Travel Tips

I'm planning on putting up some photos of my concertinas here, because I want to and there's nowhere else to put them at the moment. I will be featuring an Edgley, two small German anglos (on the right in the above photo), and a heavily damaged Jones that I hope to get fixed up soon.

The Edgley is three years old and has cherry ends with mahogany stain. The bellows are all black, I prefer them that way. The ends each have a "Celtic Lion" carving and there's a brass nameplate on the right end. Easy to identify in a pile of boxes!

This was the first concertina I ever owned. I am already starting to outgrow it but will never get rid of it...I hope someday I can give it to one of my descendants when they become interested in playing. The nameplate will add historical value as it also has the year (2003) on it.

I got the Jones box on ebay from a restorer who didn't feel it was profitable to restore and resell. It needs a lot of work - the most obvious bit is that the wooden end plates are pretty much smashed, but it also needs new springs, pads, valves, etc etc. It may or may not be in modern pitch - with all the damage it's very hard to tell.

The reason I got this one is because it's got three very mysterious buttons on the left hand side. I don't know what they do yet. Two are by the left thumb and one is below the inner row of buttons. Jones liked to put "novelty" buttons on some of his boxes, so they could do just about anything - I've heard people say they've seen boxes with buttons that chirped like birds or cried like babies!

Update - I've taken the box apart prior to restoring. One of the buttons is a duck call. One goes to some small metal disc that I haven't figure out yet. And one appears to be a drone note.

This is a gorgeous little German box that has been fully restored by concertina man Andrew Norman. I will be getting new bellows put on it this year, if finances allow.

Andrew retuned it to G/D, but it's an octave higher than standard G/D concertinas. It's got a lovely sweet sound and is less than 4 & 1/2 inches across the flats. It was most likely made after World War 1 and before World War 2, because it has "Made in Germany" stamped on the bellows. This apparently was required of German products after the first war. If it was made after the second war it would probably say "Made in East Germany" ...we think.

This is also the rightmost instrument in the main photo above.

I got this one as part of the transaction that got me the miniature featured above. It hasn't been restored yet, as it's in playable condition as it is, although it hasn't been retuned to modern pitch and thus wouldn't work with other nontunable instruments...like concertinas.

This is the middle instrument in the main photo above. It's 5 and 1/4 inches across the flats. It's in good condition except that the inner row springs are stronger than the outer row, making it a bit awkward to play. I will likely have that fixed when I replace the bellows on the other one (above).

I got this off ebay. It's a 39 button duet concertina and seems to have MacCann fingering. I'm hoping there will be a maker's mark inside.

Update - I didn't see a maker's mark but there was a repairer's mark and I think a serial number as well. It's not in modern pitch, unfortunately, but is in tune with itself. I was toying with the idea of learning to play Duet but I think I'd rather fund my anglos, so I will probably have a friend of mine play a demo tune on it and put it up for sale. I'll do some minor repairs first - replacing pads and that sort of thing.

This poor fellow has an interesting future ahead of him. Unless the project falls through, it will be gutted and sent to Bulgaria to be turned into an electronic concertina. But first I have to find some replacement buttons, as nearly all of them had fallen off. More details as I get them!

I've been in touch with Colin Dipper of C & R Dipper Concertinas to talk about a custom box. It's still in the planning stages but it sounds like it is going to be a small wooden ended black walnut box, C/G and probably 30 buttons. When more details are fleshed out I'll update this section.