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Personally, if I was going to a 4-row layout, I'd much prefer the extra notes and reversals traditionally found versus just another diatonic scale. On melodeons, I find a 3-row set up as D/G/Acc far more useful than A/D/G. Same basic principle.

Not a Hayden player, but I have owned 4 Morse anglos over the years and have examined and played a couple Peacock-grade anglos at the Button Box. Both are very good instruments for the money, but I feel that the action was better on the Morse, as well as the fit and finish. It's not just a $ per button difference between the two, but you would be the best judge of that. If you don't mind spending a little on shipping, you may be able to try both on perusal - talk to Doug and see what can be done.

A Google search indicates that a 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution is commonly used for this. There are numerous online guides for this, suggest you read a number of them before proceeding.

Tom Kruskal?

Not offhand, but a hobby shop might be able to provide sheet plastic and a glue for affixing it to the wood. Laminate first, then turn and profile.

A section of hardwood dowel can be chucked in an electric drill and turned to matching diameter and profiled with files and sandpaper. Stain to a close match and seal with wax or varnish, then glue in place after trimming to correct length. If the buttons are plastic, you can do basically the same if you can source plastic rod of the appropriate diameter.

Re: "The Seaman's Concertina" by John Townley I still own a VHS of this, bought from Lark in the Morning a long time ago. It's a bit entertaining, but not very informative. When the tape broke a few years back, I never bothered to try to repair or replace it - it just wasn't worth the effort. Plus, the original $30 price was way too much for the short, poor-quality production you got. He had another tape out that I bought on simple concertina and melodeon repairs that was even more worthless than the first. Suggest you save your money on this one.

Good post, Jody!

Yes, single lines of melody in a variety of keys, up to 3 sharps/flats. I usually just sight read and transpose on the fly, but you can also use software to do this. Hundreds of songs and variations here.

This has been my standard reference for years: http://www.amazon.com/Shanties-Seven-Seas-Maritime-Hugill/dp/0913372706/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380838349&sr=1-1&keywords=stan+hugill It's not concertina-centric, but you should be able to work the tunes out easily enough.

I play English music in an English style on an English-made Anglo concertina; I have spent a lot of money to buy the instruments and spent many years learning the skills to do this. I voted for Brighton Camp, no apologies.

Fingering is usually standard 1-row melodeon, upper octave. The half row is usually reversals. The bass/chord buttons are 1-row standard - root on the press, 5th on the draw. I've never seen one that had more than a single reed per note.

Look at the first three instruments (Organettos) listed here: http://www.buttonbox.com/instruments-in-stock.html#1row