Crane

The tenth instrument I built was another Crane duet. It was for John Thornton of Hampshire, the same client who commissioned No. 4. I am fortunate to have several customers who, after receiving their first Holden concertina, immediately placed an order for a second one. No. 10 is very similar in many ways to No. 4, with one obvious difference (metal instead of wooden ends) and a lot of small differences that I will list later. You might find it interesting to read my article about No. 4 as background to this article.

In this video, John performs five tunes on No. 10 and talks a little about his modifications to the standard Crane duet layout.

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No. 10: A 45 Button Crane DuetRead More »

My latest instrument is another Crane duet, this time a traditional-looking 44 button (+ air) with 6 1/4″ hexagonal ends.

Here is its full specification:

• 44+1 button Crane layout with Butterworth curve and slightly narrowed column spacing.
• Six sides.
• Weight: 1170g.
• Seven fold plain black goatskin bellows.
• Black walnut burr veneer with black Rocklite Ebano border inlay.
• Ebonized beech handrails with integral strap fixings.
• French polished finish.
• 6082-T6 aluminium reed frames with steel reed tongues.
• Standard scale reeds on the left hand, long scale on the right hand.
• Sycamore radial tapered reed pans.
• Sycamore action boards.
• Brass sheet riveted action levers.
• 3/16″ nickel silver capped buttons with acetal cores.
• 2mm button travel (giving 4mm pad lift at 2:1 action lever ratio).
• Black wool bushings.
• Tuning: 1/5 comma meantone with root note A=440Hz.
• Includes some modifications to standard Crane layout, such as the addition of left hand A2, Bb2, and B2 notes, and right hand B3.

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No. 4: A 44 Button Crane DuetRead More »

My latest concertina is a 45 button (+ air) Crane duet in a 6 ¼” (159mm) wide eight-sided frame, with rippled maple veneered end plates and sides, applewood border inlay, and Ebano handrails. …

No. 3: A 45 Button Crane DuetRead More »