Could Use Help On New Concertina

[holyprince]

There was a listing on a old German concertina on ebay (with shipping was 76.00), I figured what the heck, I never owned one before. It came in today, course I know it isn't a good brand, one of those with the made in german democratic republic on the side that is red, has the fake wood grains and roses on the side. All the buttons work and all the notes sound, however either I am not reading the notes right or it is way out of key or in a complete different key all together. I am not familiar with how they are setup, but I will list the notes and fz it is sounding maybe someone might know how bad in tune / different tune it is.

 

Left side (no air hole from left to right) (What worries me here is there is 3 A3's so I have a feeling one of them is way off)

Top row Bottom row

D3 147 in A3 220 out A3 221 in E4 332 out

A3 220 in C#4 276 out E4 331 in G#4 418 out

D4 294 in E4 330 out A4 441 in B4 499 out

F#4 370 in G4 390 out C#5 553 in D5 581 out

A4 442 in B4 498 out E5 663 in F#5 749 out

 

(Right side with air hole left to right)

 

D5 588 in C#5 552 out A5 883 in G#5 830 out

F#5 734 in E5 661 out C#6 1101 in B5 996 out

A5 884 in G5 771 out E6 1324 in D61161 out

D6 1177 in B5 1000 out A6 1768 in F#6 1494 out

F#6 1469 in C#6 1104 out C#7 2206 in G#6 1663 out

 

 

I wasn't sure if I was going into concertina and I figured 76 vs 2-400 just to test the waters per se, cause I am deciding between accordion or concertina. There is one song I love, but I think they used a accordion to play it and I don't think a concertina can play it. Course I love irish music and well too many genres to really just focus on one lol. But yeah any info or help be greatly appreciated.

 

in case curious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqCNLb1Q26E&t=16s(which is funny the 3d model closely resembles a concertina)

Edited March 22, 2017 by holyprince

[Bill N]

Sounds like you have a perfectly normal 20 button German concertina tuned in D/A. The repeated notes at the low end are reversals/duplicates to make doing "oompahs" easier. That's about the 3rd most common tuning after C/G and G/D I believe. Most modern players of traditional Irish music play a 30 button C/G (extra buttons in 3rd row allow for tunes in "D"), but you will be able to play quite a bit of the repertoire. Very early 20th cent. recordings of William Mullaly may have been made on a D/A.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Bill N

[holyprince]

Ok so it's all good then thanks for the reply, that is good that it is in D, I was worried bout playing irish music with all the missing notes cause most songs are in D, and the standard C/G in 20 is missing a lot of the D notes. Reason I was worried cause I haven't found any info (in my limited search) to one other than c/g and g/d. Thanks for all the help, now I just have to learn it, and decide if its for me or accordion, I like the portability of concertinas, that's for sure, I just need to figure out if the range and sound and not mixing in bass chords etc in like a accordion is how I like to play.

Edited March 22, 2017 by holyprince