Thank you! The little leather valves? They are pretty easy to replace, you can get spares from concertina-spares.com in the UK. The old ones normally just pull off. Ordinary craft PVA glue is fine for installing the new ones. Make sure that they don't either interfere with the other reed in the cell, or catch on the sides. There should be tiny pins to stop the valves opening too wide. If you're doing much in the way of repairs Dave Elliott's "Concertina Maintenance Manual" is worth getting.
Fascinating. I have "inherited" a cheap anglo which has a few notes that are not sounding. It is not a vintage or high end instrument, so a professional repair would probably cost me more than the instrument is worth, so I will follow your instructions and see if I can solve the issues myself first. On top of anything else, I live in Catalonia, where concertinas are as rare as kangaroo eggs, and none of the music shops I visit know anyone who can repair them professionally. Indeed most of them had never seen one before.
Hi Rusty - yes very much the same, the reeds will probably be parallel rather than arranged like spokes of a wheel but the principles are the same. Tom
