of curiosity and found a loose tiny leather strip which I stuck back in place over a reed. Would you call that a mute?

There seem to be six reeds to each button? (three for push three for pull) and several of the smaller reeds dont seem to have (or had ever) any mutes. Would that be correct?

I fashioned an evidently missing mute from 200gram paper and put that in place. Also I quickly cut and sanded two buttons from a length of 10mm dowel and glued those on place.

Do you think all the reeds should have mutes?

It seems the above has rendered it broadly playable "

Hope you guys can help

Samantha

[Dana Johnson]

"I opened up the scholer out of curiosity and found a loose tiny leather strip which I stuck back in place over a reed. Would you call that a mute?

There seem to be six reeds to each button? (three for push three for pull) and several of the smaller reeds dont seem to have (or had ever) any mutes. Would that be correct?

I fashioned an evidently missing mute from 200gram paper and put that in place. Also I quickly cut and sanded two buttons from a length of 10mm dowel and glued those on place.

Do you think all the reeds should have mutes?

It seems the above has rendered it broadly playable "

Samantha

Those tiny strips of leather go on the back side of the window the reed swings in. They keep air from leaking past the reeds for the opposite bellows direction and slowing response and making the instrument play poorly. Very high reeds often dispense with them because the leakage is so small it can be ignored. If anything they are the opposite of a mute, helping the playing reed sound clear and speak quickly.

 

Concertina reeds don't work in reverse anyway so muting is not called for though controlling leakage is. Just make sure you copy the way the other flap valves are glued. Paper is less good than leather, and probably less durable. Tends to generate slapping sounds when it closes, but in such a multi reeded box you may not notice it. Keep an eye out for the old missing valve. it is probably in there somewhere.

Sounds like you've got things well in hand.

Dana

[David Barnert]

What Dana talked around but never quite made clear is that the little piece of leather that is not a mute is called a valve. If you search through the old posts on this forum for entries from Rich Morse about valves, you will find a wealth of information.

[Mr Fipple]

Ta, Samantha,

Damn and blast I just lost a crafted reply to an inadvertant strike of the back button!

Thanks I'll be back to post how Scholer and I are getting on and to solicit more advice from you delightful members but for now I have to be somewhere. Regards, Chris.

[JimLucas]

Damn and blast I just lost a crafted reply to an inadvertant strike of the back button!

Shouldn't be so. If you do that by mistake, then use the Forward button immediately. That should return you to where you were, including the latest version of the text you had entered up to that point.

[Mr Fipple]

I have been sent a PM with some technical/mechanical questions about the interior of a Scholer concertina.

[Mr Fipple]

Ah, Scholer is sleeping peacefully just now which should give me the time I need to write this post. Thank you Samantha, Dana, David and Jim for your help and advice. From your replies and from links I found on this site we can now classify Scholer as a twenty button anglo.

 

I only adopted Scholer a few days ago and he came to me in kind. It's not as though it cost me deep in the pocket to adopt him. It's still early in our relationship but I am fast becoming a doting parent. Even when I sleep I listen for his cries in case he needs me. And sometimes when he's asleep I quietly stoop over him to listen to him breathing.

 

Naturally, I wanted to de-code the mystery that is Scholers buttons and identify his key so I set about sketching my own button diagram with the help of a guitar tuner. This was not easy because Scholer is way off concert pitch. After twenty minutes I had notes for most of the buttons but I wasn't totally sure. Then I navigated to a diagram by this site which confirmed my partial decoding as what I thought and hoped. I had succesfully determined Scholers' sex ...... he's C/G! See, it was no more difficult than sexing a kitten!

 

I didn't know anything at all about Scholer or other squeezies until I chanced upon this site and now I know a little. From comments elsewhere I see that Scholer may not be held in high regard by some; that his lineage is low status, that he may be crude and lacking in manners and refinement. Sadly it is apparent to me that he does sing very flat and he doesn't know a single tune yet but I would like to persevere with him to see if he can make something of himself. I'd love to coach him and teach him some airs and graces. Perhaps with a little regular daily practice he can learn a tune or two and in time we can turn our attention to training his voice. Imagine the boost to his confidence if we can play along with other boxes and folkies at the Red Bull. He could meet more of his kind. We'll have to work on his pitch though. I wouldn't like him to be humiliated by being so flat. Have you noticed how guitars have perfect pitch these days and even banjos make an effort.

 

As Scholer and I embark upon our journey of mutaul self discovery do any members have any suggestions for a helpful tutor (book) that I can source/request from my local library. I like a broad church but lean towards trad English dance tunes. Can members suggest a good first tune to learn. Scholer and I would like to hear what was the first tune you learnt to play on a box.

 

More technically, if Scholer has three reeds per note seemingly of different pitch .. acoustically what is going on there? Presumably to raise his pitch one files a midges whatsit from the reeds. How can this be done methodically? When out of the box can a plate and thus each of the reeds in turn on the plate be somehow made to sound into a mike which can be wired to the PC with software to detect the pitch in Hz?

 

Many thanks to you for reading. Chris