Anyone want to see a concertina autopsy?

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:21 am

Well, it's not dead, but this morning I took apart a recently acquired old concertina in order to obtain some diagnostic assistance from other repairers. Here's most of my post, with picture-links, for anyone who is curious about these things.

Hi again everyone, and thanks very much for the replies. ... I opened up the box this morning, and took lots of pictures, but I should have taken written notes too! Chalk up first lesson learned.

Three interesting points came to light upon opening. There is a lot of valve warping; I am guessing this one has been stored on end in its box for quite a lot of time. Also, the entire serial number isn't visible from the outside:

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ternal.jpg
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ternal.jpg

So this little tidbit revises the age estimate from 1870-1900 to 1894-1929, again using the two formulae I found on this site. Interesting. The third point of info is that I was expecting to see steel reeds, but they look brass. I don't know what implication that has yet.

On with the photos:

The left side

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... tplate.jpg - The front plate. Two screws were rusted into place and took a while to get out. There's a fair bit of damage surrounding the screwholes here, suggesting that it's been opened a lot. The same two rusty screws were also partially stripped, one worse than the other. I haven't put those two back in for fear of damaging them more.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... nboard.jpg - The action board. One of the buttons had its little felt-bushing missing, at the point where it meets the lever arm. The lowest button, the sticky one when playing, didn't seem so bad with the front plate removed.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... tplate.jpg - another view of the above.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ntside.jpg - The reed pan sitting inside its holder.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... _flash.jpg - Front of the removed reed pan, with flash.
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... oflash.jpg - Front of the reed pan, without flash.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ckside.jpg - The back of the reed pan. The valve conditions lead me to believe that the concertina was mostly stored on its left end, and it came with an end-oriented box (which I am not using at the moment, it needs cleaning).

The right side

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... tplate.jpg - The front plate. Crack toward the right in this shot and a bit of fretwork is broken off, but it's still glued to the leather baffle.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... nboard.jpg - Action board. A few of the 'dust circles' around the landing sites of the pads weren't centred on the holes, so there might be some leakage there.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ntside.jpg - Front of the reed pan

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ckside.jpg - Back of the reed pan

Three of the reeds on the right side have little pieces of paper wedged in next to them. I didn't make note of which ones, but I think at least one, and possibly two, are the notes which are off-key with respect to the tuning.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... wedge1.jpg
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... wedge2.jpg
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... wedge3.jpg

The Bellows

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ternal.jpg - The bellows, internal view. I forgot to take an external shot, but I can later.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ration.jpg - I didn't like the look of all these marks inside the bellows...

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uclyege ... ession.jpg - at one end the bellows seem to be structurally weak, probably from overuse. If pushed too far they seemed to bend in farther than originally designed, at least in my view. This is a composite shot of compressing to what I thought would be normally the maximum (top) and then what these bellows actually compress to (bottom).

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:27 am

Oh, wow. Very interesting pictures (albeit a bit ginormous!), thanks for sharing.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:35 am

Hmmm, Beth, can you explain what we're seeing here?

What's are those big pieces of blue stuff?

And the emery-board looking white things?

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:37 am

Concertina autopsies are great .... so long as it's not my concertina.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:32 pm

Not sure what 'big blue things' you're referring to, Peggy. The 'emery-board looking' things are leather valves. You may know that an anglo concertina plays one pitch when it's being squeezed and another pitch when it's being pulled. Those valves are what keep a note from playing when the concertina is not going in the 'right' direction for it. The air pressure pushes the valve against the frame, blocking any air from getting through to the metal reed on the other side. When the metal reed vibrates, the note plays.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:35 pm

Wonderful photos Av,
Incredible how such complicated music can be wrung out of such a seemingly simple mechanism... The combination of Fiddle and Concertina has always been one of my favourite sounds and after seeing these photos I'm even more agog than ever about it.

Slan,
D.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:59 pm

Cranberry, I like your avatar.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:37 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:Cranberry, I like your avatar.

Thanks.

He's my brother's.

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:03 pm

Not sure what 'big blue things' you're referring to, Peggy.

Looks like cloth - visible inside the left action plate which covers up the holes in the fretwork.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:15 am

Oh - that's thin leather, I think it's called a baffle. Helps to keep dust and dirt from getting inside, and also muffles the sound coming out just slightly.

In newer models, the baffle is also useful for keeping soft drinks from entering one's instrument.

Have you tested yours yet, Azalin?

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:23 am

Cool Anglo. I'm fixing up my Lachenal English at the mo., finished the re-valve, now all I need is a coupla new pads in the action box and fix a couple of chamber airleaks and it should be nowhere near as good as the day it was made!

Have you got Dave Elliott's The Concertina Maintenance Manual, Beth? Tis the dog's danglies.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:20 am

Hey Gary, maybe you can give me some restoring tips when I see you?

I do indeed have Elliott's book, actually I have two editions of it - one I got in Ireland with the cool MRI-scan cover and one that came with the concertina, a spiral-bound older version.

I went to Hobgoblin's today to get a proper case for the box and some tips on restoring...the guy there seemed surprisingly tightlipped on advice but I guess they make some of their money through repairs. He didn't even want to take a look inside. Later on this week I'll be ordering a full set of new valves and pads through concertina-spares.com and we'll see what this thing can do with proper equipment.

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 9:05 am

Yup, I get my spares from Mr Leese too! Which reminds me, must order more, I'm almost out of valves and I've no pads at all. Re-valving is actually very easy, it's chasing leaks that's a real pain. Dave's book is brilliant, and I'm not surprised a lot of "professionals" poo-pooh it. I was castigated and warned against re-valving... "It'll destroy the tuning, you'll need to get it retuned!" Yeah right.

Sadly the fretwork on my EC's ends is badly damaged, and I'm always worried about warping when I take an end off. I had to resort to PVA glue as a gasket thanks to warping between the action-plate and end-plate

You'll see it when I see you

I was told my Lachenal had been "professionally restored" by Hobgoblin, but I can't be certain of that. Whoever had done the work did a really good job on the bellows but the valve and gasket work was appalling... more than half the valves didn't seal their slots, some of the valves were too short, and some were actually stuck to the chamber sidewall!