This is a Crabb 30-Key in C/G with steel reeds. It has been fitted with bellows, pads, valves and straps in recent years, and has been tuned to concert pitch.

We have to use a maker’s name in the title of these listings, and we are 95% sure that this is a Crabb- but obviously it’s a little different. It has thinner fretwork that isn’t typical of any maker, although we have seen a couple of examples of this before with Crabb. Tonally it’s also very Crabb- a bright, loud instrument. It doesn’t have a drone on the left hand, and an additional button added by a previous owner has been removed, so there is a little extra hole in the action of the left hand (all sealed and airtight).

The layout is slightly odd- it’s a Lachenal layout, but has two C#s on the first button, which makes it a sort of hybrid between Jeffries and Lachenal layout.

All in all, it’s a great, fast player.

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