The Button Box - R. Morse & Co. Concertinas

R. Morse & Co.

Services

About Us

The Button Box, Inc., has been making high-quality, reliable concertinas under the R. Morse & Co. brand since 1999. Our concertinas are nimble instruments with a full, bright tone, satisfying to play and appealing to the eye as well.

Céilí

30-key Anglo Concertina

ESB

31-key Baritone Anglo Concertina

Geordie

45-key English Concertina

Beaumont

52-key Hayden Duet Concertina

Albion

37-key English Concertina

Our Workshop

Our woodwork begins as a solid cherry log, hand-picked and custom-made for us into solid cherry plywood. Stronger than solid wood, it withstands stress and resists cracking.

Once cut, the fretwork is fitted, shaped, and finished by local craftspeople in Western Massachusetts.

Each button is bushed with a sliver of natural felt.

Traditional materials, from natural wool felt and acid-free linen to beeswax and fine natural leathers, are durable, strong, resilient, and flexible.

Fine Italian-made accordion reeds provide excellent response and dynamic range.

Our bellows are crafted by hand using the best traditional methods and materials.

The leather for our bellows is skived by hand, requiring a good eye and nimble hands.

Our selection of jigs allow us to produce uniform parts efficiently without sacrificing the niceties of individual attention.

Installing lever arms is the first step in constructing the action.

We fine-tune the action by hand, guaranteeing a fast and smooth response.

The reeds are tuned and voiced to exacting standards.

A CNC router and dedicated machine room allow us to fabricate many parts on site...

...including our own lever arms, cut from sheets of brass.

Old-fashioned craft and new technology are not mutually exclusive. We favor the best tool for each job.

Fully assembled ends are a milestone in the production process.

We assemble 589 individual components, give or take a few valves and helpers, to make one finished Céilí.

Store now open online

A video message from Doug Creighton, store owner, regarding our sales and services during the current Covid-19 state of emergency.

Transcript available here.

Message regarding sales and services during Covid-19

Hello everyone,

I’m Doug Creighton, owner of The Button Box in Sunderland, Massachusetts. I wanted to provide you with an update on what you can expect from the Button Box in the coming weeks, during this unprecedented and strange time we’re all experiencing.

As in many other states, the governor of Massachusetts has currently closed all non-essential businesses to walk-in customers and staff, and encouraged continued online business. Because our staff is not able to be at the store, our capability has been limited.

However, I’ve been working on setting up at home, and I’m happy to announce that we now have increased capability for you to do business with us online.

As of Monday, April 27th, you can now shop online normally. Please just keep in mind, we’re working with a skeleton crew of staff members so we’ll fill your orders as quickly as possible but may need a little extra time.
We are also able to continue with repairs, so contact us if you need repair work done. However, please keep in mind that at this time, we’re only able to take on repairs to instruments that were purchased from us.
The only thing we’re not able to do at this time is take credit card numbers over the phone, as we don’t have proper security systems in place to do that from home. That can only be done at the store.
If you are interested in a rental instrument, we'll be happy to help you when the store reopens. Unfortunately we are not able to process new rentals until the store reopens. However, if you already have an existing rental, we can renew your rental as needed.
We’re available by phone or email during regular store hours: Tues-Fri from 1:00-6:00, and Saturdays from noon-5:00. You can reach us by email at squeeze[at]buttonbox[dot]com or call us at (413) 665-7793.

We look forward to returning to full capability back in Sunderland at some future date. In the meantime, we appreciate your continued business, and send our good wishes to you and yours. Please stay safe and healthy, and play lots of music!