This is a Wheatstone Aeola 56-Key Extended-Treble with steel reeds. It has been tuned to concert pitch (A=440hz). The serial number is 35315.

The quality of Wheatstone concertinas famously declined quite heavily during their later period, and this concertina does comes that time. However, how well it plays and sounds does not fit the norm. It’s a wonderful playing concertina with a lovely tone, it’s extremely responsive, and also has the benefit of naturally being in very tidy condition due to the fact that it was made much more recently than a lot of our stock. The price reflects our usual pricing on Wheatstones from this period, but potentially doesn’t do this concertina justice considering its quality, making it a bit of a bargain.

As we say with all extended-treble instruments, they feel and play exactly like a 48-Key treble, with the usual 48 buttons being in exactly the same place as on a treble, and being the same size too. The reality is that you wouldn’t use the top notes, but they don’t add any real excess weight. Treat this concertina like a quality 48-Key treble.

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