Steelkilt

How about the Hohner D40.... anything better I could get in the same price range?

Okay, got some great stuff to go on. Bookmarked some song books and I am leaning towards a Hohner D40. Doesn't have steller reviews but it's about the best I can afford and is marked down considerably on Musicians Friend. (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/folk-traditional-instruments/hohner-d40-concertina) My apologies to Dan if he was offended by my poor choice in words. I did read what you sent. Very good information indeed. If I go threw with this venture I intend to read all the chapters for that matter. I should explain, however, that when I was talking about "early use" I meant earlier in the age of sail. The other ship I volunteer with is a replica of the Lady Washington, the first American ship to reach the Pacific Northwest. The original Lady Washington sailed from 1787 to 1797. Far as my research has led me, that means she foundered in the Phillipeans about thirty years before the concertina was even invented. (Wikkipedia was a sorce on this so by all means correct me if I'm wrong!) Seems clear to me that the image of a 19th century sailor playing a concertina was very much spot on. But the Disney/Hollywood image of a happy pirate playing his concertina (golden age of piracy, 1650s to 1720s) onboard ship just didn't add up with the concertinas very existance. Good news is the Hawaiian Chieftain which I normally volunteer on is an 1850s style hull with 1890s style rigging and definately NOT a pirate ship as I explain to guests all day long. That puts her not only in the right historical time period for the concertina, but smack dab in the middle of it's heyday according to Dan's research.

Okay, so it looks like I stirred up the old debate about whether or not concertinas at sea were historically accurate or not. I'm sure a lot of people have done a lot more research into this then I have. However from the limited research I've done I've come to the following conclusions: 1) Concertinas were indeed used as we have pictures etc. to support this. 2) Jury is still out on early use, but at the turn of the century, definately. 3) Disney probably inflated our perception of just how much they were used. The good news is I normally volunteer on the tall ship "Hawaiian Chieftain" which is a replica of a typical European merchant ship from the turn of the nineteenth century. Something else I consider good news.... sailors would probably have to buy an inexpensive anglo concertina cause it's all they could afford. Yay for that! A valid excuse to be cheap! So my conclusions..... get an inexpensive anglo style concertina with brass reeds and a water tight container. That just leaves the question of if anybody knows any good song books they could recomend for my specific concertina endeavor.

Hey all.... I like to spend my vacation time volunteering on tall ships. I was thinking of learning to play the concertina to entertain people during tours etc. I used to play trombone/bass back in highschool but haven't had much music experience since. I was leaning towards getting an English concertina cause it just sounded easier to play with one button doing one note reguardless of whether you're pushing or pulling but my understanding is that in the age of sail (18th/19th century) Anglo styles were commonplace on ships. Soooo, my big question is since my primary draw to concertinas is to entertain people with sea shanties on tall ships A) what kind of concertina would be most historicly accurate and are there any good song books or training videos out there specific to sea shanties/nautical music.