Corbin Collins

Standard bellows. Not even the same instrument. The Elise is pretty much a toy, very useful to some from what I read. I found it unplayable. The Troubadour . . . Throw it in my grave

The Elise drove me insane with frustration. The Troubadour drives me insane with pleasure and satisfaction. It’s so small and it sounds so great. I would never expect to play in keys too far from C G F D on a Hayden instrument. That’s not why I got it. Plus you can usually play partial chords in about any key if you need to. It takes creativity. That’s part of the fun. I hardly ever really play full-on chords on the left hand anyway! Less is more, to me.

Ah… alas. Thank you. Maybe Concertina Connection itself could start up such a program. Send out their “scratch and dent” products. People really don’t know what they would want, and there’s no realistic way to try different types for the vast majority of folks. I suspect it would turn into sales.

Doers Button Box still rent them out? You could rent a Rochelle, a Jackie, and what the heck, an Elise (I play Hayden). If you’re serious about taking it up, that would be a good use of money imo.

It's C/G but sorry, it just sold locally.

Excellent condition, barely played, bellows and all buttons work perfectly. I've decided to take up the duet instead. With hard case. Will ship, we can work out the details. $400.

This is helpful. A new concept. I've never played a bowed instrument but I get what you're saying. It probably leads to articulation and expressing emotion better too? I'll look into this concept. So no set-and-forget pattern, like "change every two bars" or something. The Troubadour only has six folds, so I do have to think about running out of air or expansion reach. Changing bellows after phrases sounds like a really good idea. I'm sure it takes lots of practice.

I recently received my Troubadour from Concertina Connection. The waiting was torture, but it is a lovely, gorgeous-sounding instrument -- everything I hoped for. As I begin learning, I'm finding it hard to decide when to change bellows direction. I often hesitate, and that's distracting. I was used to my anglo, where it is clear when to push and pull. Is it simply up to me? Should I not even think about it? Do people have "a system"? Are there different approaches? Is it the same as bellows work on the English? I imagine more has been written about when to push and pull on the English, so maybe I could look up suggestions for that. Or for any duet system, I guess. Advice appreciated!

I think I will just have to be patient and try to salvage some bellows from another cheap instrument I may find. Thanks for the replies!

In my newfound zeal for buying old concertinas and trying to repair them, I ruined a set of bellows for a perfectly good pair of ends on a 30-button metal-ended Renelli. I suppose this is how you learn from your mistakes. Anyone have some working bellows of this size that they'd let go of?

Maybe they should pre-install baffles in the Rochelle

Actually the Frontalini plays like butter, barring a few sour and fuzzy very low notes on the left. I would love to have it fixed, but my god I'm spending so much money on concertinas (see later rant). The feel of it is nice. The silky worn, light wooden ends, and the fat worn bone-colored buttons. I plan to keep it. I may bring it this weekend to my buddy's cabin to help in hanging out with a bunch of musicians I grew up with. Class of 1984. I even wrote a song for it. I am 100% certain the song will be a smash hit -- among that particular crowd. Still waiting on the Troubadour while "relearning" the anglo (as if I ever knew it). Even flirted with the thought of seeing if CC could give me a Minstral instead! Also get this: I found a Stagi W-15 LN online for $100 (not telling where!). Plus shipping, but come on, I see 'em for $700 online. Anyway it arrived today. It feels kind of like a sci-fi, S&M version of the Frontalini. Black, leathery, silvershiny -- Darth Vader's concertina. And a weird row up above, so I have to remember that there's a row above the main row. The plan was to sell the Stagi to help pay for the Troubadour. But now I love the Stagi. Help! I'm semi-serious This whole thing is a sickness caused by the fact that such an ingenious instrument was invented in the first place. It's too beautiful, I cannot look! I do have to stop buying concertinas. That's it. I'm done. The chopping knife comes out now, I weigh my options... I have two teenage sons... why do I need to buy concertinas? Even I don't have a good answer. I now realize I haven't even mentioned the other concertina I bought, a Renelli 30b "from the 60s) that is positively the source design for the Stagi metal-ended art nouveau one you see sometimes. Maybe it was the same factory. All I know is I now want this instrument in decent versions as anglo and duet. Then I'm done. I swear...

I'm really enjoying this album. Great variety of tunes, styles, tempos, feel. The arrangements with the other instruments are well done, just enough to add pep and atmosphere, never overdone. The playing is wonderful. Thanks for sharing this release and best of luck to you.

That's beautiful, but it's not really built like mine. The problem isn't the front side of the ends, where the metal plate and the buttons are. It's on the other side, where the bellows are. That's where the bellows should attach to something other than the entire end assembly -- which they do on yours. See where your ends are really in two halves? You've got the wooden part and then that leather covered part -- then the bellows. You unscrew the plate and the wooden ends and they come off, leaving the other half of the wood/leather end still attached to the bellows. You can see inside to the reeds and take them out, and you haven't touched the bellows. You then reattach wood to wood/leather. Look back at the picture of my concertina. You unscrew the ends and yes, that releases the reed pan inside -- but you still can't access the inside or take the ends off. You literally have to detach the bellows to get inside...