robotmay

I think he's on Five Men in a Boat too: https://www.discogs.com/Five-Men-In-A-Boat-Five-Men-In-A-Boat/release/8371443 Great album if you haven't heard it before

Whereabouts in Somerset is this viewable? I could potentially be interested

It has been quite a while since I last got a recording of the Maccann, but I've finally managed a pretty clean version of the lovely tune Dundas, by Rob Harbron. This fits on the Bb Maccann really nicely, though my success rate of hitting the descending base runs is not exactly 100%, so I fudged them most of the time https://soundcloud.com/robotmay/dundas I've been playing this tune for ages but it was a pig to get a recording without some interesting cock-ups. While I seem to be in the zone I'm going to try to do a few other recordings this week of fun new tunes I've picked up on this instrument

Ah yes, I was also in the competition and their jig was one of my favourites! One of my favourite Playford tunes, and it made for a very nice jig

The left-hand side of my Maccann definitely overpowers the treble, but it does depend on the volume you're playing at, and as others have said above; your style of accompaniment Doing full 3 note chords in the bass can certainly cause difficulties if you're playing up high on the treble side, but I've gotten better at allowing for this over the past year. The balance evens out a bit more at higher volumes, I usually play with the bass-end pointed away from other people, and doing different accompaniments such as harmony lines or arpeggios certainly helps.

I do find myself doing that with the maccann. With heavier instruments I think it's the easiest way of getting a pulse into the bellows, whereas with an anglo I found I could do that more with my wrists.

Haven't been around these parts much recently, but I thought I'd swing by to let you know about this great video I found last night. Rob Harbron did a great talk and bits of performance at Westminister, and they've uploaded it to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1cuieGmcy8 Well worth the watch; there's some lovely solo playing in there as well as some great tips on being a musician

Charlie Marshall is a good source for replacement accordion-reed valves. http://cgmmusical.co.uk/CGM_Musical_Services/Reed_Valves.html#4. He sells leather as well as plastic and faus-leather valves, but looks like yours are leather. If the valves are mostly curled on one end, then the instrument might have been stored vertically in its case, which would cause the valves to fall away. They're pretty easily replaced though! Some non-solvent contact cement works well.

I'll try to do a demo recording of it this week so you can see what I mean. I do believe my pads need replacing at some point, so they may be a bit more percussive than they should be. I mount one to the bass end of my melodeons by using cable-ties to tie it to the lower feet, which works really well, and the treble one either on the grille or on top of the keyboard, using the T-bone violin clip. That works surprisingly well, unless I mount it on the keyboard on the Hohner Erika, where it then picks up a lot of percussion from the fingerboard (which is quite thin on that box). The same place works fine on my Castagnari though, which I suspect is due to the button design and the thicker materials. Aye, I'm a little worried about the non-replaceable, flimsy cables, but they're so much cheaper than the alternatives that I figured they'd be worth a shot! Nice setup! Unfortunately my Maccann doesn't have strap screws in useful places (they're on the bottom of the hand-rest instead), but I might experiment with attaching a bracket in a similar way. And aye, I'm not worried about eliminating noise entirely, just enough so that it's not overwhelming

Recently picked up a couple of small gooseneck microphones, a couple of reasonably-priced Thomann T-bone CC100s. I've figured out how to attach them to my melodeons properly, but it's proving a bit of a nightmare with the maccann. How on earth do you stop the things picking up rumbles non-stop? Seems to be mostly from my key presses, from what I can tell. I've been trying out different positions by using some large elastic bands to strap the mics to the concertina (no handy bits of leather to poke them through on the maccann), with some foam to insulate them from the body (as I thought that was causing it). Even if I position them more over the back of my hand, rather than over the keyboard, they still pick up a lot of percussion. I guess positioning them further away from the ends would help, but I think I'll need to build something to do that. I haven't spent much time with mixing yet, so I'm not sure if this is something easily rectified on a mixer, but I assume it would be better to solve it with the microphones themselves if possible. Anyone got any tips?

Thanks! Aye, it's a bit of an oddity! It's very at home in Bb/F/C, and Eb/G aren't too bad now I've got the hang of them. D is a bit of a pig though, and I haven't even tried A yet It has a nice benefit of going down to a B on the treble-side when playing in G, without being too massive an instrument, which is handy!

Thanks guys! Aye I've been fairly occupied with a new job recently Defra, hence the lack of recordings Got a few other lovely tunes I've been playing quite regularly that I'll try to record soon. I've almost got the hang of moving my hands in opposite directions on it now, though that makes my head hurt

I've been learning the Maccann like a maniac for the past few months and I can't believe I've not recorded any of the tunes I've been learning. I've got a few others I should definitely put up as I've found a few tunes that are really lovely to play on the Maccann, which I haven't seen other people having a go at (although to be fair, I rarely see much Maccann stuff anyway ). I think this tune is Irish, but I'm not sure. I heard it from a couple of French friends, so having now Anglicised their version, I expect this is pretty far from the way it's played originally: https://soundcloud.com/robotmay/her-long-dark-hair-flowing-down-her-back Nice to have finally got the hang of G on the Bb Maccann. D is still a bit tricky (the C# is in a horrific location) but I'm slowly getting there. I'm almost session friendly on it now

Tony Hall, the melodeon player, has always been interesting in this regard for me. He adds in multiple melodies/harmonies on the treble side of his box that in the past have convinced people that he was mixing multiple recordings. Usually it involves playing a harmony line with his little finger in the upper octave. He also manages to get some percussion going just by his choice of playing clacky old Hohner boxes!

Thanks guys

Thanks John! I spent quite a lot of time playing it along to the Faustus recording to try and get the phrasing vaguely correct. Think I'm still playing it a little faster than they do; playing slowly is really tricky

Finally got around to recording this tune of Paul Sartin's that I transcribed something like a year ago. I never could get it sounding good on the melodeon, as it's really a very pretty fiddle tune and requires a bit more smoothness than I could give it. However it works much better on the Maccann duet, so here it is in C on my Bb duet (nice key for it actually): https://soundcloud.com/robotmay/princess-waltz I've been trying to learn the chords for the most easily playable keys, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of some of them Also got a new microphone setup over the winter, so this was a good excuse to play around with that too. Think it's picking up a bit of noise from the PC nearby so I might have to play with positioning for recording a bit more, but it's a nice step up from the naff little mic I was using before.

Thanks for such a lovely instrument Now I just need to learn some tunes in a key other than F!

Thanks Jim! I'll hopefully have a few more tunes to contribute now that I'm playing this so much Though I'm often so late in getting around to learning something that I'll probably have to revive a few more old threads too...

Thanks! It has such a mellow sound, and it helps that F and Bb are my favourite keys, as they're the easiest ones to play in on it I'm trying to learn a couple of hornpipes on it at the moment but I haven't got the hang of playing an accompaniment at that speed yet!

Sorry for resurrecting an older thread, but I was looking for somewhere relevant to post the first recording I've made on my new Maccann duet I've recently replaced my Anglo with this lovely Bb Maccann, and I'm completely in love with the sound of it. I've sorta got the hang of playing in F so far (G on a normal one). Some of the chord shapes are a bit awkward in the sharper keys! Here's a lovely tune by Chris Wood; Elizabeth Clare: https://soundcloud.com/robotmay/elizabeth-clare

Now sold and donation sent over shortly.

Here's an unedited video of me playing a few tunes on the Lachenal Anglo (and cocking them up a bit!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZiZ4aFcW7o

Thanks Stuart! I'm hoping to get some tunes up on the Duet soon. It's the Wheatstone Maccann Duet in Bb that was listed recently; it's luvverly

For Sale: Lachenal 30 Key G/D Rosewood Anglo Concertina Serial number 139095, circa 1890 Regrettably I'm looking to sell my Anglo, as I've come to the realisation that the Anglo isn't the concertina keyboard I'm looking for right now, and though I've enjoyed my time with this concertina it's had little usage in the past couple of months. I've now got a really rather lovely Maccann Duet which I want to direct all my attentions to! This is a nice condition rosewood Lachenal, probably an Ab/Eb originally that has been tuned down. It's responsive for a G/D and much nicer than the other G/D conversions I've tried. It has wooden rosewood fretwork; no cracks anywhere, but there are gouges from fingernails (in antiquity!) around some of the buttons. Any marks or blemishes should be visible in the photographs. Some of the bone buttons are domed over from years of wear. It has new 7 fold bellows, new straps, and it's in tune. The action isn't loud to my ears but I guess that depends on your style of play. It speaks quickly and has a nice range of volume, tending to the louder-end. Works very nicely for morris music. I bought this from Chris Algar in February (I think) soon after he had had it restored. I then had the buttons bushed and all the pads replaced (lowering the action) by Marcus Music shortly afterwards. I also bought it a hard case (a Peli Storm case) in which it has been kept since. I'm looking for £1900 for it. You're welcome to come and try it if you're nearby; I live in Cardiff, 20 minutes from Marcus Music. If I still have it at the time, I could bring it to Melodeons at Witney for anyone going to that who'd like to try it out. Here is a full album of photographs (apologies if any are blurry): http://imgur.com/a/LjvHG There are some recordings I've posted over time with this instrument on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/robotmay/sets/anglo-concertina I've got a video that I'm currently uploading to YouTube too, but that might not be sorted until tomorrow as it needs chopping up a bit!