G'day Schantieman,

Sorry, I might have gone a bit overboard with what was more of a rebuttal of the sort of cop-out that you get ... along the lines of "You can't change the key of a concertina ... the reeds won't retune far enough &c" when a sensible reshuffle means there is no need to do anything more than just put some 89% of the reeds into new spots ... fiddle with the fitting for about 15% more ... and maybe call on an expert for the 5% left.

Most professional repairers don't want to do that sort of job - because there is little for them to point to in the way of repair or alteration. It is an interesting exercise for a player that wants to know the way round their instrument ... as long as they have someone around to sort out any 'glitches'!

Regards,

Bob Bolton