johnobuttons

I'm late getting to this discussion. As I understand it, the natural ergonomic motion of the thumb is to move up and down as shown on Roberts video of his Dipper. The usual arrangement of the air button on the concertina in the left right direction is not the most ergonomic motion of the thumb. Could someone explain how the devices shown above transform a downward thumb pressure into a leftward motion of the air button? Thanks, John Hamilton

I have one I am considering selling. It is on loan to a friend living about an hours drive from here. It is a G/D two row in nice shape. I would have to have him snap the pictures so you could see it. John Hamilton

Yes the buttons on your Jeffries are similar in diameter to the other concertinas I have owned (Lachenal and Dipper), or so it looks. The buttons on my Jeffries are 0.16 inch in diameter. I put tiny o-rings on the buttons which seem to keep fingers from sliding. Works much better than you would think! I also reduced the total travel of the buttons (actually a local repair person did it) by putting felt under the bottom of the buttons. I have been told that any further change would involve buying shorter buttons and/or bending the bars that hold the pad, rivet, and button. Let me know if you decide to list your Jeffries again. John

Hi Paul, Just curious - I saw that you ended the ebay auction. Did you find a buyer? It's a very nice looking instrument - too bad I just bought one. Hopefully I will adjust to the long thin buttons on mine. Thanks, John Hamilton

Florence Fahy will be giving an anglo concertina workshop in Berkeley, CA on Sunday May 2nd. If you live on the West coast, this is an excellent opportunity to learn from Florence. She is both a fine player and an excellent teacher. For more information contact John Hamilton "obuttons@comcast.net"

Florence Fahy will be giving a workshop in the San Francisco Bay area on May 2nd, 2010. Florence is a wonderful player having an appealing Irish anglo style based on traditional Clare concertina players. Her father, Martin Fahy, is also a concertina player. This is an excellent chance to attend a workshop on the West Coast since Florence will be moving east soon. Contact John Hamilton (obuttons@comcast.net) for further information and to sign up for the workshop.

Thanks Bruce, What a great report. The pictures and story are wonderful, allowing me to re-experience the week with a different set of eyes (and ears). I'm hoping to have Florence do a workshop in the Bay Area (San Francisco) if any one might want to make the trip here. John Hamilton

I tried passive reflectors attached to the concertina, angled to reflect towards the head. I found they made very little difference, whereas wearing a hat with a stiff wide brim makes a large difference. Another low tech solution would be to use Gosport tubes. Gosport tubes are those early aeroplane intercoms as used in the DH82 Tiger Moths, and used in jumbo jets for headphones until about fifteen years ago. Best solution is a good loud concertina. Chris The wide brim hat would also work to block the distracting sound of the concertina bouncing off of ceiling fans. John

The Tedrow looks like a great solution! When I ordered my Dipper, Colin offered to put holes in the top side of the concertina to let sound out. I was reluctant to order something so unusual, but it does look like a perfect fix.

I actually agree with your philosophy. I could hardly bear to wear this gear at first. However as time rolls by, I'm coming to accept the electronic solution. The bottom line in my book is that if it helps you play better with other folks then it's a good thing. I admit that I tend to use this gear only with long term friends. I'm curious whether anyone else decides to build one of these things (or already uses something similar). John PS Unfortunately, buying a louder concertina is not always an option. Not to mention the arms race that ensues if everyone tries to get louder instruments!

Here's the picture of the amplifier and the schematic for it and the basic layout of the circuit board. John

One of the difficulties of playing a concertina is that it's very hard to hear yourself in a group. All the sound comes out the sides of the concertina and not much gets to the player. I plan to describe one solution to this problem here and give enough technical information so you can build it yourself. The basic idea is a headphone amplifier providing "plug in power", two tiny electret microphones placed under the wrist straps of the concertina, and a set of headphones, preferably relatively inconspicuous. For this post, here are pictures of the electret microphones slipped under the wrist straps. Also pictured is the inside of an amplifier that I built and a schematic diagram for the amp. I will add more details as time goes by. The other application for this amplifier would be as a way to use these inexpensive electret microphones in a performance. I spent some effort in adjusting the amplifier to get the right volume and gain for this close up miking of a concertina. The microphones were bought on e-bay for about $20 for the pair. A recent listing is http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=260295643634 John Hamilton PS I had trouble attaching schematic and picture of amp. I'll put them in next post.

I enjoy traditional Irish jigs and reels and such and am advised English style vs Anglo to learn. Dave Hi Dave, I play Irish music on the Anglo concertina. You will find a world of other Anglo players and styles of playing Irish music on the Anglo. Before playing Anglo, I played English. I had to give up the English due to nasty problems with my little fingers, caused by the weight of the concertina on the little finger rests for the little fingers. Once I learned Anglo, I was totally convinced it is the better instrument for Irish. The difference has to do with the ability to put rhythmic emphasis on the music due to the bellows direction changes. I think that this is not just a matter of changing bellow directions, but also due to the firmer grip of the instrument created by having straps around the wrist. The firmer grip allows the required rapid bellow changes. I would recommend that you listen to recordings by players of the two systems. Unfortunately there are not many Irish music recordings on the English, but you can listen to Alistair Anderson play although his music is not Irish. The general sound of an english is smooth. The general sound of an Irish is staccato. The person who does play Irish music on English concertina is Joel Bernstein who resides in Seattle. I'm not sure if there are any recondings of his music. John

I wanted to add one piece of information to this post. I was the high bidder on the Crabb concertina mentioned above (#10024). It wasn't a scam. I received the concertina. But seeing this thread sure gave me a good scare until the concertina arrived this AM! After this experience, I would recommend using an escrow service for any such purchase on e-bay.