Upon making a pilgrimage to the Button Box, music aficionados will find endless rows of what look like tiny accordions, known as concertinas and recognized around the world for both their unique melody and simplicity.
The store’s adjoining workshop, where many of the instruments are made, has never been able to keep up with the demand — at any given moment, there are several concertinas lying around in various stages of production in the workshop. Nine people hustle to keep the workshop pumping out instruments, repairing, tuning and selling both concertinas and accordions.
“We’ve never been able to build them fast enough to have them in stock. Occasionally, we will have them on the shelf, but they don’t last long,” said Bob Snope, who has spent more than two decades as the store’s chief tuner and technician.
Snope bought his first concertina in the 1970s. After watching a performance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, he was captivated by the way a musician maneuvered the tiny instrument. Already knowing how to read music and having taken violin lessons in grade school, he taught himself how to play the concertina.
His love of folk music and the ease of learning how to play the instrument attracted him to the concertina. “Traditional music has always excited me more than classical or jazz,” Snopes explained.
The concertina is also remarkably easy to learn.
“You don’t have to tune them and they are very easy to pick up. It’s not like a violin, where you spend a year making terrible sounds. You just pick it up and press a button and voila!” he said, as he grabed a concertina off the shelf and squeezed it together, while gliding his fingers over the instrument’s buttons.
The buttons, or piano keys, he explained, are attached to wooden arms, which are attached to rods with pads that cover holes on the inside of the instrument. When you press the button, the pad lifts and air runs through the reeds.
The reeds, which are imported from Italy, are like metal tongues. When air is pushed through them, they vibrate and produce a noise like a harmonica.
By the rate of concertina sales, its clear Snopes isn’t the only musician captivated by the concertinas. Customers send their instruments from all over the country for repairs or tuning.
The store in Sunderland, one of the only places in the country that offers these services, has a constant stream of customers. One regular patron ships their concertina for repairs from Alaska. Sometimes orders come in from Ireland or Japan. A new concertina could run up a hefty bill of up to $6,000, but the price tag doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone. For those musicians who want to spend less, there are options that are as low as a few hundred dollars.
Aside from the R. Morse & Co. brand instruments constructed in the Button Box’s workshop, the store sells concertinas made by Charles Jeffreis, the most famous maker of vintage concertinas.
Some of the instruments sitting on the shelves are over 100 years old, dating back to the 1850s. Even the older instruments are still functioning. “You would want to be more careful with it, but they are meant to be played. Everything we put on the shelf is in good playing condition,” said Snope.
The Button Box is at 42 Amherst Road in Sunderland. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 5. The Button Box is closed on Sunday and Saturdays throughout August.
For more information, call 413-665-7793 or visit: www.buttonbox.com