michael stutesman

I wouldn't agree with that one. Concertinas are tough. A basically sound vintage instrument will give very little trouble unless abused. You surely aren't going to guarantee that new Morses and the like never need adjusting? Absolutely right. A properly restored vintage instrument (as anything bought from Chris Algar will be) is as reliable as a newly built one. I happen to own $4000 top of the line Lachenal Edeophone purchased from Chris Algar several years ago and a $400 dollar jackie. The Edeophone has had several (admittedly minor) issues with it including one immediately on arrival and the Jackie has had none. Concertina reeds are more finicky than accordion reeds. Instruments like concertinas with hundreds of small parts are going to have occasional problems. You will encounter more of these problems with a vintage instrument than with a newly made one. You gentlemen are blowing smoke. Interesting. I live in a relatively remote small town (village really) in Ontario, Canada and would have to be self-reliant on fixing any problems. Nobody around here even knows what a concertina is, even the local folkies were puzzled. I am pretty handy and have good quality tools, but I would be a bit reluctant to do open heart surgery on a 120 year old instrument. I wonder how many of you folks in the UK rely on being able to take your vintage 'tinas to a restorer/repairman when things go wrong? At least with a Morse I could phone the maker to get advice on problems. I don't think that Mr. Lachenal answers his phone any more. The other issue that somewhat concerns me are the huge climate variations that we have around here. We go from -30C very dry in winter to plus 35C very humid in summer. Obviously, I would not store my concertina outside but you get the picture. A delicate English rose versus a robust New Englander whose climate is not that different from mine. Don. Being able and willing to fix small problems yourself is really a key point. the issues I had with my edeophone were minor only because I was willing and able to open the thing up myself and fix them. If I had to pack it up and send it off to a repair person each time it would have cost me several hundred dollars in shipping and insurance alone not to mention time without the instrument.

I wouldn't agree with that one. Concertinas are tough. A basically sound vintage instrument will give very little trouble unless abused. You surely aren't going to guarantee that new Morses and the like never need adjusting? Absolutely right. A properly restored vintage instrument (as anything bought from Chris Algar will be) is as reliable as a newly built one. I happen to own $4000 top of the line Lachenal Edeophone purchased from Chris Algar several years ago and a $400 dollar jackie. The Edeophone has had several (admittedly minor) issues with it including one immediately on arrival and the Jackie has had none. Concertina reeds are more finicky than accordion reeds. Instruments like concertinas with hundreds of small parts are going to have occasional problems. You will encounter more of these problems with a vintage instrument than with a newly made one. You gentlemen are blowing smoke.

Aren't we comparing apples and bananas here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Geordie was a 45k tenor instrument with accordion reeds - a far cry from a 48k treble of traditional construction. The original poster asked for the comparison. My point is that Morse hybrid concertinas (tenor or treble matters not)are likely to give much less trouble than an old lachenal.

With regard to your original question, the Geordie is an excellent light weight instrument that is much less likely to give you trouble than an old Lachenal. Those old instruments can be quite 'fiddly' at times. I would go for the Geordie.

I have no experience with the scarlatti but I can vouch for the jackie. Don't let the 30 vs 48 buttons throw you off track. The Jackie does not have some of the duplicate notes that the 48 button has and does not have several of the highest notes but it has all the notes you are likely to need especially when starting out. I'm sure the range of the Jackie is posted somewhere. Cheers, Michael

I'd like to hear them.

I play guitar and EC and I much prefer the sound of chords on the guitar over the concertina. I also play diatonic accordion and I prefer the sound of chords on it over the concertina too. It all depends on the sound you like. Chords on the EC to my ear are often not pleasant especially close voiced chords such as the 'triangles' mentioned earlier. The ear is more forgiving with string instrument chords than with single reeds. If you want to experiment with EC I highly recommend the Jackie from Concertina Connection.

I did the tuning myself and I realize that the availability of tuners is an issue and I'm not sure what it would cost. The way I would present it to you from my own experience is that 90% of the improvement you would get from a complete new set of TAM reeds you would also get from simply tuning and setting the machine reeds that are already in your instrument. The increased responsiveness you get from a TAM reed compared to a machine reed is very marginal compared to what you get from a good set up and tuning (which of course should come with a new set of TAM reeds). There are others who will disagree I'm sure, but I think many who have done much tuning would agree with me. It's just astounding how much difference a good tune up can make.

I don't think you will ever wear out those buttons. If you want to be way happier with your Elise, spend a little money getting the reeds set and tuned. All of those chinese made instruments are surprisingly good quality for the price but all of them benefit tremendously from reed setting and tuning. I have a Jackie which was actually fairly well set up but, even so, tuning it and setting the reeds made and enormous difference in how good it sounded and how well it played.

Noisy critter found in Australian pubs: http://www.youtube.com/user/Dmentias#p/u/17/Mu7Alnap7ME

What is the little lever he's operating with his right thumb?

This is interesting because it is the balance of tone and volume of the edeophone that Mr. Wakker cited as his reason for preferring them to Aeolas, as I recall. He felt that the 12 sided shape of the edeophone was largley responsible for this.

Having played all the modern hybrids (except for the new Clover), one definitive conclusion I'll offer: the Morse boxes are by far the most consistent. I've played maybe a dozen, own one, and I've seen almost no variation in their (high) quality. BTW, Dana, I played in your neighborhood last week - the Kensington Labor Day parade. With Washington Revels.. You can say that, in your experience, the Morse boxes have very consistent quality but to say that they are the most consistent you would have had to play a dozen of each hybrid.

May I ask where you found such an instrument?

I have an internal medicine practice in North Carolina.