dabbler

Interesting. Seems like this would make it possible to pull the bellows into a straight cylinder, or a dodecagonal prism more precisely. Would this not cause stability problems?

I really like their "bandoline", a bandoneon with an intuitive button arrangement, like a stringed instrument tuned in 5ths. -George

I had this problem on my hybrid concertina. The cause was exactly as Dana described. I was able to fix it by gluing a thin sliver of photo negative to the valve like this. I should have tried Dana's methods first. Good luck! -George

That's such a nice looking instrument. I think I understand the triplet technique now. Nice playing! -George

Thanks, folks. That's really nice to hear from people whose playing I admire. About 14 months plus one pandemic so it has seemed like forever (almost two years total). I'm a long time guitarist though. -George

Thanks guys! Interesting. I wonder why makers (except Stagi) didn't go wider when they started building them. Maybe tooling and materials reasons? Possibly. I haven't attempted the triplet technique, but I do have to hit the buttons more precisely or I will hit a neighboring button. Also, I have to hit the button from a higher angle, as lower angles can also cause neighboring buttons to be depressed. I have thought about giving the buttons a raised dome profile to help with this while still allowing easy two-note presses. -George

Hello everyone. Several months ago I had recalled some musings on the forum about wider buttons on the Hayden duet, maybe from Brian himself. Having recently bought a 3d printer I realized I could print my own button caps to give wider buttons a try. Also, I thought that it would be nice to use my thumbs to better position my hands as I played. I find these enhancements very nice and will be keeping them. See the attached pictures to get a better idea of what I did. I don't like the term but I might call the wider buttons a game changer. They let me quickly play a P4 or P5 dyad with a f

Hello everyone. It took several months of practice and a couple of ergonomic enhancements to the instrument, but here's a performance of Maple Leaf Rag for the 52-button Hayden duet. I'll detail the enhancements I made in a separate post since I think they add a lot of capability to the Hayden. Cheers, -George

It's always handy to have an extra guitarist hiding in the bushes. Seriously though, sounds great. Nice to hear an unmicced performance with such balanced instrument volumes. -George

Both sound great. More similar than I expected. I did a blind listen and guessed wrong. Thanks for posting these. -George

Adding to an old thread to note a recent success. A couple of pivots on my Beaumont started seizing after much playing. Applying "Dupont Teflon Non-Stick Dry-Film Lubricant" with a fine brush appears to have fixed the problem. I use the bottle (non-aerosol) version of the product. -George

Hi Luke. @inventor explains the reason for the slant in this post. I happily play a Morse Beaumont which does not have a slant. I haven't found the lack of a slant to be a hindrance though I have never had the chance to compare. -George

On my Beaumont I measure about 44.5mm from the button centers of the lowest row of six to the nearest edge of the palm rest. The palm rest itself is 13mm wide. -George

Interesting dilemma. Adding to Łukasz's thought experiment, I'd also consider if any doors are closed by particular choices/outcomes, e.g. future gigging opportunities. -George

As a Beaumont player I'll add a few thoughts. I've had previous experience with guitar and, long ago, saxophone. I found the non-mirrored Beaumont to be intuitive, and never once thought that the asymmetry was frustrating. I'd think that the relative difficulty of Maccann to Hayden would dwarf any trouble related to a non-mirrored versus mirrored layout. To me (and at least a few others) Maccann looks completely nonintuitive yet I've heard some really great Maccann playing. If you think you'll ever sell your instrument the mirrored layout may be a harder sell. Finally, on guitar people v