bear

I did not take your advice because I figured if the others were right and the Hohner turned out to be OK then I would have a nice inexpensive concertina to play. And if they were wrong I'd have a nice instrument to tare apart and learn how the thing works inside. I like working with my hands and repairing things. I also like building things like Penny Whistles, started playing them and it was not to long before I was making my own. I also made myself a diatonic harmonica. I bought the reeds and reed plate covers but made everything else including the reed plate and comb. Oh ya, I did not make the screws I put it together with. I bought those. And yes I have already decided to start laying a few $ back to buy a good box. I wish there was some place I could try a few different boxes but no one around where I live sells concertinas. Anyway my Hohner will not be a total loss. Because it will teach me a little bit about how a box works and who knows maybe I can even make into something worth playing. Got my doubts, but who knows. Stranger things have happened.

Don't know anybody I dislike that much......LOL

Neither, I'm just a clutch at times.......LOL But I have changed my mind. When I said I liked the Hohner D-40 I was going by the looks and remembering how my Hohner concertina that I owned years ago (it was red in color) played. I had not actually played the D-40 when I posted above. I have had the chance to do so now and wish I had never seen a D-40. I had some good memories about my old Hohner (made in Germany) and now thats all ruined. The D-40 came to me brand new with two bad keys, and what looks like plastic bellows with only half the bellows volume that my old Hohner got. In other words this "made in China" concertina is nothing but a piece of junk. Anyone want to buy a brand new piece of junk?

The others are right, this forum board is not the place to talk about things like this. However I need to say a few things here about the one called "bear". Oh ya, that's me Anyway I lived in Germany for two years and traveled about quite a bit including the UK. I also lived for several years in Iran and yes I did quite a lot of traveling around the middle east. I also spent a few years in Mongolia and again did a lot of travel around the far east as well. Oh ya I also spent some time in South America. I have tried it, and I like it. But it seems Paperpunchr you need to do a little traveling around the USA a bit. If you would like I'll show you 1,000's of people who live right here in the USA that don't own a car, or a house, or anything else including food to feed their children. That's right, we have folks here that are dirt poor. As a mater of fact they are even poorer then that because they don't own any land so we cannot call them "dirt poor". I'm 63 years old and have spent half my life traveling and living in places around the world. I cannot stick to music and concertinas because I cannot read music. And I'm a rookie when it comes to the concertina. I just got myself one and am trying to teach myself how to play it. I have very little musical talent but because I have emphysema real bad my doctor told me I should try to learn to play a wind instrument to give my lungs a workout. Not having much money (I'm one of the 95%...LOL) I bought myself a couple of harmonicas. Learned a couple dozen songs on them and really enjoy playing music (at least when people are not throwing rocks at me for making noise.......LOL) but my lungs are starting to give out on me. Being the Anglo concertina is tuned just like a diatonic harmonica it seemed like the right thing for me to learn to play. Anyway, lets us be friends and leave the boards here to concertinas and music and leave the rest for the rest of the world to fuss over. OK? Fine. Big ole HUG from the bear to every one and a bigger HUG for Paperpunchr. PS: Paperpunchr, I forgot to tell you I also lived in Green Mountain Falls, half way up the mountain just west of you. Small world we live in huh.......LOL

You know what, I figured I would have to make the things myself or redo some kind of corner bracket to make it fit. I was just hoping is all. Oh well, life can be a bitch, just glade I did not marry one cocsflute, I live here in the USA, I am a Amarican. Its a sad world we live in to see those who live outside the US speaking more truths then the ones who live here. 5% you say! I've always said that 10% of the Americans have 90% of the money. Could it be 5%/95%? Hummmm, let me look in my wallet. Yup, very possibe

I have a Hohner D40 and I like the way it plays and looks but the corners on the ends have no protection and a couple have already got banged up. (I heceived it that way) Does anyone know where I can get metal corner brackets to cover the corners?

I sure do appreciate everybodys help here. Its really nice to have a place to go when one needs help. Thanks a lot everybody.

Thank you both for the reply, at least I have an idea as to where to start looking for the problem. Maybe with a little luck I can turn this into a playable instrument for my friend to learn on

Thats all it needs to cover. If one learns the "BASICS" of how something works it should be easy to figure out the different types of instruments. That is if one has some degree of common sense.

Hello David, ya got the bear here my friend. I have a friend who has a Stagi and he wants me to do some work on it and when I seen your post about the Stagi I got excited. But then I found out no one gave you any answers to help you out. Bummer huh! Did you redo your Stagi? If so what did you do and how did it all turn out?

Thank you Leonard, I will do that. You mean like a chromatic harmonica, makes sense. I'll do that my friend. Thank you Paul.

Which button? Sorry, must of thought you folks could read minds........LOL Anyway its a Stagi G/C Anglo, the "PUSH" note on the top left G row. And as far as taking it back to the store. Well this one was bought on ebay. It belongs to one of the guys who lives in the apartment building I live in and he asked me to help him out. At least it gave me a chanch to try a Stagi out without spending any money. The instrument seems to this beginner to be OK except I dont like the location of the bellows button. I cannot reach it with my thumb and it a hassel trying to work it with a finger. But I am good with my hands and a very good handyman. I have fixed things from clock and locks to semi trucks and love doing it. I've also changed reeds in harmonicas and retuned harmonicas. I'm looking forwards to getting inside a concertina. The bear said that.....................

Hello everybody. Ya got the bear here. I have a brand new Stagi Anglo concertina. (the cheapest one they sell) that has one key that the volume is about half of what all the other buttons are. Short of sending it back to where I bought it from, any suggestions as to how this can be corrected? If anyone can help me correct this you will make me one happy bear...............

Hello Chris, ya got the bear here my friend. Learn something new every day. I have herd people talk about Melodeons but always thought they was referring to Melodicas which is a short piano type keyboard one blows into. The others where always button accordions as far as I knew. I went and did a Google search on the Melodeons and came upon this website that said he had a Hohner melodeon that was made by Stagi and then went on to say that Stagi made a lot of instruments including concertinas for many different companies around the world. Have you or anybody else here herd this before about Stagi? Anyway about the melodeons, the may be diatonic tuned just like a harmonica but the two handed button layout of the concertina just makes more since to me. I God should find me worthy enough to bless me with a few extra dollars one of these days I just might get me a melodeon and try it out. I believe one should never put something down until one tries it. But for now I think I'll stick to the concertina. That you for the post though. I'm learning more every day. And thats what its all about, learn something new every day.

Sorry to hear about your sister Pete. I'm in my 60's now and figure I have at least another 20 or more years left to go. I've proven the doctors wrong in the past, and I'll do it this time to.........

m3838, I really thank you for your kind words, concerns and helpful tips. But I think the words here is "the doctors say" if you will notice the stuff doctors have hanging on the walls one of them says that are "Licensed to Practice Medicine", the key word here is PRACTICE, not that they know what they are talking about. As a matter of fact the doctors told my wife and I that she had terminal lung cancer and less then two years to live. Not just one doctor but our family doctor, and two teams of five doctors on each team at two different cancer clinics. Eight years later, almost nine years I lost my wife due to a heart attack. The thing is to have a Positive Mental Attitude, and I'm positive I'm not going anywhere for quite some time. And as far as me running out of air while playing the harmonica I guess I used the wrong words as I'm not running out of air but the breaths I take get shorter and shorter untill I use my nebulizer (a breathing machine that helps me take my medicine) and take my albuteral. And yes I know how to breath through my nose while playing the harmonica. And as fare as the Pocket Sax I'ed love to try one I really like the sound of a clarnet (they call it a Pocket Sax but it sounds more like a clarnet), and as to the tin whistle, I have several whistles now. Some I bought, some I made myself and I dont like the fingering on a recorder. My dream now is to get me a concertina and learn to play it. Again that you for the advice my friend.

Tallship, sorry about what I said about your post man. I've read some of your posts and can see your no snob. Guess I was just having a bad hair day. Let me explane a few things about the bear (that me). To start with I'm kind of like m3838's mother (no I'm not a cross dresser--LOL), but instead of being on SSI I'm on SSD (social security disability). You see I have emphysema real bad. My doctor said I should learn to play a wind instrument to give my lungs a work out. He suggested a flut or clarinet. I could not afford them so I bought myself a harmonica. Which is a story in itself being I am not a musician, know nothing about music. And was told by three different teachers (years ago) that I'm tone deaf. Well maybe I am a little because I cannot listen to a not and tell you what key it is, but if I hit a wrong not on my harmonica I sure can tell it. Anyway I've learned to play two or three dozen songs on the harmonica but my lungs are getting worse and its getting harder for me to play. I keep running out of air. But I love to play my music just the same. Being that the Anglo concertina is tuned just like a diatonic harmonica it just makes sence to learn to play a concertina so I can continue to play my music. I have no thoughts of ever being able to play with a group or on a stage. Heck I may never even become good at it but all I want is to amuse myself and maybe a friend or two from time to time. I had thought about trying to save up enough money for a good quility concertina, but if the doctors know what they are talking about I will not be around long enough to save up that much money. However there is a concertina that I seen on ebay (several as a mater of fact) that I really really like. Called a Lang, made in Germany. They are a 30b square box with some really cool inlay art work on them. I know if I every get one it will need to be rebuilt. But I was wondering what everybody here thought of these Lang concertinas.

Hey everybody I think you all got the wrong idea as to what kind of list I had in mind. I did not mean which concertina was the better sounding/playing type list judging one concertina against another. I dont think such a list would be possible. What I had in mind was say in groups like. Group 1: would be, "Top Of The Line models", group 2: would be "Advanced Models", group 3: intermediate models, group 4: "Beginner Models", group 5 "Junk" or Not So Good Models.

You know what, I've been searching the net for a couple of years now looking up concertinas trying to learn as much about them as I can and often wondered why I never seen such a list. Me thinks me understands why now Thank you nice people for the reply..................

I agree with you 100% Mr. Hersh, $335.00 can be a stretch when living on a budget like mine but not at all impossible, and deffinetly not just atainable by the rich. But the words "if you're living on a budget the concertina isn't for you" are the ones that got to me. I'll never be able to afford a top of the line concertina. But I'm sure I could have a lot of fun playing a cheaper one just the same.

I guess what your saying is this is a place and concertinas are for the rich and well to do people! And that us folks liking on a fixed income dont belong here................. I was a happy bear when I found all you nice people willing to teach my about an instrument that sounds so cool. Oh well, now I'm a sad bear.............

Hello everybody ya got the bear here. I just happen to be an ebayer. I buy and sell on ebay all the time. Are there scammers running auctions on ebay? You bet there is. There are "millions" of auctions going on every day on ebay. I personally sold over 10,000 items myself, and have bought a couple of thousand items (mostly for resale) and have had a perfect record so far. The key is "common sense". There is an old saying, Buyer Be Ware, people cheating people has been going on since the begging of time. Think about it, like I said there are millions of auctions going on at ebay every day. I you went to that many stores how many of the store owners do you think would try to cheat you? Its not just ebay. Its greed. Whenever money comes into the pichture "Buyer Be Ware".

OK, I sure hope I dont start any fights here But I think it would really be a big help to us rookies to have a list of the different concertinas by maker starting with the best down to the junkers. I have been saving my $ to buy a concertina and just bought myself a Hohner D40 (for $100.00 I might add) and yes I know everybody tells me the Hohner is mostly a piece of junk. But it will give me something to learn on and its better then having no concertina at all. When I first came here to the club one of the members offered to let me use his Stagi concertina. I thought that was really super nice of him since he did not know me except I was on a limited SS income and had no concertina at all. Howerver I could not take him up on his offer because my mother taught me if I barrow something from someone to make sure I return it in as good or better condition as when I got it. Since I could not afford to have it repaired if someting happened to it I had to decline his wonderful offer. But I got one now, even if its a Hohner And now I'm going to start saving for that "upgrade" I know will be coming and a list concertinas from the top quility ones to the junkers would really help.

Wow, now I'm really confused. I have no dought that M3838 knows what he is talking about but I have a friend who has a Hohner concertina that he has been playing for 40 or 50 years now. Yup its a Hohner, red colored but still a Hohner. And I have had several concertina players (a couple right here in the club) who play a English tuned concertina tell me its very hard to play fast songs on a Anglo/Diatonic tuned concertina because of the push-pull action. As far as Hohner using cheap materials and cheap Chinese labor in their concertinas I can believe this. I played around with Hohner harmonicas for about 50 years and have seen their quility standards go way down. And some of their harmonicas are made in China.

Hey guys I have a question for you. Being I know very little about concertinas (as far as the different models) will someone explane why the Hohner D40 is not a good concertina?