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Domed Buttons Or Flat Buttons?


Steve Wilson

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A quote from Wim's text: "...These flat tops allowed players (e.g. Regondi) to develop advanced techniques such as changing fingers on a (pushed down) button..."

 

Damn - I thought I had invented that :lol: - it came out naturally from having (on my "Anglish"):

 

1) Wider spacing horizontally

2) Buttons that go all the way down into the end plate

 

Any comments on 2)? (Opening a can of worms, maybe)

 

/Henrik

 

 

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Hello Henrik,

 

as to "2." I once tried an instrument with buttons that traveled nearly all the way down. I couldn't get along with it at all, and guessed (and still do) I never would (if not forced to it).

 

Best - Wolf

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A quote from Wim's text: "...These flat tops allowed players (e.g. Regondi) to develop advanced techniques such as changing fingers on a (pushed down) button..."

 

Damn - I thought I had invented that :lol:

Me, too, though I would have been surprised if I had found that I was the first.

 

- it came out naturally from having (on my "Anglish"):

 

1) Wider spacing horizontally

2) Buttons that go all the way down into the end plate

Came naturally to me, too, though on a standard English without either of those "nonstandard" features, so I don't think that they're important for this technique. Same with regard to flat tops, since I do it with domed buttons.

 

Any comments on 2)? (Opening a can of worms, maybe)

Wrong weather for fishing where I am at the moment (Jämtland)... too much ice for regular fishing and ice too weak to walk on, so no ice fishing, either. ;)

 

But I agree with Wolf about the buttons. For me, too much depression is depressing. I can play a concertina with buttons that go all the way down -- I've done so, -- but I prefer not to. I'm more comfortable with at least a little height above the surface of the end.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Look closely at the first concertina at the link below and you will note BOTH doomed and flat buttons. The doomed are C and E. Everything else are flat buttons. The reason that I did it this way is to have a system help me know where I am on the keyboard. (the concertina shown is the one I had purchased and use).

 

http://www.concertinaconnection.com/peacock.htm

 

Therefore, every song I play, day after day, year after year, I am using both. So what is the difference - not much !! But there are some slight advantages to both.

 

Rounded: when I have a finger on one button, but am going to need that same finger play another note (but not interrupt the sound playing), I will need to quickly replace the finger with another. A rounded key makes this transition easier.

 

Flat: When it is hot out, and one's hands begin to get a bit sweaty, the moistened fingers can more easily slip off of rounded keys than flat keys.

 

Regarding using both way I did in the image shown, this has been minimally useful for navigation purpses, but I do think it looks nice. And I do suspect, if I really trained myself, it could be much more useful as a navigation tool.

 

If I were FORCED to choose one over the other, I would probably go with flat keys as my fingers will be more apt to on the keys and not slip off.

 

Hope this helps.

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  • 1 month later...

Steve,

I actually just used a dremel this week to file/flatten my buttons. I hated to do it but the domed buttons have been very hard for me to control. The flatter buttons are great for me; far easier to control.

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  • 2 months later...

Stock Elise comes with domed buttons, which were too "pointy" for me. When I have made my replacement buttons, I made them completely flat - they had only a tiny amount of softening on the edge. This was giving me way more controll and stability, but was painful after extended play and gave me sore fingers afterwards. So after a couple of months I have rounded the edges more (about .75mm on the edge of 5mm button is now rounded) and they are now very comfortable and allow for sliding but still give enough grip that sweating is not a problem.

 

@Henrik's '2)' - I'm making such completely sinking buttons on my DIY Hayden. I came to realise that what hurts my fingers most in long sessions, are drones and root notes in triads while playing om-pah accompaniments (especially minor triads, in which middle finger is anatomically forced to press harder than it should) , and that only having sinking buttons will counter this, as lighter action weight doesn't affect fully depressed buttons...

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Good players might get on well with flat or domed buttons. But if you're a truly awful player, with mangled fingers from an old accident, flat are the best, because your fingers don't slip off so easily.

Thin domed buttons are a nightmare for me. Mind you, a few more wrong notes wouldn't make much difference, when I'm playing.

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