Question for some of you that have Tedrow's. I am waiting to make the second deposit on mine, so construction has not begun yet. I am playing a Rhocelle now. I am wondering about the palm rest height. I think my Rochelle is too low and makes it hard to brace while maintaining an arch.

Any Tedrow owners have an opinion about the palm rest height?

NNY

My Tedrow Bb/F anglo's hand rest has a hight of of approximately 2.5 cm. The hight works real well for me. The only problem that some of my friends have found with my Tedrow is the absence of a thumb rests as found on the usual Wheatstones and Crabbs anglo's. I am sure that Bob has a reason for not having thumbrests - maybe it is the lack of space. Perhaps Bob will make a comment on this.

I have also placed a deposit on another Tedrow concertina. This concertina will be in the key of Ab/Eb with those famous amboyna sides and new fretwork style as featured on Bob's website.

It sounds like you need a higher bar and both Bob Tedrow and Frank Edgley have made custom heights for me in the past. In my opinion you want a height that permits you a comfortable position to easily play the inner row buttons but not so high that it challenges your ability to reach all the outer row buttons. Depending on your hand shape and finger length the latter concern may not be an issue. I don't usually work in metric terms but the bar height on my concertinas run between 7/8" to 1" high, so roughly the same as Ben's 2.5 cm. I think you'll find that if you change your mind about the height after the instrument is delivered, Bob will be willing to send alternate height bars for a very reasonable price.

Noel Hill got me to change my hand rests to higher ones and it's really helped my playing and it really depends on your hands. According to Noel the hand rest should match your hand so as the finger between knuckle and the next joint is parallel with the surface of the concertina - I hope that makes some sense. I think most makers tend to make their rests to suit a smaller hand than mine.

Alan.

P.S. funnily enough Bob is making me some rests even as we speak: thay will be etched with scenes of the sinking of the Titanic and inlaid with precious stones - they're taking a while but I'll treasure them when I get them.