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Excellent Work By Greg Jowaisas


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I recently hired Greg Jowaisas to do some work on my concertina and I want to let everyone know that I am very pleased with his work.

 

I play a rare Wheatstone 12-sided, 40-button, ebony-ended anglo in D and A from the mid 1930s. I am getting ready to tune it myself, and hired Greg to put it in better shape before I do the tuning. He replaced all the valves, patched some leaks in the bellows, voiced some of the reeds that were not speaking as well as they could, and bushed some of the buttons. He inspected the pads, thinking that they might need replacing, and concluded that they really didn't need replacement. He took meticulous care with all of his work, treating this fine old instrument with the very careful attention it deserves. He also taught me some important things about reeds and his reed-tuning techniques, which was very helpful indeed. His love for the instrument shows in his deep knowledge and his continual efforts to learn more. His prices were very reasonable. He was also generous in sharing information with me, including research that he did pertaining to baffles that I had made to soften the tone of the instrument. He found and sent me a very useful article by Robert Gaskins about older, and better, techniques of baffle making, methods that I will be using very soon. (For this article, see http://www.concertina.com/gaskins/baffles/index.htm).

 

Greg is a devoted concertina lover, a very capable and careful repairman and tuner. He also makes concertina cases. I recommend him highly to any concertina player.

 

You can contact him at: Jowaisas Cases and Concertina Tuning and Repair, greg@gregsfolkmusic.com, (859) 291-7062, 521 Forest View Lane, Covington, KY 41015 (near Cincinnati, OH).

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Welcome aboard to Grey! How nice to have you join us.

 

I have admired his music for many years, as he knows, and have worn out several of his CDs.

 

Good to hear your repairs went well, but knowing Greg it is no surprise.

 

Ken

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I recently hired Greg Jowaisas to do some work on my concertina and I want to let everyone know that I am very pleased with his work.

 

Greg built me one of his custom cases last month, and I was very pleased with it. Excellent work at a very reasonable price.

 

Grey, I too very much enjoyed your playing some years back when you were touring through Texas...it must have been awhile, as I have a few vinyls of you and Malcolm Dalglish!

 

Dan

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  • 3 weeks later...

Greg has just repadded and tightened up my old Shakespeare, and here are a few observations I would like to share with the members of this forum. Greg received my instrument and thoroughly familiarized himself with concertina, then contacted me to go over the repair plan. We discussed the current condition, tuning, and realistic goals for the repair. He was very detailed with his descriptions and and process, which I am very thankful for. Before adjusting the keyheight he called and asked about spring/ action feel I was looking for. I point this out, because in my opinion the worst thing could be getting back an instrument from a shop that plays nothing like it used to. You can't make a screaming monster out of every instrument, and Greg was very positive about maintaining the good properties of the instrument and not tring to mutate it into something it isn't. I will continue to use him for my repair work, which as stated was reasonably priced, and timely. Greg has also made a wonderful double case for me. I strongly recommend Greg Jowaisas for any restoration and repair work, and wish him well as he becomes a household name for his meticulous craftsmanship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently hired Greg Jowaisas to do some work on my concertina and I want to let everyone know that I am very pleased with his work.

 

I play a rare Wheatstone 12-sided, 40-button, ebony-ended anglo in D and A from the mid 1930s. I am getting ready to tune it myself, and hired Greg to put it in better shape before I do the tuning. He replaced all the valves, patched some leaks in the bellows, voiced some of the reeds that were not speaking as well as they could, and bushed some of the buttons. He inspected the pads, thinking that they might need replacing, and concluded that they really didn't need replacement. He took meticulous care with all of his work, treating this fine old instrument with the very careful attention it deserves. He also taught me some important things about reeds and his reed-tuning techniques, which was very helpful indeed. His love for the instrument shows in his deep knowledge and his continual efforts to learn more. His prices were very reasonable. He was also generous in sharing information with me, including research that he did pertaining to baffles that I had made to soften the tone of the instrument. He found and sent me a very useful article by Robert Gaskins about older, and better, techniques of baffle making, methods that I will be using very soon. (For this article, see http://www.concertina.com/gaskins/baffles/index.htm).

 

Greg is a devoted concertina lover, a very capable and careful repairman and tuner. He also makes concertina cases. I recommend him highly to any concertina player.

 

You can contact him at: Jowaisas Cases and Concertina Tuning and Repair, greg@gregsfolkmusic.com, (859) 291-7062, 521 Forest View Lane, Covington, KY 41015 (near Cincinnati, OH).

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I too would like to heartily recommend Greg Jowaisas for repairwork. I just purchased a 30-button Lachenal with rosewood ends from Greg. I was directed to him through a mutual acquaintance. Being new to the concertina (but a long-time player of other traditional instruments...) and in the market for an instrument that would last beyond beginnerhood, I contacted Greg for advice on instruments, ergonimics, and learning material. He invited me down for the Brian Peters workshop and Greg's per-workshop, and to sample his concertina collection to give me exposure to a variety of instruments. He mentioned he had a couple of similarly-priced instruments that he had prepared for sale, but was _absolutely_not_pushy_ regarding them. He took a lot of time and made sure that I found the right instrument for me, recommending others' instruments for consideration and having me solicit others' independent opinions of which instrument they thought would best suit my needs. He spent several days tweaking the action on both instruments to my liking before I made my choice, so that both would be in their best playing condition. After making my selection, he followed up to make sure that I was pleased with my choice and to recommend other resources for learning.

 

I am very pleased to have made his acquaintance, and would highly recommend his work to anyone in need of concertina services.

 

Randy

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welcome aboard, grey! it's great to have such a talented multi-instrumentalist on board. good luck tuning your concertina... let us know how it goes.

 

greg's a great guy. i didnt even know he did repairs. they gotta be top notch if they're anywhere near as good as his cases. he plays a mean concertina, to boot!

Edited by david_boveri
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all.

 

I would like to throw in my two cents as well, being that some of you out there may not have read my post in another topic where I brought up Greg. He has recently retuned(to standard from old pitch) two Lachenals for me, in each case having the concertina back in my hands about ten days or so from when I mailed it. Not only did he retune them, he patched the bellows, fixed the lever arms, adjusted the action, fixed action board cracks, and made them play beautifully, for a reasonable amount of money. We had open communication the whole time. He even will give you an estimate that he tries real hard to stick to the entire time he is working on your instrument. He is a great repairman, and a great guy, give him a try. Take care all,

 

Don

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