Joe G.

I bought my first concertina—a 20 button Italian job—in, I think, 1980 and almost immediately started wishing for accidentals. Within a year I'd sold that instrument and bought a 30 button Lachenal, which I played until sometime in 1984, when I had the opportunity to try a Jeffries that Colin Dipper had restored. I couldn't put it down, so I sold the Lachenal, borrowed money, and bought the Jeffries. As is the case with my mandolin and guitar, it's a lot more instrument than my playing will ever justify, but I love playing it nevertheless. Sometimes I get really focused on one instrument at the expense of all others, and that happened when I picked up the mandolin, but the concertina has recently reclaimed its rightful place, as arthritis is making the guitar and mandolin much more difficult to handle. Oddly, to me at least, nothing hurts when I play the concertina.