Duet

No. 14: A 48 Button Viennese Duet

Duet, Viennese /
Illustration by Nina Dietrich

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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No. 12

No. 12: A 40 Button Maccann Duet

Duet, Maccann /

My twelfth concertina was a special 40 button Maccann Duet with some custom ergonomic features.

Specification
  • 40 buttons (+ air): 20 notes per side, one octave apart
  • Lowest note on left hand is G3
  • Six sides, 6 3/8″ wide
  • 3/16″ diameter brass capped buttons
  • 2mm button height and travel (buttons stop flush with end plate)
  • Air button in right thumb position, 8mm high
  • Black button bushing cloth
  • Amboyna veneered end plates and walls
  • Thuya burr, ogee profile borders
  • Thuya burr handrails, extra tall with curved top and adjustable position
  • All external woodwork stained dark red and French polished
  • Flat ends with fancy fretwork
  • Seven fold plain black goatskin bellows
  • Black imitation leather bellows papers
  • Aluminium alloy reed frames
  • Aluminium alloy action levers
  • Long scale steel reeds on both sides
  • Radial sloped sycamore reed pans with no inner reed chambers
  • Bach/Lehman tuning, A=440Hz
  • Weight: 1305g

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No. 10: A 45 Button Crane Duet

Crane, Duet /

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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