Single-action Wheatstone

[david robertson]

Since it lives locally, I had a look at this one tonight. It's a single-action extended treble - a combination I've never seen before - and it's mostly in very good condition. The bellows and their gills are sound and airtight, and it has a lovely clean set of riveted steel reeds. The fly in the ointment is the dreadful ends. I can't believe Wheatstone ever produced anything so crude, so I'm guessing that someone has bodged up some replacement ends at some time in the instrument's very long history (and compounded the offence by coating them in polyurethane varnish!) Still, if you've got the required skill and equipment to make new ends for it, there's the bare bones of an excellent and unusual instrument. I make no comment on the price being asked, simply because I haven't got the faintest idea of what it might be worth.