Dirge

If it has the same switches and screen as my H2 then I'd argue about the simple controls; On mine I think the switches are too small to be instantly sure which notch they've settled in, the labels on them are microscopic and the screen is hard to read. A great device for the price and does what I want, so it's just carping. But that's what I'd moan about to the makers if they asked.

No attachment; try again!

Thanks K; most enlightening. That really is a racket isn't it? I bet it makes lots of unwarranted money too. "Have tried before to get lawyer contacts out of Google but it fobs you off and then says it has nothing to do with Google, contact the rights' claimers ..... but there are no addresses for these mysterious outfits." OOh! I'm really surprised at that one etc etc...

Sorry K don' unnerstan'... can you paraphrase for those of us of antedeluvian aspect please? I'm sure it affects me but I'm not quite clear what's going on. (And did I kickstart a resurgence of interest in the Londonderry air by the way?)

OK, if you really don't get it, allow me to explain. The posting is nothing to do with concertinas. So one has to suspect that the only reason for putting it here must be that the poster wants us to know that he's already got one of these deeply unexciting things. It's fair game on both counts.

That's a really odd-looking concertina. Is it one of Guran's 'let's improve the design of the concertina by throwing away absolutely everything that makes it a concertina' jobs? It claims it's an accordion, Steve. I used to play them but I saw the light. However I can therefore confirm that it is no accordion because it doesn't have a piano keyboard. I can only think you are right in your supposition.

That would be interesting, if anyone has the time.

This is intriguing; surely all properly chromatic keyboard instruments have both more and less comfortable keys to play in and their owners just accept it? Beginners not wanting to play the black notes on the piano springs to mind for instance. Making various layouts to compensate is unusual. Is this something to do with the business of jaffries duets being aimed at 'improving' Anglo players? David H; if you can make it back into an Anglo it's probably worth it...not only will it double the value but it will sell a lot faster. (Duet players do like an air button by the way.)

That's you straight in at the deep end!

Yes I knew about the new 3 wheeler. I couldn't avoid it; when they announced them there was a flurry of PR and friends emailed all sorts of bits from all over the world, together with various press clippings that came by post. I was just down the road from the factory (Upton on Severn) for a week earlier this year. "Great" I thought; "I can do the factory tour and see the new proper Morgan." So I rang them... and... I got an ansafone. It was factory fortnight and they were closed. In the mean time I think everyone's agreed on this one re concertinas don't you? We're all of us quite happy that our instruments wear the odd honourable mark of old age. And yes, Geoff, you do know which instrument I was being rude about. I don't look at it much when I play anyway.

It's not new this one; been rumbling on for years. For many people 'restoring' a vehicle involves throwing away any tired parts and completely refinishing everything to make it look like it just left the factory, or even worse, even shinier (Chroming everything in sight is a common one). They say by doing this they have put the beast 'back to original'. I dispute this. I say with every bit of factory paint they removed and every component they replaced, it moved further from the original because it can never be 'original' again. I maintain that a scabby vehicle that has been in use for 70 years without being ever repainted is the genuine car, not the beautiful recreation that most people admire. Sadly, the 'replica', shiny but made largely of replaced bits, is the valuable one, not the scruffy but genuine old nag. As a result there are still people who buy real pieces of history purely to rip them apart because they are 'an easy restoration'. They destroy them in my view; still a minority view but not nearly as minority as it used to be. I have no beef with folk who make a useable vehicle out of a collection of bits by the way; nothing is lost there. The point that most other old things don't have to be re-polished, all wear marks removed and made as new for their owners to appreciate them and that many owners enjoy the marks of history they acquire as they go is completely missed by these people. At the bottom of it is, I think, that they are less interested in the vehicle than the 'restoration' process. Often the owners of particularly shiny cars or 'bikes won't drive them because they think they are dangerous in modern road conditions and 'worth too much to risk'. And yes, my Morgan is genuine and scruffy, brush painted by a previous owner, I drive it daily (because I love driving it; it makes me and everyone I pass smile: "Look, that car's only got 3 wheels!") and no, I have no plans to 'restore' it. Coming from this background you won't be surprised, Mike, to hear that I like my instruments to look their age, that I have no problem with worn plating and knocked edges and that. Just as with the car, I also have no problem with working parts being replaced to keep the thing performing as it should. One of my big duets is as-a-new-pin shiny and it is unnatural. I'd rather it hadn't been monkeyed with. I like people to be able to see that it's old; after all, it is.

Stanley Holloway had another monologue about the Battle of Hastings: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/barnicle/stanley/words/hastings.htm ...On 'is 'orse, wiv 'is 'awk on 'is 'and...

It works for me...

He seems to have immediately relisted it. The 39 button duet he's selling is still there.

I decided they were just 'knock on effects' of the main shuffling. I like Brian's explanation for why, although you have to wonder why they didn't just order a transposing instrument in the first place.

I think it will be a Wheatstone duet and what they've done is pull the Eb buttons across out of the main column so they are easily identifiable, or perhaps avoidable is a better word. The accidentals on one of these are laid out next to one of their natural notes and usually the most likely one; so the F sharps are next to Fs and not G's for instance. Most of them end up in the 2 outside columns except for the Dsharp/Eb. These are beside the D but along way from their coresponding E; it's a pig because you want Eb much more than D sharp, and they float in the middle of nowhere on the keyboard and are several tones adrift from the notes around them; hit one by mistake and it's not only wrong, it's excruciatingly wrong; it's an easy thing to do and really causes pain. It's a little pitfall trap for the aspiring player. (And the cure, I believe, if anyone is curious, is to take the bull by the horns and learn a few flat key pieces early on and get used to them.) Perhaps someone played his duet for long enough to know it was worth commissioning a pukka one from Wheatstones, but not for long enough to have got over the Eb terrors and this is what Wheatstone did when asked. There was another one like this discussed a couple of years ago but I can't remember where, so it's not unique.

If he's that handy you could remind him about Bob Tedrow's excellent series of pictures showing how he makes bellows; I remember looking at it and thinking 'yes I could probably do that.'

Absolutely. And make yourself lots of hard work for minimal return and it's not worth chasing you...

This is how I see it. The twenties were the best period. But I can cope with 1900 to 1930ish as a concept. I've always assumed it's about quantities; by then they were making lots; it was practical to produce the various variations without cutting corners. Also they'd got a good pool of well practiced tradesmen and they'd been developing the instrument for half a century or so. I also don't think the start point of 'the best period' is clear; it's a gradual evolution to the peak. However after 1930 or so there was the slump then the instrument dropped out of fashion. Sales undoubtedly crashed; corners were cut; you have to be more careful with what you get offered, we are told. (I've no personal experience) I don't take this to mean 'Don't buy a newer instrument' though because by now you would want to try any instrument anyway. Chris Algar always talks about golden period in his ads. As an awful lot of concertinas were made in this period it's a good sales line he can add on, but it's a wide bracket in numbers terms I don't think a modern fettler can do much to change the fundamental tone and overall balance because that's the build of the thing, but you are absolutely right; being from 'the golden period' is damn all use if it's been set up by someone whose skills don't match the original makers. And concertinas get brought back from beyond the brink quite regularly. But I do think you are over-thinking it. You have to play the instrument in front of you and trust your judgement. I wouldn't dismiss an instrument because it wasn't of a particular age. I have no problem with this mind you; in my world it's self policing. I play Wheatstone duets, they only started making them about 1900 with the bulk in the 20's. Numbers dropped right off in the 30's and they changed the keyboard system for the worse anyway. Easy!

This is so sensible, and I reckon having a decent instrument right from the outset is a huge incentive to really get on with it. I understand why a beginner says 'Well perhaps I'll just start out with a cheap Chinese one and see if I like it.' but I'm sure it much increases the chances that that beginner WON'T like it, so it's false economy. And perish the thought that you won't want to keep the Morse, but in that event you'll be able to sell it again. The money is tied up, not lost.

Having seen that I don't think it is a caricature of a specific person, just a clever cartoon. Isn't the cartoonist saying that the agitator is the real villain? The working man has allowed himself to be shackled by the agitator's ideas while behind him, much better dressed, well nourished, seated in comfort and smiling is the very chap, watching his creation with satisfaction. He plays the tune the union man dances to. Are you supposed to think of the organ grinder and his monkey too, I wonder?

Excellent stuff warren, and I think the agitator might be a cartoon of someone specific too

Presumably a Hayden. On commission? I think you should put some gauze behind the fretwork; undoing 12 bolts to get fluff out of a reed will become tiresome. (I even resent the fact that you have to undo 8 to get into an aeola.)

As I remember it, to make a 'squashbox' to play authentic Zulu style you need to move a fair number of reeds around, so some dedication is required...

Well I play a nice arr of 'The Whistler And His Dog' (1890's) courtesy of the ICA; written by Stanley for duet but perhaps butcherable. Then it seems 'The Lost Chord' was a regular favourite; not exactly the normal idea of a music hall song I agree. (and you won't catch me bothering) On the song side I like The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo. I'd suggest Champagne Charlie but you need to be a woman in a suit for the full effect. Don't do the corny old 'Bicycle Made for 2', for heavens sake. Perhaps you should scan down the ICA library index; they have a couple of medlies of tunes called something like 'Golden Age Of Variety 1 2 and 3' and you can lift the tunes you like out of them. Although now I think about it perhaps a medly of pop tunes of the day would have been in period exactly as offered too.) Before you ask for the music be warned poor old Jeremy Hague the libarian has fallen off his bicycle and broken his arm; he managed to tell me this by texting on his mobile! Apparently he is really hors de combat and likely to be so for a while, so until he gets the cast off his regulars are waiting patiently. (Get well soon Jeremy)