Nighthawk

I would guess it's because an F# was encountered more frequently in the music that they played than an Eb. They didn't want a lower row, but felt an F# would be useful enough to break the pattern. I recently had to design a range and layout myself. Mine also ends at that F, and I considered how much I needed the F# and where to put it, but ultimately left it out. I didn't really have any qualms about leaving the Eb off.

I used to play organ and wanted something more portable, and the concertina reminded me of the sound. Also, everyone else in the house plays violin so I wanted something that would work well with that.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I find this quite appealing and will give it a try the next time I arrange something for Hayden.

inventor had wondered about the interior of the Stagi Hayden and I'm happy to help. Here's what mine looks like.

As far as valuation, I have a Lachenal Crane duet of similar vintage, number 3032. When it was in the old pitch and in need of other refurbishment, it sold for 375 pounds on ebay in 2013. After restoration and retuning, I purchased it for 712 pounds in 2014. Yours has metal instead of bone buttons, the original strap, and less wear, so it's a bit nicer than mine.

Steven, thanks for the album, I've really enjoyed it. I like Evergreen too, but Bones is definitely my favorite. And also thank you for the sheet music. I'm slowing learning Hayden duet so this is very nice to have to work with.

When I experimented with this, I got some goat skin on ebay. It was a cheap piece because it had some flaws in it, but there was a concertina sized area that was nice. Of course I could have gotten fleeced, I don't know enough about leather to distinguish goat skin from anything except cow hide. But it seemed to do the job.

I have a 46 button Maccann duet by Lachenal that I'm not using, and I do need some cash. It's in good, ready-to-play shape. Modern concert pitch, steel reeds, pretty exterior, and a good condition bellows. If you're interested, let me know and I'll take some pictures for you.

I use Foxit Reader. The executable of the version I have, on Windows 7, is 35MB.

Children's Fairyland? Yep.

I found this with my son at a park in Oakland, CA. For additional free reed goodness, there was an accordion playing clown performance. After some googling, I found out this was Jim Murdoch, a rather interesting fellow (http://jimmurdoch.org/bio.php).

It's not the forum software itself. The web server that the forum software is running on has to be configured to use SSL. This requires a certificate from a certificate authority, which costs money every year. The result is that data being transmitted from your computer to this website is not end-to-end encrypted. So someone snooping the line or the wi-fi might be able to see everything you type, including your password. It's also easy for someone to spoof the site and pretend to be concertina.net. As Don said, use a unique password for this site.

No, I know it's not mahogany. I recently acquired a concertina with that notation, and it's metal-ended. It also has what appears to be aluminum or duralumin reed shoes, although I see from other examples that those are noted in the ledger as such. The only thing I could think of was magnesium, but I've never heard of that being used so I'm guessing that's as absurd as it sounds. Dural is made with a small amount of magnesium, could it be a special alloy with higher magnesium? All I can say for sure is that after handling only concertinas with brass reed shoes, it was surprisingly lightweight.

Does anyone know what the ledger notation "Mag" stands for? It seems to occur on the larger instruments Here are some examples: 30479 (Mag Octo 60 keys) http://www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD02/PAGES/D2P0300S.HTM 30689 (Mag Octo 9 1/2 75 keys) 30697 (Mag Octo 9 1/2 70 keys) http://www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD02/PAGES/D2P0380S.HTM 30736 (Crane Octo Mag 70 keys 9 1/2) http://www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD02/PAGES/D2P0400L.HTM

I'm not sure if it's the kind of sea shanties that you're looking for, but I recently ran across two books of Newfoundland songs: "All Around the Circle" and "We'll Rant And We'll Roar". The publisher's website has a sample song from each book you can try for free: http://www.avondalemusic.com/tilthillsongbook2.html