Roger Hare

Seconded! I bought my first concertina from Nigel - a lovely 20-button C/G which is still totally fine after 5 years. He recently re-furbed a rather beat-up 20-button G/D for me, and within the context of what was feasible/sensible, did a first-rate job.

I did, and I did! Wow! Remarkable! It sounds better than the pretty flaky EC I'm currently struggling with.(*) Is it 'waterproof' - that is, can it be played outside in the rain? Can we have an Anglo next - please. I don't think dimensions were mentioned, so, preferably a 'standard' 6-1/4" ax the flats. I think if something like this were available 'commercially', I might buy one just for the hell of it... (*)Sigh, It is better to have tried and failed than never to have failed at all - or something like that...

Thank you for the updated Xmas Tune book - I'll be downloading it in a couple of minutes. Meantime, a quick comment on the Playing ABC page: The link to EasyABC is a little outdated. The version accessible via NL's page is rather old. The program is now being maintained and updated by users jwdejong and sshlien on SourceForge. It is available here. From memory, the current version is 1.3.7.7, as opposed to the last version on NL's site which is 1.3.5. Roger 2 minutes later: Ah, I now see a link to SourceForge when I look at the Xmas tune book link.

1) That was the unspoken sub-text in my post - I wonder if Amazon would be all that keen - presumably they can best protect their 'investment' by only publishing stuff in their own proprietary format? 2) Yes. I've done this for various things - Japanese Chess books, music (tutors and scores), (some) mathematics and physics, etc. These days, it's a no-brainer as far as I am concerned. Apropos the Japanese Chess thing, I did it because at the time, there was nothing on Kindle except a version of a lousy 50 year old paper book which was full of errors, so I simply wrote my own and made it available as a free document on a Dropbox archive, and via the website of a fellow chess enthusiast... Later edit: Developing that idea a little, I guess there's probably not much on Kindles for concertina (apart from GC's books, that is). If a complete chess klutz like me can write a reasonable introduction to Japanese chess, there's no reason why a medium-skilled 'tina player couldn't write a tutor for the instrument. I've recently looked at four paper tutors and I can't see anything there which such a player couldn't emulate at a reasonable level of quality. I'd do it myself, but I don't quite have an adequate knowledge of music theory - or the time... "...I scanned it and sent the PDF file to my Kindle..." Warning - if you do go down this road (for whatever sort of material), PDF scans of existing paper pages can be much larger than PDF files generated from a 'book' (or whatever) which has been created using a document preparation system such as Open Office (or Word, LaTeX, Lout, Scribe, w.h.y.). I've found that scanning stuff in page-by-page as .tif or .png format and then using a xxx-to-PDF converter is the optimal way to do this, and to get all the pages into a single document (sorry if this is 'obvious', but it took me a little while to get my head around getting it 'right').

Yes, the Nag recently re-opened after a major face-lift. I haven't been in yet, but they are reported to be selling bitter at less than £2.50 per pint... No doubt you will also remember the Moss Vale, the Garrick, the Nelson, the Roebuck, etc. I digress - enough!

I had the same sort of problem about 6 years when I tried to write a book in .epub format. I couldn't work out how to get diagrams and text 'objects' (such as tables) to format properly to accommodate different screen sizes on different devices (not quite the same problem, I know). At the time, I think the sub-set of HTML (available to self-publishers) was limited, I don't know if that has changed, but in the end I gave up and wrote the book using Open Office and creating a PDF file - which displays on every device known to man, and is fine, except on devices with very small screens. If the book is indeed '...uploaded as a fixed layout book...', maybe it would be worth Mr. Coover investigating the possibility of creating a fixed layout PDF version? That way it might be possible to get get portability across many devices from supercomputers to the tiniest 'phone...

Thanks for making your location clear. I've passed the information along to Frank, and I'll see him (and the Crabb!) at practice tonight. I've advised him to buy a copy of your book too - do I get a small commission if he buys ? ? Urmston: Aye, I moved away in 1968 (for 46 years) and moved back 4 years ago. Sounds like you may have been there about the time I pushed off to college... Apropos nothing at all: I recently read that, after deserting from the army during WWII, weel-kent Salfordian and wanna-be Scot Jimmie Miller (a.k.a. Ewan MacColl) spent the war years hiding in a house in Manor Avenue, Urmston, less than a mile from where I'm sitting. Small, hexagonal, but interesting place, Urmston...

Aye, AH was included in the list of about 6 which I passed on...

Thank you folks, I'll pass all that on...

The original hexagonal wooden case which came with one of my instruments has finally given up the ghost, and the screws fixing the hinges to the box/lid have pulled out. I need to re-fix them (probably the easy part), but while I'm at it, I might as well do a re-furbish. The fabric lining is completely faded, and basically done-for, so, what sort of material should I use to re-line the box? More specifically, what sort of glue should I use to fix the fabric to the inside of the box/lid? I'm thinking good-old fashioned bookbinders paste which (presumably) will not stain the fabric. The current fabric is not 'fluffy' but is a thin, fine-weave, linen-like quality. I think I should probably try and replace it with something similar... What sort of leather should I use to replace the carrying strap? Thanks in advance Roger

One of our dancers is retiring, so he has dug out the 36-button CG Crabb Anglo his mum (*) bought in the 1960s in order to 'join the band'. (The family lived a couple of streets away from the Crabb workshop). It has only been used occasionally in the past 25 yeas, so needs a re-furbish. Questions: 1) will he be able to replace the tooled leather straps (with the Crabb name on them, apparently)? 2) is there anyone in the area of Manchester, or within reasonable distance by public transport, who can service the instrument? He doesn't want to put the thing in the post, and wants to visit 'in person'. From what he says, it needs new straps (see 1 above), opening up and cleaning, reeds checking for corrosion and possible fine-tuning. I don't know what tuning it is in. I can suggest a couple of fettlers who can deal with 2), but just in case I have missed any, perhaps folks could add their suggestions... Thanks. Roger (*) I wish my mum had bought me a Crabb!

It took less than a day... Here are the tunes from the (large) file I mentioned - it is the 'scotland' file from the ABCEdit database. The tunes have been edited a little by me because the 'style' of some of the ABC in the original was a little obscure (to me at least). I've normalised the default length note to L:1/8 and introduced white space to increase 'readability'. This is part of my SOPs with downloaded ABC files. I've left other stuff pretty much alone, except for deleting a few lines here and there which have no relevance. There was some pretty odd stuff in the file. I don't know if it had got corrupted somewhere along the line, but there was stuff like (say) | A2 B2 c2 d2 | being split across lines, like: | A2 B 2 c2 d2 | which struck me as moderately bizarre, so I cleaned it up a little... There are more tunes than I realised. I thought there were about a dozen. In fact, it runs to 50+ tunes, including duplicates. I've included all tunes which were in K:Hp, (and the duplicates in other keys), plus all tunes flagged as 'Pipe March'. This includes tunes with a meter other than the 2/4 specified in the OP, but what the hell. I've sorted them so that the 2/4 tunes are at the top of the file. Some of them are in what I think of as 'pipe music format' - that is with grace-notes crawling out of every orifice - I have left them alone, but I guess that for the 'tina, those grace-notes will stand a little judicious 'pruning'... I hope someone finds them interesting/playable on the concertina - I haven't tried any of them yet. [I was doing all of this in the first instance to work up a large ABC file to road-test my automagic tabbing program. This one fit the bill with ~1400 tunes in the file.] pipe-marches.abc

OK, give me a day or so, and I'll post the tunes here. I'll include the marches in time signatures other than 2/4 and also the duplicates in Hp and equivalent keys.

Further to my earlier remarks here, I now, purely by chance, find myself 'data-mining' an old ABC file of 'Scottish'(*) tunes. It includes some 2/4 'Pipe marches', plus marches in other time signatures. Interestingly (?) some of these tunes are given in K:Hp and 'another' key. Would it be of any interest if I posted the ABC for some of these tunes here? 'Twill take a day or so as this is a very old file with some 'odd' ABC in it, so I am cleaning it up a little and reformatting to conform to my own ABC SOPs... (*)Some of these Scottish 'gems' are a little suspect eg: 'The Aaardvark Man'? No aardvarks in Scotland - not when I lived there, anyway...

26-button, I presume? There are 3 26-button Anglos there at the moment - one is C/G, two are G/D. The 26-button is a good compromise if you don't want a 20-button vintage, and can't afford a 30-button vintage. All three are at the top(pish) end of the OP's price range. I currently have a CC (English) onloan - I presume the Anglos are similar in size and quality of construction? Not very impressed. It is heavy, it is large. However, it is not as stiff as I had been warned to expect. Looking at the spec' in the OP, I wonder if the New Swan is the best option? It is 'standard'(ish) size and has leather bellows...

Er, The Cloggies was a strip cartoon by cartoonist Bill Tidy, probably best known for The Cloggies (Private Eye), The Fosdyke Saga (Daily Mirror), and Grimbledon Down (New Scientist). I don't think there was an original model team for The Cloggies, but there are a couple of photographs of supposed Cloggies-style teams. The whole shocking story of T'Cloggies can be found here. I couldn't find a picture with a concertina, but they must have had some music, so I'm betting there was a concertina in there somewhere... One of the all-time great 'ritual' dance sides - they are much missed by those 'd'un certain age'...

Jim, I wonder how your translator friend would get on with translating The Cloggies?

Originally, it was 'Gillian', and came up with a supposed photograph of the vendor and a puff for the Prison Service. Then it was changed - as you say - 'strange'. I think that though the title has been changed to 'English' on GT, it's not possible to do that here?

Yes, I didn't clock the fact that it was the same instrument till after my post here...

Surely, that's an English?

I think the company which made the Scholers ceased trading about 12(?) years ago. There are 4 short videos on YouTube featuring these Scholer instruments, in which the presenter opens the things up and illustrates the mechanisms - aimed at self-maintenance, I guess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbPw0yR19zM&index=1&list=PL777D961E7BDD0215 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88yCVla_Djg&index=2&list=PL777D961E7BDD0215 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvs4-ANFuq8&index=3&list=PL777D961E7BDD0215 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anBj1hibG0o&index=4&list=PL777D961E7BDD0215

My mum sez I've got to stop playing G/D right away, and start playing C/G - she's not having any lad of hers mixed up with any of these 'ere minorities...?

Seconded. Even if (as you say in a later post) you don't intend to do your own maintenance, the book is a great read - tells you everything you will ever need to know about how the damn things work. Amazon - right on Don! Their prices are a (bad) joke, and increasingly, I can't find what I want on Amazon in any case...

If you enter 'montreal session' in the URL box of your browser, you should see a list of links which include links to sessions in Montreal (I think I saw three). If you go along to one of those sessions, or contact them, they might be able to point you towards a fettler in your area? This fellow has a concertina in the picture at the top of his page, so maybe he does concertinas as well? Also, try 'montreal concertina repair' in the URL box...

This is the case on the Reddit/concertina forum, where there is a long list of such links (including CNet) at the RHS of the top-level page.