Its great seeing all this interest in squeezeboxes!!

I notice one or two of us have noticed that concertinas made by the same maker can be very different. I have been told that makers like lachenal put a lot of their work out to outworkers, craftspeople who worked from home making perhaps just one part that was then assembled with all the other parts made by other outworkers in the workshop. I think this may well be why there can be such a difference.

ralphie, you are a very lucky man indeed. Colin Dippers instruments are simply the vert best of both vintage and modern instruments, simply the very best concertina's ever made. I like your phrase ralphie as well, "the box of dreams". Thats what they are of course. I see or hear a concertina and my mind just wonders off into our history and music. You all must know that the concertina is virtually the only instrument invented by an englishman and is one of the most recent musical instruments to have been invented.Its a triumph of victorian invention and importantly miniaturisation.

stevethesqueeze