Hooves

Sounds liek you got a fair deal: it may only be 35 button, but price a similairlly restored 48. Rather than mutilate the poor box into a delightfully-crude anglo, I would look at the open space in the reed pan, seems like additional buttons and reeds could be added, or even some novelty sounds or an air button. Having a small duet is better than no duet, and the Crane is a great box, pretty much all I play now.

It sounds like your learning to make the instrument "speak" - its something Ive been told/read can be elusive for muscians, they play very well, but never learn to make the instrument say what they really want to say. They can read or write the music, they can play it note for note, but somewhere inside is a voice that never truly gets expressed. I believe this was the case with Beethoven, who said it was "unfair" that he finally learned to speak after going partially deaf. My personal take on this is that its one thing to play well, another to play what you can imagine. Those are two different concepts and though related the latter is harder to obtain. One thing for certain, my guitar/mandolin playing and my ability to transcribe the music by ear improved vastly after taking up the concertina.

ah yes the Anglo. The 24 button undoubtably was a step in the right direction.

Ok I got a bit carried away. Anglo's are fine for those who like them.

yep, unrealistic price - I paid that much for my 48 key, fully restored and tuned to concert pitch, at the height of the "I got have a duet craze"... The only good thing is the exchaneg rate is low (I got a great deal on a Bodhran recently due to the flattened exchaneg rate dollars to GBP). He should start that box at half that price, but, if I was sellign anythign, I would jack up the price too and see if anybody bit.

thats a fine looking box, I bet its in a class far and beyond the Stagi incarnation.

I don't know why people bother doing things like this, what a waste of time and materials.

clearly what you are craving is a duet. The anglo is a good sytem, yet it lacks the simple refinement of the elegant and much maligned Duet. You must be brave, ready to stair back at the ridicule that rolls off thier prententious noses. The duet is the only concertina worth investing any time in: all other forms of "concertina" are but mere fossils on the road of evolution. There worth a laugh, appraise thier virtues, summarize thier failures, and lift your head up and walk away. You have taken that first step to awakening from the humdrum of bisonoric snobbery. However this path is not without its own pitfalls, the less traveled route is always the most interesting and challanging. You will find no teachers for any Duet system, sparse books (my "Book" is just a photo copy of the 48key Crane duet with the staff below and the notes on the buttons labeled). Remebr this young Annie: as you emerge from the cave your eyes will be dazzled by the light, and all will be confusion, then, as you adjust you will see more clearly than you ever have before. good luck

I have a 48 key crane and a 46 key MacCaan, the Crane is a whole 1/4" around the edges bigger, and from my humble opinion as a duet player, for the keys it is by far superior. But I do enjoy the MacCaan: lately I believe MacCaan was one jazzy cat - just look (on yer tiresome 46 key ) at that top two rows on the right (high) side? whats that baby!?! EDITED: I meant the keys in the upper row on the right side starting at 2 thru 4 and the buttons below it , it just feels like the middle to me. Those 6 buttons are a great scale, and its repeated down the diagonal. Blues and pentatonics all over that Maccaan keyboard, truly the good Dr. deserves a place in the history of blues/jazz. In fact, I am writing a piece based on that blues scale, title soemthign like "Macaan's Rag" (this is to supplement my other dedication "MacCaan's Lament - in D major", note that not one D appears in this piece... I have heard that ol Robert J. played concertina, that really bugged Son House... NOTE: "McCrappie's Air" has nothing to do with the MacCaan duet, in fact it would be near impossible to play it on a 46 key as McCrappies's air requires extensive use of D drones. No substiutions allowed!

tell him to run it on eBay, or list it in the for sale forum (not general forum). Depending on the type of duet it is, he may get more for it than $800, though I imagine concertina sales are down due to the financial meltdown. If you can get a picture it will be identified in short order.

I was under the impression he didn't use much if any: there is a story you can find online about O'Carloan which is really funny - In another anecdote, it was said that David Murphy, who was harper to Lord Mayo and once played before King Louis XIV of France, told Carolan his tunes were like "bones without beef". Carolan thereupon dragged Murphy kicking and screaming through the room. While Murphy screamed, Carolan remarked, "Put beef to that air, you puppy." truely an iconic irishman taken from: http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AMusic/OCarolan.html

yep its that way on my mini-Lachenal c/g anglo.

you can also use RFID chips: here is a link to stew-mac (a luthiery supply store), they sell the chips and the reader. http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Accessories/Security.html the device is made by SNAGG. I wrote the maunfatcurer and asked the range of the detector (I was wondering if it could be used to ID a box ina bag as somebody is walkign away with it...) the range they told me was about 3 meters.

I think you should find both a brass and steel reeded anglo of the same size, and simply swap an end. I did this with my crummy chinese english and anglo boxes (the screw holes matched up perfectly).

looks nice, but I think if it had blue felt for the button holes it would match better.

Wheatstone actually patented such a system in the 1840's. (Fourth claim on p.9, and in figure 13 of the 1844 patent-- see http://www.concertina.com/wheatstone/Wheat...041-of-1844.pdf ) I've been thinking and drawing and plotting how to use a variant to produce a single reeded, but bisonoric (same note from same reed on push and pull) bass. I even went so far as to buy a set of organ reeds to experiment with. Early Wheatstone basses seem to have used harmonium reeds, so my idea doesn't seem too far fetched. My designs need four valves per note. I'm not sure that the channel construction is significantly more complex than the usual reed pan+action board. I have been thinking about the same matter, some reed organs were operated by push and/or draw wind, they were rather complex in their construction. Is it not possible to use idioglottic reeds as in the sheng? Concerning the keyboard lay out would a B or C Griff as a lay out for duet concertinas make sense? Because one plays a concertina just for the sound of it, not for the complexity of the system! I asked about this too a few years ago: seems like it could work, but nobody has implemented it that I have heard of. I would think it would save alot on materials and time as you would be tuning less reeds. They gave me a bunch of reasons why it would be difficult or wouldn't work. as to the layout: why not just stick with the basic Richter scale and focus on just being diatonic in a key you often use? I have considered usign harmonica reed plates to make a mini anglo, true they would not be "concertina" reeds but its a mini, which i doubt you will do any extended playign on. also, I suspect anybody who wants a mini can do without "vintage tone"... I had considered making a box you could just plug in a whole harmonica on each end (perhaps even 2), or just the plates. You could make somethign that could use interchangeable harmonicas, so, if you need another key just plug in another harmonica, or if a reed goes out of tune easy fix (harmonicas are cheap). If it has to look like a concertina, you could still do it Honher makes some small ones, but they are in limited keys. The bigger ones you might need to cut the plate and I'm not sure you can do it without warping it. Ive seen bellows for testing harmonicas at the store, where they put the harmonica on the bellows so nobody blows on it with their mouth.

mental illness is the least understood and by far the hardest disease to cure. If you know somebody suffering from this condition, many medications have been developed to deal with the symptoms, but the root cause of Accordion playing is still a mystery. It may be genetic and pre-disposed in certain individuals - possibly found in all humans, but only plaguing a few misfortunate victims. Identifying the catalyst which makes a person either an accordion or concertina player would be the key to curing the ailment. Beyond the direct impact to the patient one must consider family members, pets, and neighbors. The consequences of accordion playing are insidious, though the afflicted may not realize the severity of the condition. I'm sure President O'Bamma has set aside stimulus funding to help these disillusioned miserable people. Dr. K.Hooves

1) they will go where all thier childhood memmories are safely kept, there old room thier parents haven't turned into a study yet. 2) whats popular, downloadble, no bands over 25 please 3) Of Course: music of the Depression will make a ressuregence, quickly followed by a series of emo-beat poems/raps, then in the end each countrie's citizens will gain strength in the traditions of thier forefathers, this too will dissapear and slowly people will begin to realize that every ending is a begining, and we are actaully in a new Reniassance. 4) Then things will get interesting: YouTube will burn itself out, live music will dominate, cultural mixes will take the stage - each major style will get a cultural infusion, like "New Grass", old and new mash-ups, Rock N roll will become as traditional as O'Carolan. The cliche 3 man rap-boy-band preaching about killing whitey and the beacthes big but will finally slip away into oblivion. Remember this: digital data is not forever - a writeable CD lasts about 5 years , almost all the crappy videos will simply vanish as nobody (even the authors) will care to back them up. All that will remain is the same as it always has been, you keep the good and forget the mediocre.

Reading music is very useful, especially if you want to play with other poeple, as nothing says "I'm right" better than a printed piece of paper. Playing by ear is more fun, but in my opinion takes alot longer. I like to improvise with my boxes, and once in a while I will recognize a tune, for example, this weekend I started goofing around with my MaCaan duet, and realized I was playing "Star of the County Down". That happens to me frequently when playing on my guitar, so I have a mixture of reading and by-the-ear tunes/songs. For a lot of the music I want to play, there are no tabs or sheet music, and you have no choice but to figure it out on your own. However in the traditional realm, I find almost any song somebody asks me to learn is available online or in one of my many books, of sheet music (I have no books with dots).

get him a mini-anglo: he'll immediately fall in love with it and take it with him everywhere he goes. Wish I had some friends wealthy enough to buy me squeezeboxes as a gift.. but then that would imply that I am wealthy enough to return the gesture. Watch out Tedrow! when I win that lottery I'm going to buy a dozen.

I'd like the picture better if your face wasn't in it, nothing personal... hmmm, how about - "Quit playing with your Snow Balls and Dance!" or maybe just "Dances with Snow Balls"....

One man bands tend to be novelty acts, so, they are often sidewalk or open mic performers. There are various types of Foot Drum available, ranging from an electronic wedge you just tap your heal/toe on, to a full blown portable drum kit which folds up http://www.farmerfootdrums.com/ http://www.shadow-electronics.com/start.html?lang_id=2 also there are pedal basses which either use MIDI or actaul reeds to make sound. You can find on Ebay a MIDI controller for about $60 US which has 13 inputs to amke your own pedal bass/drums. However I think most people who would watch a one-man-band would rather hear/see acoustic instruments than electronic. Not always though, as I believe Jimmy Page would use his electric guitar with an old pedal bass (possibly Moog).

Ive gotten that message too, and CDs Ive recieved have been great. When I ordered the Barelyjuice collection, I asked they Drink a pint and dance a jig while packaging - response was "Done!" they have CDs that are hard to get elsewhere, and sometimes much cheaper than alternative distribuitors.

very nice. When I win the lottery (and I will!) I'll order up a batch.

I have a 46 key MacCaan and a 48 key crane: I find on both boxes chords on the bass side will drown out melody on the left, but its less noticeable if you play hard (push more air through the bellows). My Crane is physically larger and I believe has more bellows folds though I've never actaully counted them. On my Macaan, which has older bellows but new valves, it seems more noticeable. I have tried playing full chords on both sides at the same time with a similiar result to yours. I have read this is pretty common with the duet, and may be a limitation on the concept. I myself try to avoid full chords if I want to play melody (though for the most part I do one or the other). I also found that chording on the left with the higher notes allows more air for the bass side, so I can play lower lines on the right. This works well for my Crane, which has more notes on the right than the MaCcaan. If you chord with all low notes, it takes more air, so you either need bigger bellows or need to pump harder. One last comment: a lot of people want to play chords + melody, yet the duet was designed to play two melody lines.