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swahl

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About swahl

  • Birthday 07/13/1989

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    Irish (anglo) concertina and whistle player.
  • Location
    Berkeley, CA

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  1. It is a difficult decision to make as I do make use of almost the full low end of the instrument. Meanwhile there are at least 3 buttons on the high end I can honestly not remember ever using in a tune. That is a good point about the full F major scale. I don't actually know any F Major tunes, but I suppose I may wan't to in the future. I guess it might be just be better to look for an instrument with more buttons or a drone button in the future.
  2. I have a wheatestone C/G anglo with the standard 30-button layout on which I play primarily irish music. I have seen some discussion on modified/hybrid layouts for ITM, but they have all been focused on the mid-range, usually focusing the C#. I am getting fairly comfortable with the wheatstone system in this sense, but there is one thing that has continued to bug me. I would really like to have the D below middle C to throw in chords. As it is I can throw in a nice low G, A or E and even the odd C, but the one I would get the most use out of for irish music woudl be that D. Does anyone have experience modifying the layout in this range? Are there any particular issues one might run into or reason's not to do it. I realize that there could be some issues with differently sized reeds on the low end. Here is the mod that seems the most obvious to me. Remove the low F natural on the pull (top row, far left) and replace that with the low G. (That low F is probably my least used button on the left hand side anyways). Then replace the existing low G pull (Mid row, far left) with a low D pull. It seems like this should be fine space-wise as the G should be the same length or shorter than the F, and the D would be on the same as the low C, so there should be room for it. Plus I think it should only require one new reed since the low-G would just be moved. Moreover this layout seems like it would have nice options for a DA fifth and and an inverted GD fifth on the pull in that leftmost column, As well as a nice D octave combo in the middle row. The lowG-mid D pull that I currently use on the pull would be slightly more awkward, but not prohibatively so. I would love to know if anyone has advice regarding either the ease with which I can find someone who make such a modification (It is beyond my own tinkering ability and comfort) and also if anyone has other alternative layouts for the low range. I am not in any particular hurry, but I do think I will want to do it eventually, maybe once it is in need of a general tuneup. Of course the other option would be down the road to look for a different instrument with more than 30 buttons, but I have a bad habit of acquiring too many instruments as it is. Thank you.
  3. Hi everyone, I recently upgraded from my rochelle anglo concertina, and rather than trying to resell it at a reduced price I want to use it as a guinnea pig for teaching myself to handle my own repairs and modifications. The first thing I would like to to do is begin playing around with alternate layouts. I was hoping I might ask for recommendations for obtaining accordion reeds for this purpose. Since this isn't my primary instrument and since I am not settled on one particular arrangement, I would prefer to keep the price per reed and wait time relatively low. That being said, does anyone know the make of reeds used in the rochelles, and how they stack up against other options? I am currently looking at these reeds: http://www.hohnershop.com/italian-diatonic-accordion-treble-reed-plates/, unfortunately they are listed by a combination of key (i.e. ADG) and a button number (1-34). Is there a standard accordion layout I can use to translate this into note pairs? (I have found some charts, but they don't number the buttons in this fashion.) I realize for full freedom of arrangement I might consider something that won't exist in a standard accordion layout. Is it possible to move a reed from one plate to another, or is custom ordering obscure note combos the only way around this? Is this my approach wrong altogether? Thank you for your time, Sean
  4. I apologize if this topic has been covered elsewhere. I didn't find much in a cursory glance through the topic titles. I have a C/G anglo on which I primarily play melody (mostly irish session music), but recently have been trying to arrange accompaniments for songs. I realize that the layout of the instrument and the required bellow direction changes are somewhat limiting. For now I have mainly stuck to holding sustained chords, which gives a nice 'drone' effect that fits some select songs. (Actually in most cases I find I prefer the sound of just playing the root note and the fifth, and occasionally tapping the third for this.) I was curious if anyone had suggestions for (or examples of) more interesting things to try to give concertina accompaniment more 'texture' (perhaps akin to strumming or picking patterns on a guitar). I have tried playing arpeggios, but in most cases find the sound rather jarring and hard to sing over. any thoughts? Would looking into resources targeted at english concertinas be of use, or is the technique too different?
  5. Sent one more logistical question, thanks.
  6. I sent you a message regarding the chrome ended one.
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