Datsen

Also the thing I meant to say was: Hooray for Wim and the people at Concertina Connections, for building such lovely instruments and being committed to making high-quality concertinas on a production line. I think it fills an essential niche alongside beginner instruments, antiques, and handmade instruments, and means that more people can pursue the concertina as a serious instrument. Thank you!

I seem to be a bit behind the times, but I just re-read Wim's post about the release of the Troubadour, and I'm thrilled to hear him saying that there'll hopefully one day be a bigger Peacock. I have the Peacock previously owned by Don Taylor, and it's possibly my favourite instrument of any kind that I've owned. It looks and sounds gorgeous, plays flawlessly, and I play it almost every day. But I do yearn for a bit more range; the left hand especially feels a bit cramped. You can play a lot of music in 3 octaves if you're creative, but I like to move different tunes up and down in pitch to give them a unique character: to be able to switch from bright and birdsong-ish to deep and church-organ-y at will. I know I'm never going to have the money lying around for a W-2, and anyway I like the sound of accordion reeds -I'm just as influenced by melodeon and accordion players as concertina players. So I'm now be waiting patiently for news of the Peacock XL. (Though, maybe we can find a more artful name than Peacock XL ;). It sounds like I'm buying a dirtbike, or a box of tissues)

FYI, I'm very interested. I need to decide if it's a Beaumont or a Peacock I want, and I need to sell my CBA to get the money, but getting a better Hayden hybrid is a major priority for me just now. James, I know you're not on the site very often, would it be worth us exchanging emails? (CNet commission still due, of course).

Hi there! I'm currently trying to make the same decision! So far I'm swaying towards the Peacock. I mostly play trad folk, and on all the recordings I've heard, the Peacock seems to sound more like a traditional-reed concertina (it also looks a lot more like a vintage concertina). And Mr Wakker is a maker of traditional instruments after all. But the Beaumont's extra buttons would make for a lot more versatility. More usable range and much easier to play chromatically. And the larger overlap between hands especially; I expect that'd make it easier to play melody or harmony 'between hands', English-style. Also I seem to remember someone on here saying that the Beaumont has a slightly better fit-and-finish. MetroGnome, I suspect recordings don't do the instruments much justice, but that's all I have to go on too (I live in Scotland). Soloduetconcertina on youtube is a marvellous Beaumont player (a TAM-reed one I think), and Steven Arnston on Soundcloud plays the Peacock. You can also hear Morse and Wakker-hybrid instruments being 'demo-ed' on the Liberty Bellows youtube channel. (The videos are made by people who aren't concertinists, so the playing isn't anything much, but you can hear their tone).