Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas

Subject: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Leslie Butler
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 03:18 PM

My black concertina in its black box looks like an awful lot of other black concertinas in black boxes. Any suggestions on marking mine so's to spot it in a police line-up or crowded cloak room?

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 03:53 PM

?

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Tootler
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 04:01 PM

Put a few stickers on the box

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: treewind
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 04:29 PM

Mine has a green ribbon it.
(Handy hint: if you adopt this idea use a different colour)
It's partly to distinguish mine from my wife's as she also plays concertina. Hers has a red ribbon on it.
(Handy hint #2: don't use red either)

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 04:38 PM

My box is rosewood, but it travels in an insulated fabric lunchbox. High-class, eh?

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 05:55 PM

My home-made wooden box covered in black leather is covered in stickers from various festivals, probably unique, as is what it contains.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 08:13 PM

You pose an interesting question.

Stickers - can be removed, or pasted over.
Colored bands, cut off.

My guess is, you are looking for a unique identifier that can identify your property, in a police photograph of 20 almost identical instruments?

"Chipping" as in an animal IS is the most obvious. However, I believe you would like a remote ID, from a remote source. Using an "aPP ID" with imprinted pattern on the outfacing bellows may be discrete enough to flip the fellons. You may select a color frequency that is scarcely disernable to the naked eye, however leaps out when viewed in a pile on police contraband.

Sincerely,
gargoyle

. Insurance is cheap...there is not a hot market for stolen concertinas

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Sep 18 - 08:53 PM

Carve/burn your name on the box, or paint it yellow. Get a leather-worker to make you coloured thumb-loops for the instrument. Record the number, which it should have.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Leslie Butler
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 08:14 AM

Thanks, all. Coloured thumb-loops could work, but aesthetically . . . I dunno, bit like putting go faster stripes on a hearse.
Gargoyle - Thank you for correctly expounding my query but sorry, what is an app ID? other than being an app ID, I mean, for I presume you're not suggesting I install a sim card.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 09:19 AM

You are not saying this is a security issue and presumably you are referring to container, not the contained, so there are numerous ways you can personalise your box for very little outlay if any. Mark on your initials in gold or silver sticky tape?

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: GUEST,Cj
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 10:15 AM

Hmm. Sometimes gigs can be quite dark and a simple ribbon may not quite cut it. I'd consider rubbing the box with fox poo, to give it a distinctive odour, also?

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 10:57 AM

Fascinating
Thread \ - :

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Jack Campin
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 12:51 PM

A small amount of a gamma emitter inside. Just enough that you can identify it with a Geiger counter from across the room.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: BobL
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 04:23 PM

I got into the habit of marking equipment with my postcode and house number in several places:
   - visibly on the back or underside,
   - in UV ink somewhere fairly visible
   - in UV ink somewhere where it's normally hidden
   - visibly on the inside (where a repairer would find it).

BTW Leslie, thank you for your splendid addition, between Glass Hammer and Inflatable Dartboard, to my definitive list of useless items.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 04:39 PM

open the concertina then on the inside reed pan use a gummed label with your name on it, i the event of theft it can be identified.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Sep 18 - 05:00 PM

definitive list of useless items.

Here's another: Posts from people who don't read what the OP has written.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Leslie Butler
Date: 10 Sep 18 - 06:55 AM

Thanks for all positive suggestions. I confess, given how expensive, pinchable and losable concertinas are, I thought there'd be a standard marking procedure, as with bicycles. But it's nice to know the folky world is immune to mishap.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: treewind
Date: 10 Sep 18 - 07:01 AM

To identify in case of theft, the best recommendation I've seen is to put name and contact details (email, house+postcode, phone) on the inside of the reed pan with a ballpoint pen, writing directly on the wood and deliberately pressing hard so it can't be erased (it's too easy to unstick and pull off a paper label)

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Sep 18 - 09:46 AM

I'm still confused as to whether this is a security or identity query!
Perhaps both.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Leslie Butler
Date: 11 Sep 18 - 05:27 AM

Security and identity go together. If your anonymous-looking black concertina is stolen or mislaid, how do you describe it or identify it in a way that will get assistance from the police, or whoever? It's nigh impossible to permanently mark box or instrument without causing unsightly damage, so I'm amazed there's not more concern about this.

've opted for my name on the reed pan, btw.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Sep 18 - 05:46 AM

I have one instrument marked with a serial number by the maker in a place he says he doesn't expect any owner to find. I hope he can tell the police how to find it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 11 Sep 18 - 10:20 AM

All the concertinas of any worth that I have had have the serial number marked on the reed pan. Do they not do that with modern concertinas?

I like the idea of name on the reed pan or somewhere inside as it is adding to the history of the instrument. Some of the concertinas I've had have had this and it helps to find out the background to previous owners if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Subject: RE: Tech: Distinguishing black boxes & concertinas
From: GUEST,OldNicKilby
Date: 12 Sep 18 - 08:41 AM

Do NOT put it in a Cloakroom, keep hold at all times. Losing a Concertina is like losing Virginity. It only happens once