Tuning a Concertina

Basically - take it to a professional who knows how to tune a concertina.  Accordion repair guys might be able to do it - I don't know how similar it is.



Here's the thing: inside the end caps are where the reeds are.  You could remove the end pins that hold on the caps and take a look.  What you will see are the buttons and the action mechanism mounted on the sound board.  On the other side of the sound board holes are the reed blocks where the reeds are mounted. Each hole will have reeds for draw and press.  Depending on the construction of the sound board and the action mechanism, each note can be a "Double", "Triple", or "Quad".  This refers to the number of reeds on a button.  A particular button may have 2, 3, or 4 reeds, in various octaves, as the concertina designer desired.

To tune the reeds, I assume you have to adjust the screw that holds the reed somehow, but I wouldn't want to try it myself (much like tuning a piano is harder than you think, due to the number of wires per hammer, and to the changing stress on the piano as you tune the wires, among other things).

In addition, if you were unaware, there is no absolute tuning pitch.  Tuning forks and tuners are made according to the standard and convention of the time.  These days, our standard is that a tuning "A" note is at 440 Hz.  However, this standard was only adopted in 1939.  Plenty of concertinas were built before then, using whatever tuning frequency that was convention in that time and place.   This means that even if your concertina sounds great, it may not be in tune with modern instruments!

In addition, to complicate things, there is something called musette tuning.  This refers to the French style of dance and also of playing the accordion, but may also be called "wet" tuning.  Essentially, you "de-tune" one set of the reeds in the concertina, either making it sharp or flat (your tuner's preference).  This causes a vibrato-like effect (like an electric organ does)

More information on the tuning is on the FAQ of the Chicago concertina club website.