Jeffries With Odd Damage

[Squeezix]

About ten years ago I acquired a fine old 1890s Jeffries Anglo C/G concertina. 38b, metal ends, metal buttons. It was in need of renovation. The consensus around here (San Francisco) was that really Mr. Dipper was the one-and-only for the job. So since my purchase I've been calling Colin up every couple years to ask whether "now" would be a convenient moment of leisure in which to send the instrument over to him. And somehow he was never experiencing a big moment of professional leisure. How could that be. (Meanwhile I've just playing my similar-style Lachenal.)

 

It's time to do something with it.

 

Please see the first attachment to this post. It's a photo of the right-hand action plate of this instrument. Everything is in good shape. The second attached photo is of the left-hand of the same instrument. It's rather different. In particular, the wood is gouged and chewed, there are random pinholes and glue blotches all over, the bushings and felts are gone/bizarre, there are a wornout pegholes that don't match up with any peg and, in particular, a number of the currently-in-use pegholes are chewed out and huge. Leading to wobbly buttons. Which is a problem. The action is quite high on most-but-not-all of the left hand, which doesn't help. The left hand grill has been shimmed up by someone to try to lower the action. Somebody's patched a few of the big holes with little squares of wood. The third photo is a closeup of the worst of it.

 

First - What on earth happened to the poor left hand? I've wondered whether I have a mishmash of two different Jeffries. If I do, the two ends are remarkably similar in construction. I've wondered whether the little leftside plate-upon-the-action-plate (what's a good name for that?) was simply a bad piece of wood, dying a slow death. And I've wondered whether some player back there just made really really heavy use of the second and third rows on the left hand.

 

I'm tempted to try fixing/replacing the plate myself now, rather than hunting for a repair person any more. I have no idea how much trouble I'd be asking for. The dear machine also needs new bellows and general refurbishment of the pads, bushings, felts, gussets, bustles, etc. So... my second question is: who would =you= call besides Colin for a serious Jeffries repair?

 

(For just the bellows, I've read here that Rosalie Dipper and ConcertinaConnection are good choices.)

 

Or shall I simply sell the thing to someone? I don't need to have both a wheezy Lachenal and a wobbly Jeffries.

 

Thanks much for your thoughts.

 

Garry

 

PS: The reeds are good.

Edited February 27, 2008 by Squeezix

[Chris Timson]

Well the first thing to say is that although I rate Colin and Rosalie Dipper as concertina deities they aren't the only people I would trust with my Jeffries, even in the USA . I have a web site called the Concertina FAQ that has a fairly comprehensive list of makers and repairers here. In North America I would probably talk to The Button Box, Concertina Connection, Frank Edgley, Paul Groff or Bob Tedrow (Homewood Music) all of whom I would regard as thoroughly competent and trustworthy people. Contact details for all in the FAQ.

 

Best of luck,

 

Chris

[Robin Harrison]

Hi Chris...............it's my understanding that Paul and Frank no longer repair concertinas.

Me ?............... I'd ask Greg Jowaisas here on our forum.He does repair work for the highly talented maker,Wally Carroll.

Robin

[Michael Marino]

Well from ther Picture it looks like a set of ham hands got to it after a bit of woodworm. The pitting looks like some very classic cases of woodworm that I have seen over the years and not a nice thing it is at all. The Ham hands that did the rest of the damage might have been trying to repair for the other damage but I see no rhyme or reason that follows that. Don't know whic would be better. Replacing the action board and therefore limiting any further possible problems with the woodworm or using an agent that doesn't due the action any damage to kill the woodworm and use a filler to restore the stability to the cation board and go from there. The Human mishaps that has happen to it would take a good close looking at to see what would be needed to bring the beauty up to good playing condition. From the looks of it I personally would opt for the replacement action board being made (I don't like this option but there seems to be a good bit of damage there and don't know if it has gone through the action completely or not).

 

Just me two pence worth. Good luck, and no I can't work on it unless you are willing to ship it to the UK and there are more experienced folk near you so send it to them first.

 

Michael (madly rebuilding an english and new bellows for a 20b Anglo and 3 Melodeons, Yes I am mad)

[Dave Gray]

I would have no hesitation in recommending Wim Wakker; he recently did a complete action overhaul on my Crabb concertina which I am very please with.

 

He has now relocated to Spokane, WA. Below is a quote from his post with regards to relocating.

 

"We will be closed during most of February and will open again for restorations only on March 1st. At this moment our schedule is pretty open…If you have an instrument in need of work, and don’t want to wait a long time.. this is your chance."

 

Dave

[Chris Timson]

Hi Chris...............it's my understanding that Paul and Frank no longer repair concertinas.

Thanks for that, I will check.

 

Chris

[Squeezix]

Bugs, eh? I thought of that, but there's the little holes and the great holes and I've seen no trace of any holes anywhere else on the instrument but this one spot. Well... perhaps the rest of the wood didn't taste good, and perhaps the great holes are spots where little bugs got together for a party. Wouldn't explain why the action is high... That may have been a different bit of excitement in the 110 years this instrument has been in the world.

 

As for ham-handed, well, yes, the pads are interestingly shaped, the bellows have been creatively patched with pleasantly contrasting colors of leather, and the hand straps are held on with random steel screws and washers from what appears to have been the spare bits jar in the garage. (But it must be said that those repairs pretty much work, and that the thing would be playable if it hadn't been for the worms.)

[Dirge]

If those psychedelic pads are thinner than the originals there's your action raised.

[Squeezix]

The psychedelics are on the good end; it's the exotically polygonal pads that are the ones of interest. You're right that that might be all there is to it for that problem; I'll have a look.

Edited February 28, 2008 by Squeezix

[Theo]

Bugs, eh? I thought of that, but there's the little holes and the great holes and I've seen no trace of any holes anywhere else on the instrument but this one spot. Well... perhaps the rest of the wood didn't taste good, and perhaps the great holes are spots where little bugs got together for a party. Wouldn't explain why the action is high... That may have been a different bit of excitement in the 110 years this instrument has been in the world.

 

As for ham-handed, well, yes, the pads are interestingly shaped, the bellows have been creatively patched with pleasantly contrasting colors of leather, and the hand straps are held on with random steel screws and washers from what appears to have been the spare bits jar in the garage. (But it must be said that those repairs pretty much work, and that the thing would be playable if it hadn't been for the worms.)

 

The small holes I can see in your pictures look most like holes where springs have been fitted. Its very common for replacement springs to be not fitted into the original holes in order to ensure a tight fit. In 110 years there may have been several attempts to replace springs.

 

High action can indeed result from thinner pads, and thicker pads will lower the action. With levers like these made of round wire it is relatively easy and safe (with the right tools) to bend the levers to adjust the action height.

[david robertson]

Hard to see from the close-up picture, but it reminds me of the kind of damage done by wood-chewing wasps rather than woodworm (furniture beetle). Either way, it doesn't look like the board is worth saving.

At least it's not as bad as the Lachenal Inimitable I once bought from Peru (no, really!) It looked fine until I took the ends off. Then I realised that most of the end frames consisted of veneer on the outside, a wafer-thin sliver of timber on the inside, and not a lot in between. In addition, one particularly industrious bug had chewed its way right through the closed bellows, from one end to the other.

[Squeezix]

Theo, I thought about the little holes being spring holes, now I think you're probably right, even though they're not especially close to the existing springs. Maybe somebody was using the wrong size springs for a while; maybe somebody tried moving the pivots around a bit.

 

And David, very well could be wasps, or maybe solitary wood-chewing bees like the bumblebees we have in the US... once upon a time I spent my summers in a cabin in upstate New York, enjoying the woods, writing software, and listening to the bumblebees slowly munching out neat round holes in the ends of the rafters. I can picture a beastie in that family looking at this Jeffries and saying "Oh boy! Holes already started for me! My eggs will fit nicely in each one (if I just expand them a bit.)" Oh dear.

 

I think we've solved the mysteries now. As for what to do, the repair-person recommendations I've received here, publicly and privately, have been very reassuring. I'll pick one of them rather than trying to do it myself.

 

My thanks to you all for the help.

[Alex West]

Garry

 

Someone's obviously doen a fair bit of repair work on this instrument over the years as some of the original brass wire levers have been replaced by rectangular section levers. That looks like quite a professional job, unlike the later repairs which are - amateur. The levers which have been replaced don't immediately seem like the ones which would have received the most wear, but maybe there was a good reason. You've also got a fair mixture of springs there, including 2 springs on one lever and only one spring on the air lever (where there are normally 2)

 

You've already got a ton of recommendations which I won't argue with and the North American ones are probably easiest for you but I will put a recommendation for Steve Dickinson in the UK. Of course, he makes new Wheatstones and repairs old ones, but he also respotres Jeffries (and presumably other makes) and has done a superb job on the instruments he's repaired for me, including a Jeffries Duet and a coupe of 30 button Jeffries. He fully understands the difference between the different makes and respects their different characters and is a wonderful craftsman.

 

To give you some hope, here's a before and after of the left hand of a C Jeffries box which I just finished restoring which had much of the same problems as yours - including excessive screw tightening leading to bent fretwork and veneer which needed completely replacing.

 

Best of luck

 

Alex West

[Frank Edgley]

What did you do to get the wood so clean?

[Alex West]

Frank

 

The glare of the flash probably exaggerates the cleanliness, but a lot of the dust/dirt was quite superficial.

 

I used a scalpel as a scraper to get through the majority of the muck and glass fibre pens to "polish" the surface which gives quite a smooth finish. Glass fibre pens now come in a variety of diameters and the widest one (8mm) is great for cleaning up large areas whilst the narrower ones are OK for detailed work. I'd advise wearing gloves and even masks though; the debris from the pens is fairly nasty.

 

Time is probably the most precious ingredient. I certainly wouldn't advise rushing the job

 

It looks a whole lot better afterwards though and makes the action re-build so much tidier - I also found that the pads sealed afterwards with very little adjustment and second fixing

 

Alex

[Squeezix]

What did you do to get the wood so clean?

 

On mine, I didn't do anything. The undamaged end came to me way cleaner than the damaged end. Quite uniformly cleaner, too. That's what originally got me to thinking that the two ends might have come from two different instruments. But on further examination that idea didn't wash. So to speak. There's no hint of tobacco smell; dunno why some wood parts are are dirty and some are clean.

 

(And, Alex: thank you for the thoughts and recommendations. I hadn't even noticed about the springs and the levers. Well, my eyes had noticed, but my brain hadn't.

Edited March 9, 2008 by Squeezix