This is a Wheatstone 56-Key Extended-Treble Aeola with gold buttons. It has been fitted with new pads and valves, and tuned to concert pitch (A=440hz).

This is a really fantastic concertina. As you can see by the buttons, this instrument would have been made especially for somebody to-order, and it’s a cracking player as a result. It is fast and responsive, with a bright tone that isn’t harsh at all. It is everything you might expect from a very top Wheatstone concertina, even if it was made before their best period. People can be put off by extended-treble concertinas, thinking that the fingering of the 48 buttons you’d have on a standard treble would feel different, but those notes are in the same place in context with the thumbs, and the extra notes don’t actually add much extra weight at all due to the fact that those reeds are so small. We’d encourage anybody to give this instrument a try- it’s a lovely thing!

The serial number of this concertina is 24748.

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