This instrument was a long term side-project that I finished off just in time for Christmas last year. It was an unusual project for me because I didn’t make the reeds (they are Hohner accordion bass reeds) or the bellows (they were reclaimed from a large Lachenal baritone Maccann), and it only has buttons and fretwork on one side. It was also the largest instrument I had built up to that point, and had the lowest bottom note (F1, 43.65 Hz).
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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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My fourteenth concertina was a small, lightweight, 48 button duet with an unusual keyboard layout inspired by an antique Viennese concertina. We modified the concept slightly by giving the instrument the same keyboard curve, spacing, and hand rails/straps as a Crane duet rather than the slanted straight rows and English-style thumb straps and finger grips of the Viennese original. We felt this change improved the ergonomics as well as freeing up all four fingers to be used for playing.
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My thirteenth concertina was a beautiful English concertina with Müller-style keyboard and hand rests/straps, plus some additional thumb-operated bass drone buttons.
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