Laitch

If a guy doesn't want to sell me something I don't really need, that's his problem not mine, no matter what part of the world he lives in. The plus side is that a dearth in the USA of concertinas available from foreign sources has got to help our domestic makers like Morse, Tedrow, and Herrington Brothers who are working diligently to increase the concertina side of the Kloba "concertina:Big Mac ratio" over here. The data's unavailable on whether Big Macs are being used as part of the production fuel.

Sure, It is odd, Peter, the no responses and acknowledgments sometimes. We're all fallen from the garden though and some didn't bring their tools along and have to go back looking for them, I guess. I was going to wait to see if anyone answered your post, but the suspense was killing me. Your tune comments and transcriptions on Brother Steve's tin whistle site have been real helpful to me. Thanks!

Hello, everyone. This is my first post here on this helpful site. I hope my posts will be useful. Gerry, I don't think it's a particularly "big" hole you would be digging with your custom layout. Based on my experience and what Samantha, Frank and Bill have written, it'd be more like a divot---it might trip you up a little but you couldn't get buried in it. You could have the reed positions changed later. It's possible, though, that with a standard layout, your new instrument would be attractive to more potential buyers if you chose to resell it. I understand your wanting to have the ability to run a number of notes on the pull without awkward fingering. I've discovered, however, that certain tunes, to flow smoothly, force me to use fingerings that seem awkward at first. In fact, just holding the darn little box was awkward for me, at first. I have a Jeffries layout Morse C/G. You described a pulled run including the right hand B, C#, and D. I often play that run like Jim Lucas described it. That and other similarly tortuous fingerings become relaxed and easier after practice, as Frank mentioned, and really help me to appreciate the possibilities of my instrument. I've also come to appreciate that reversing bellows direction, even when I don't "need" to, can improve a tune's flow by limiting bellows stretching and as a consequence, lessening air button usage and the associated sound effects that come with taking "breaths," although I'm far from perfecting that technique.