No. 9: A 62 Button Hayden Duet
Earlier this year I built my largest instrument to date, a 62 button (+ air) Hayden duet with a range from F2 to E6 in a 7 3/4″ wide octagonal frame.
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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. 7: A 47 Button Hayden Duet and Leather Case
Introduction
My latest instrument is a very special custom 47 button Hayden duet. I also made a bespoke hard case to store and transport it.
Here is a demonstration of it being played by its owner, Israel Sánchez. The set has two tunes. The first is a waltz/bourree composed by José Climent. The second is a traditional pasacalles from the Aliste region of Spain.
Specification
- 47 buttons (+ air lever), based on the standard 46 button Hayden layout with a few small customisations.
- Six sides, 6 1/4″ wide.
- Seven fold black goatskin bellows with 1 1/8″ deep cards and custom bellows papers.
- Traditional concertina reeds in aluminium frames for weight saving, normal scale on the left hand and long scale on the right (the same distribution I previously used successfully on Holden No. 4).
- 1/5th comma meantone tuning, with A as the root note.
- Laminated maple radial-chamber tapered reed pans with two inner chambers on each side.
- Solid purpleheart action box sides with decorative stripes.
- Quilted maple laminated raised end plates with decorative striped border.
- Peacock Oil wood finish.
- 6mm diameter glass buttons.
- Green button bushings.
- Custom boxwood hand rests and thumb pads with custom hand and thumb straps.
- The first instrument to feature my new etched brass maker’s plate.
- 2mm button travel (giving 4mm pad lift at a 2:1 action lever ratio).
- Weight: 1440g.
- Leather covered hexagonal clamshell case with suede covered padded interior and decorative shoulder strap.
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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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