fatman

Unfortunately, I am in the wrong country. Were it an option, I would gladly take a chance on this over a Chinese box to give the English system a go. Then again, we don't see Lachenal boxes under £300 very often here either. Quite a shame that dealing internationally is such a headache.

Has it though? I don't see anyone here asking to compel anyone else to do, or not do anything. Only asking they have the option of not providing personal info for the world to see (which they do).

There is a paper on free reed acoustics here https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3563819 with both cutaway drawings and photos of eastern style free reeds. Interestingly eastern style free reeds seem to always be attached to a resonator. Very noteworthy for this instrument, the resonant frequency was higher than suggested by the reed or the resonator alone. I do believe in that video he said that it sounds better one direction than the other. Before I found that, I was contemplating buying some cheap accordion reeds to see if I could modify them to be bidirectional and see what they would sound like. Though I still wonder if the preference for direction is based solely on the resonator, and if you could get a good sound without one...

You are correct on both accounts, not only did I send e-mail to that account before I ordered (to see if they had any used stock per their website, didn't even think to ask if they had new stock, I just assumed they did), when there was a problem with my order their responses came from that address. I even double checked and copied the e-mail from your message right into my e-mail client and it is the same one. The back order seemed like it could be a wait, and I distinctly got the idea that they didn't expect me to find one anywhere. I am sorry to say I went straight to Button Box after that and bought their last Elise (which arrived just as you posted your question). I would hate to rub my good fortune in your face, but if you have any questions about it (for example I had wondered about the included tutor and took it on faith that it would be helpful), message me and I will be happy to share what I know. If by any chance you are in/near Southern California, I would also be happy to let you give it a squeeze iffin you were so inclined, there doesn't seem to be much if any in the way of resources out here.

I e-mailed and got a sub half hour response from William himself a week ago yesterday, then I tried to place an order and got an e-mail back from Karen saying that there was a backorder on the model I had tried to order and I got a refund processed all in the same day. I was extremely impressed with their responsiveness, my experience couldn't have been more different from yours.