gman

The chordal options did also play a factor in my choice too, I thought about taking up a monophonic instrument, but maybe due to my history with the piano I ended up opting for an instrument that could play chords as well as a melody. I think perhaps I should have got a duet, but will stick with the English now. That's quite a list, I think I may start looking at another instrument soon!

I play classical piano and am currently learning Jazz piano. Also dabble on the guitar, dabble being the operative word! Another question I'd be curious to know is what drew people to learn the Concertina. Something that may have influenced my decision while looking at potential new instruments was when I read that the Concertina was apparently the only instrument ever invented by an Englishman!

Thanks for the responses so far... will also look into your suggestions and contact some of the local restorers when I get the chance. Still interested to hear if anyone has tried this Thomann... comparing the images to the Stagi, can see that the fittings look the same, e.g. the end screws, but the Thomann appears a lot cheaper.

I have been playing the 30 button beginner Scarlatti English concertina off and on for about four years, it cost £180 and I think represented reasonable value considering the high price of concertinas, of course I wish I could have afforded something better from the off. Some of the buttons were stuck quite badly so the holes had to be filed, one of the springs has broken, middle c of course! And if you want to play softly, a lot of the notes don't sound very well on the push or pull. Now I would like to upgrade and would really like a decent concertina but failing a windfall will have to settle for either a bashed up vintage off hob goblin or a a modern budget 48 key, which looks to be either; Stagi at £699 on Hobgoblin or Thomann at £380 (http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_486_concertina.htm) Obviously the Thomann would suit my budget requirements best and comes with a 3 year guarantee, plus the build quality in the pictures looks way above, I mean way way above that of my cheap Scarlatti so it seems to represent good value, however after scouring this forum and google I haven't found a single review of the Thomann concertina... has anyone got any opinion on them?