The games are a cruel business. One minute you pwn the high score list, next minute you are barely even on it anymore.

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WakeBurner claimed the board in BricksBreaking II for a sweeping win in June 2008's game of the month. Congratulations to him! There was competition from Jane in the beginning of the month, but Wake stormed ahead for his fifth victory in the games overall. Good Job!

Next month's game is displayed on the games page.

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Who is the Round Three judge?[ 5 vote(s) ]
1.	Margaret	0 / 0%
2.	alligator097	0 / 0%
3.	Jane	1 / 20%
4.	Jaems	1 / 20%
5.	Hickhole	1 / 20%
6.	Borg Child	1 / 20%
7.	forglemmigej	1 / 20%

Anyone can vote. Addition to rules: the losing judge needs to set up the next poll as I won't know when the newly appointed judge has posted. If he or she needs help I can be asked to assist. Else I might post a tutorial.

Who is the round two Judge?[ 7 vote(s) ]
1.	Margaret	3 / 43%
2.	forglemmigej	0 / 0%
3.	alligator097	0 / 0%
4.	Nordic	0 / 0%
5.	Jaems	0 / 0%
6.	Hickhole	1 / 14%
7.	Borg Child	2 / 29%
8.	Jane	1 / 14%
9.	Emily	0 / 0%
10.	WakeBurner	0 / 0%

Who is the Judge?

1) The Poll will continue for exactly 48 hours from the time it is posted.
2) In case of excessive ties or lack of voting, the poll will be extended.

What do you think of the shoutbox frame[ 7 vote(s) ]
1.	Should be taller	0 / 0%
2.	Should be shorter	1 / 14%
3.	Fine the way it is	6 / 86%

No Message Body

If you go to den Blå Avis in Denmark or basically any other site that has used instruments, you are bound to find a handful of harmoniums. If you are interested in buying them there are a few things to know. The most important thing, as with any used item, is which things can be repaired easily, which things can be left alone and not impair normal functioning, and which things would be cost ineffective to repair.

Let's examine each category:
Things which can repaired easily or fairly easily
- Stop and stopwork
- Scratches and blemishing
- Damage to stool or cover
- Smaller cracks in casing
- Belt from pedals to bellows broken
- Stuck keys
- Some nonsounding notes

Things which can be ignored and not impair normal functioning
- Scratches and blemishing
- Chipped keys
- Damage to stool, keycover, candleholders etc.
- Small cracks or holes in casing

Things which would be cost ineffective to repair
- Major damage to casing, especially structure
- Missing or broken reeds
- Damaged or leaking bellows
- Missing keys and/or stop heads

As you can see above, nonsounding notes present the most difficulty because the difference between a permanent nonsounding note (due to a damaged reed) and a temporary nonsounding note (due to a dirty reed) is not noticeable on first play or without opening the instrument up. However, from my experience, it is fairly rare to find damaged reeds. Most nonsounding notes come from dirt and dust unless the instrument has been excessively "worked on". Therefore always:

* Ask the seller if the instrument has been messed with to the best of their knowledge and who did the messing and why.

A non-maintained instrument would likely not have any broken reeds as they don't tend to break on their own. However an instrument that has been properly overhauled would have replaced reeds anyway, but then you shouldn't be getting non-sounding notes.

Badly damaged casing is an absolute no-no. If you find large cracks or pieces that don't "fit right", then keep looking. You absolutely must have a clean decent case. This can be ascertained by visual inspection. The same goes for leaky or broken bellows. This must be avoided at all costs. They are almost impossible to patch correctly and you will be doing a disservice by buying an instrument with bad bellows. You can tell if the bellows are leaky by working the pedals and listening for leak sounds. When you work the pedals without playing any notes, you should get quite a bit of resistance in the pedals. If they just push dead down to the floor, then you have a leaky bellow. If the pedals have become disconnected from the bellows (a minor problem) then you can push the bellow with your hand to test.

Stuck keys, broken stops, and broken swellwork are generally very easy to repair and can be done by the home handyman. I have posted some pictures of such a renovation here. I will cover this in another post.

Let's look at some ads.
Let's try to see how much one can ascertain from the average ad. We will also examine some price ranges.



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This ad says "harmonium, 12 octaves, stained, 12 octaves in porcelain with gold leafing"
Well, the owner doesn't know the difference between a "stop" and an "octave". This isn't a bad thing, as you can easily see the number of both by looking at the picture. It is a good idea to always go with an ad that has a picture. But the fact that the owner doesn't know this, indicates that they are not a musician themselves and most likely don't actually play the instrument. Also, their attentiveness to the cosmetic detailing (the stained wood and the stop condition) means that the owner is probably more interested in the instrument from a visual standpoint. This means that you are likely to find limited damage to the casing or the keywork. He or she most likely polished it and oiled it. For 300 kr. (50 us dollars) this is a very good candidate. However, if you look to the right of the keyboard, you can see that some of the keys are slightly raised. Also, the general state of the keyboard is that it is not very even. This is common with harmoniums though, as the only thing keeping them even is some felt and wood which can easily be replaced. They don't sit nearly as tightly as piano keys.

The staining was most definitely done after the fact, and I am not a great big fan of it, but some might like it. This means that someone was interested in preserving it and of keeping its value as a piece of furniture. I would visit this person and give it a play to see how the musical aspects were. Definitely worth a visit.




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"Harmonium P Andersen 1943. Works perfectly (almost new) with receipt. Make an offer."

For 2500 (400 USD) this particular instrument is a whopper. Not exactly sure how an over 60-year-old instrument can be almost new, but this must mean it is in like-new condition. It was made by one of the major danish Harmonium makers in the middle of the century. I have an instrument almost exactly like this one, but from another maker of the same school of design and build. This instrument has a neat extended fourth octave. A small, nice instrument for the connoisseur who wants to play and not just look at it. The price may be a bit steep I think. A bid of 1500-2000 Kroner wouldn't be unreasonable, but then I would expect it to be in full working order, aside from the minor items listed at the beginning of this post that would come from years of not being played. You can see the person has it on a cardboard bottom. They know the make and they kept the receipt. Obviously this person has great respect for the instrument.




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"Harmonium A Berntsen in perfect condition with original candleholders and newer bellow"
I tend not to trust instruments that bear the claim of having anything "newer" on them unless you know who did it. I would want to inspect these bellows thoroughly, or at least find out who had done the work and why. Are the bellows patched? Was only one replaced while the other one is rotting away? This instrument looks to have only one reed rank as well, so the asking price is a bit steep. The owner is pricing it based on appearance, which is reasonable I suppose, but when the "market" undercuts it, the seller should act accordingly.




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Harmonium, from Joh. P Andreasen. !3 octaves. Bought at Vagn Margaards music store. Good condition with candle holders. Piano bench included.

People love the candle holders huh? Another one from Andreasen. This is one of those fascinating gems with 5 octaves (from F) and a million stops. These are lots of fun but they are heavy and can be difficult to work on. Another person confused by the octave / stop conundrum, but again not a problem. At 5000 kr (850 USD) the price is completely outrageous. Even if this person is the original owner (which he might be since he knows where it was purchased) the price leaves alot to be desired. The market would put it at no more than 2000. The presence of that fine stool, if it was original could bring it up to 2500. If this instrument has more than four reed ranks then it could be worth more. But with a single manual instrument, that is highly unlikely.




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This is a written ad from ebay. According to the text, there is no damage to the case but the stops are disengaged ("the pull knobs don't appear to change the sound"). This is not as tragic as it sounds, as the stopwork is easy to replace and the casework is in good shape. Also, there is one nonsounding note, the highest one. This is very very common and most certainly due to dust. This instrument's problems fall almost exclusively under "things that are easy to repair". A definite candidate, provided you can try the instrument out and don't pay through the roof.

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