The Concertina Doctor

20/07/2025

Work in progress.
A nice amboyna 58 button Lachenal extended treble English Concertina with extra whistle and squeaker buttons.
When restoration is completed, this one will be available from Steve Turner at Turner Violins of Beeston, Nottingham.

24/06/2025

Porous bellows corner gussets in a Chinese Scarlatti Anglo Concertina.
The gussets are not leather, they are made of cloth coated with a plastic material, which perishes after a while, leading to pin prick holes, visible in the first photo.
The solution is to line the gussets from inside with thin soft leather, as in the next two photos.

10/06/2025

Hand cutting and thinning Jeffries valves with a scalpel.

09/06/2025

Fitting new chamois leather gaskets to the reed pans on a Jeffries Brothers Duet Concertina (Jeffries duet system).

20/05/2025

On the work bench today, an interesting C/G anglo concertina. This one is a Lachenal copy most probably made by the little known maker Tidder. Unusually Tidder never labeled his concertinas. Tidder & Co were more known for making harmoniums and seraphinas and for reed making.
This concertina will be for sale when the restoration is done,

25/03/2025

Vintage 1950s Hohner Amatona restoration update:
All done, playing superbly, re pitched from D/D # to D/G, which is much more use to me, new gold tape on the bellows, this one's a keeper. It has a nice light touch and response for such a big box.
Tune: 'Just as the Tide was Flowing'.

23/03/2025

08/03/2025

Vintage Hohner Amatona conversion update:
D # MM reeds removed, a set of G reeds (mainly Hohner T reeds, made up from the stock of reclaimed spare reeds), valved and tuned, all the old wax removed from the reed block, ready for the reeds to be waxed on, luckily, the reed chambers are about the right size for these reeds, so no problem there.
Next step, to select a set of low octave reeds. 🙂

06/03/2025

I spend my life working on other people's instruments, but occasionally I like to do a project for myself.
I recently acquired this lovely old vintage 1950s Hohner Amatona melodeon. Currently a semitone box tuned in D/D #, but in my hands, soon to become a D/G box (as semitone box is no use to me, I'm far too long in the tooth to learn a different system).
The Amatona has a rich old style accordion sound, which I like, and is quite lightweight for a large box, about half the weight of the equivalent Soprani.
Should be a bit of fun! 🙂

10/02/2025

Found inside a metal ended Wheatstone Treble English Concertina.
After some research I found that Clydesdale 556 was/still is a Masonic Lodge.
Some say that you shouldn't write anything inside a concertina, but I think it adds interest and insights into the instrument's history.

08/01/2025

Preparing accordion reed wax for waxing melodeon reed plates onto the wooden reed blocks.
The reed wax blocks are gently melted in a greaseproof paper lined tray in the oven, allowed to cool and set, and then lifted out and cut into strips with a scalpel, to be uesd to wax the reed plates onto the reed blocks with a variable temperature soldering iron.

22/12/2024

Seasons Greetings to all my customers.