G'day Chris,

Ypu ought to have noticed that I was talking about shifting reeds by one semitone - to the next slot in the alternating positions ... at least six to one odds of being identical in size! As for the old tale of "tuned" chambers - it does not match up with facts - measurement, comparison of examples ... or real results. One of the finest sounding concertinas I had was retuned from G/C to D/G ... a full fourth.

In this case need steel reeds were fitted into shoes previouslu holding brass reeds - but the volume and voice were excellent (of course this had much to do with the the high quality of the new reeds, made by Richard Evans. This concertina was borrowed by Australian performer Dave de Hugard for his last CD - and led to his commissioning a similar re-reeded box from Richard.

Sadly, myconcertina was stolen, some years back - which led to my 'shuffle' job ... which has worked very well now, for several years.

Regards,

BobbBolton