My wife has been out of town for a few days, first at NEFFA and then spending some time with a friend who lives up there in Boston. (She's on the road coming home right now -- hooray!). While she's been gone, I've been going home at lunch to let the dog out. Luckily it's only 15 minutes away.

So today, as I'm pulling into my driveway, my good pal the mailman is pulling up in front of my house and getting a box out of the back of his van. It's my new (to me, anyway) Lachenal!! It's here!!!!!

So the problem is, between playing with the dog and eating some lunch, I barely had time to get it out of the box, much less play it. Then I had to put it down and come back to work! For the whole rest of the afternoon!! Can you believe the luck?!! I shoulda called in sick....

Oh, and of course there's the other frustrating thing. The borrowed Bastari I've been learning on has 43 buttons instead of the more standard 48. I learned today what this mean, besides missing 5 notes. All the buttons were ON THE WRONG SIDE!!!! Now I have to unlearn and then relearn everything I've done!! I'm starting from scratch! Just when I was starting to get some tunes sounding halfway decent, too. Sigh!

On the bright side, it's here. It's just a lovely instrument. Much smaller than the Bastari, more so than I was expecting. Nice and light, so hopefully I can play a lot longer. What Jim said in another thread about the bellows being a lot tighter is certainly true -- it takes a LONG time to open or close them while playing a single note.

To any thinking about it, I can certainly recommend buying from Malcolm Clapp. He's great to work with, very responsive (even given the rather large time difference from here), and very friendly. He gives great information about the concertina in question before purchase, and he does a great job of packing and shipping. Actually, I'm kind of confused how he did it. Once I got the concertina out, I put the bubble wrap and other packing material back into the box it was shipped in, and it barely fit. I have no idea where in there he put the concertina....

So, very happy, but also frustrated, largely because I can't play with it for several hours now. Back to work, I suppose!!

Steven

Oh, what delicious irony! The post about me getting my new fancy-pants concertina is also the one that puts me over the top as an Advanced Member!

dogs.

they'll cut into your practice time soo much....

I have 4 and I know.

congrats on the new box, Steven, I know how you feel

WOO HOO!

It must have just about killed you to go back to work!

A word of caution. . . when I got my Herrington (after playing a Stagi for months) I ended up with tendonitis in my right forearm because I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN! I slept with it right next to the bed for the first few nights. . . . actually 4 years later it still lives there with my new button accordion. My husband is a little jealous, but he'll get over it!

Oh Steven,

How wonderful. I am sooo happy for you. Shh, we won't tell Rhomylly, she still has to wait for hers.

How on earth did you get yourself back to work? Couldn't you cough cough call in sick for the afternoon?

Have tons and tons of fun.

Good to hear your maker, music not religious, this is not a metaphysical comment, was so wonderful.

Helen

How wonderful! Congratulations! I know the love affair of a new instrument- my little Marcus is the love of my life, my comfort in times of woe, company in idle moments, an amusing annoyance to my cat, a good way to keep the teenagers at bay-
and it sounds sweet, too!

Keep playing! You'll catch on before you know it!

Funny thing about that. My concertina sleeps up there by me, too. All the other instruments live downstairs in the "toy" room or the living room, but the concertina holds the place of honor of going upstairs. Funny how we get attached to these things...

-Tom Lawrence

!!!! YAY !!!!

Quit thinking about all the obstacles. You have a beautiful new instrument you are getting to know. I'm very happy that it's here.



And here I thought I was the only one, Tom!

It's good to be in such fine company.

ldp

Look on the bright side - if you hadn't gone home to let the dog out, you wouldn't have been there when it arrived

Congratulations, and here's wishing you many many happy hours/years/tunes with your new concertina

Cheers
Morgana

Oh, you have no idea how close I was to doing just that!! Unfortunately, I got this really annoying feeling of responsibility coming over me, and I had to go back. I had a pretty hard time concentrating the rest of the day, though, between that and my wife coming back home!

I did get a little playing time last night (not too much -- see comment about my wife coming back home after almost a week out of town). I'm starting to adjust, but it's going to take some time to flip my brain over so it understands where the buttons are now. I definitely like the sound of it, and the feel of it. Just another 20 years or so, and I should start to feel like I've got it!


Steven