Roger Hare

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.

I (used to) belong to a sailing club. Back in the dark ages we used to meet weekly in the pub to plan activities for the weekend... ...which was great because the pub used to provide free refreshments! I bet you won't get free refreshments down at the local 'Facebook Arms'... ?

(1) I think it's more about 'dilution' of the information flowing into and out of the forum, though I fully understand the use of the word 'destroying' - I am very 'uncomfortable' with what is potentially a fragmentation (can't think of a better word) of the community, which is why I responded so unequivocally. (2) I can't answer for the world of free-reedery, but I can answer that question quite specifically in the context of another of my areas of interest - it's 10 groups - and it's a nightmare staying on top of the game in that particular area of interest. These aren't FB groups b.t.w., they are just different internet fora in the conventional sense...

Seconded, thirded and fourthed! There seems to be a blatant attempt to pre-empt/hi-jack one of the functions of this forum which is more than adequately fulfilled by this forum. I just used 'downvote' for the first time in 5 years. I haven't looked - and won't be(*)... (*) Because, without signing up to Facebook, I can't.

Aaah! Thanks! I already have ABC code for some of these - I will lookat/listen to them shortly... Incidentally, of the two tunes to which I referred in my OP, one was actually scored K:Hp (as I remembered). T'other (a Uillean pipe tune from 'The Brendan Voyage') was actually scored K:Dmaj (which I think is a close approximation to K:Hp?).

Aye, I remembered that after I'd posted! I'm pretty sure it was Hp, but I'm still hunting through my dusty old ABC files from two years ago ('cos that's when I did this) to try and find the relevant file - so far without success. When (if) I find the damn thing, I'll correct my OP. Meantime I'll leave it ASIS as monument to failing memory... ?

(1) Satisfy my curiosity - which marches? (2) I have (so far) taken two tunes scored for pipes and 'played' them on an Anglo. One of the tunes is not strictly a pipe tune, t'other is actually for Uillean pipes (from the Brendan Voyage), but both are 'playable' (by me, badly, but I'm a lousy player ?). This exercise serves as 'proof of concept', though? [I also added drones to the ABC to make the MIDI playback sound a little like the pipes - this was surprisingly (to me) effective.] (3) When I automatically transposed one of these tunes using EasyABC (by 7 semi-tones IIRC), I found that K:Hp was magically transformed to K:Gmaj, so that shouldn't present too much of a problem? T'other tune, although a (Uillean) pipe tune was already scored in Dmaj. As far as my sanity is concerned, I couldn't possibly comment...? (4) Nah, stick to the concertina and give it a go - it's fun, if nothing else. I did it 'just for ducks'...?

I'm well impressed with that! I don't have the kit to record myself though... FWIW, I finally got the ABC extension which adds note names to the note heads to work - after a few false starts. It's pretty cool, the score is well laid out and very much like what's been posted here. It's all a bit of a guddle though, and involves working in the command prompt window, and using abcm2ps explicitly, then using a web-based Postscript to PDF converter... There appears to be a bugette in the easynote.fmt file, and the note names are incorrectly mapped to the actual note heads. I don't 'understand' Postscript, but I was fairly quickly able to suss out a fix for this, to get the note heads correctly labelled. I thought I had it working from within EasyABC but that has gone phut...?

I'm not sure if you're responding to mathag's question, or my response. However, in case you meant me... Thank you, but not necessary - I was interested because at first sight, it looked as if you had got the ABC easynotes.fmt extension to work (I'm 99% sure that this will produce the same sort of PDF as you are showing). I was more interested in you (possibly) having got any of these .fmt extensions to work, because I have always failed miserably... ? Back to the drawing board...? I'll get it working some time... I see you're in Bolton - great market - far better than Bury...?