No. 15: A Bass G/D Anglo
My fifteenth concertina was a bass G/D anglo, i.e. one that plays one octave lower than a standard G/D like No. 6, with 34 buttons and five latchable drone levers.
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Anglo
No. 11: A 32 Button C/G Blackbird Anglo
My eleventh instrument was another C/G Blackbird Anglo, this time a 6″ model with 32 buttons (+ air).
Specification
- 32 button C/G Anglo based on the Jeffries layout with some customisations.
- Six sides, six inches wide across the flats.
- Seven fold plain black goatskin bellows with sycamore pattern papers.
- Flat laminated end plates, dyed-black tulipwood veneer on a solid sycamore core, with traditional-style foliate fretwork pattern and bloodwood border inlay.
- Wheatstone-style ogee border shape.
- Sycamore action box walls with black tulipwood veneer.
- Bloodwood flat hand rails with leather thumb pads and integral brass strap fixings.
- Dimensions and location of hand rails, and length of strap customised slightly.
- French polished finish.
- Brass reed frames with long scale steel reed tongues.
- Sycamore reed pans with parallel Jeffries-style chambers.
- Sycamore action boards.
- Brass sheet riveted action levers.
- 3/16″ diameter brass capped buttons.
- Slotted brass end bolts.
- 3mm button travel (giving 6mm pad lift at 2:1 action lever ratio).
- Black wool bushings.
- Tuning: Equal temperament A=440Hz.
- Weight: 1238g
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No. 8: A Smaller Blackbird
My latest concertina is a new, slightly smaller and lighter version of my Blackbird Anglo. It is a 30 button C/G with a low D drone in a 5 3/4″ (146mm) wide frame.
Specification
- 30 button C/G (Jeffries pattern) + low D drone on left thumb.
- Six sides, 5 3/4″ wide.
- Seven fold black goatskin bellows with 1 1/8″ deep cards and fancy custom bellows papers.
- Amboyna burl laminated end plates with black Ebano borders.
- Amboyna action boxes with black Ebano decorative stripe.
- Curved-top Ziricote hand rails.
- French polished finish.
- 5.7mm diameter boxwood buttons.
- Brass thumb levers on both sides (drone on the left, air release on the right).
- 2mm button travel (giving 4mm pad lift at 2:1 action lever ratio).
- Traditional concertina reeds in aluminium frames for weight saving.
- 1/5th comma meantone tuning, with A as the root note.
- Solid sycamore parallel-chamber reed pans.
- Experimental modifications to lower the volume of the drone note.
- Weight: 1138g.
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No. 6: A 38 Button G/D Anglo
My latest instrument is a 38 button G/D anglo, with raised metal ends.
Here is its full specification:
- 38 button + air Jeffries layout Anglo in the keys of G/D.
- Six sides, 6 1/4″ wide.
- Six fold black goatskin bellows with 1 1/8″ deep cards and Pictish key pattern bellows papers.
- Traditional long scale steel reeds in brass frames.
- Laminated maple parallel-chamber reed pans.
- Black walnut burr veneer sides with Rocklite Ebano borders and decorative stripes.
- Solid English walnut curved-top handrails (plus a spare set with straight tops).
- Brass riveted action levers.
- Sycamore pad/action boards.
- Raised inset nickel silver end plates with hidden fixing screws.
- 3/16″ nickel silver capped buttons with acetal cores.
- 3mm button travel (giving 6mm pad lift at a 2:1 action lever ratio).
- Black wool bushings.
- Nickel plating on all external metalwork apart from stainless steel bushing board screws.
- Weight: 1484g.
- Italian hard case with custom fitted corner blocks.
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