Hooves

No explanation neccessary. I try to keep things simple for the Concertina.net crowd.

glad to hear you finally got a Crane duet, now to plan the next 55 years!

hey thats cool! I'll bring my camera.

HAHA! that would blow some minds. I played "Hotel California" on my Crane for a company barbeque, not my favorite. I'd say "Scotland the Brave " is my favorite since its easy and works well with a C button drone and is one of the few songs I know! I think the song I'm working on now, "Bonnie Kellswater" would beat out that one.

Cool! -I'm playing at this. Come and say hi. It's my first time in California. will you be at the session tent or on stage?

I got my 48K Crane from Chris Algar too, it was last year. I'm not sure what a realistic price is these days, but I paid alot for mine just becuase I wanted one and didn't feel like waiting 5 years. I paid 750 GBP for mine plus another 50GBP just for shipping. Another 48K Crane went on Ebay just a few months ago for about 1700-1800 USD if I remember correctly. Its very well restored, though since its a bit harsher than my Macaan I think maybe some of the reeds are replacements, still I like it alot.

It would, having your "signature" (and its mirror-image) all over it would make it easily identifiable as yours, though most people only use their postcode... Mind you, you could always "go the whole hog", like this guy: Firefly Accordions. Apparently there's a Hohner 114 one-row in there somewhere... well that is pretty techno looking, sort of likea jet-pack. Almost makes writing your name on it seem trivial. I think personalizing the low end models is the best thing to do with them. I was hoping you were going to be more extreme, adding duck calls and whistles...

The 14th Annual Sebastopol Celtic/world music festival will be kickign off on Sept 19th. Concertinas don't show up very often, though I have seen people carrying them around. I brought mine last year but didn't play a note outside my motel room. John Williams of Anglo and button accordion fame played a few years ago, the website has more details of who will eb there this year: http://www.cumuluspresents.com/celtic/index.html If you can get your tickets early (too late this year) they have group rates for staying at the Holiday Inn express, I'm staying in Rohnert Park just a few miles south of Santa Rosa (its considerably cheaper per night, and probably safer than the Motel 6's down "Prostitution Ln" in Santa Rosa. In fact last time I satyed at Motel 6, was the LAST time I stayed at the Motel 6 in Santa Rosa, nothing wrong with the motel but I know just enough Spanish to look elsewhere for lodging.

Thanks, thats the kind of info I was looking for. at first I doubted the concertina would be there, but after reading Dan's article (and I agree it would be easy enough to carry), I think it could have been there at that time. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, just being a bit of a historical-stickler. Plus, it was "gold rush days" festival, so a few years after the 1849 date would still qualify. Since most people can't tell one concertina from another the type of box would certainly go unnoticed by the patrons of the festival. Now I'll have to find out if they had a Bodhran player too... Sorry not to have answered sooner; I've been out and about. Chris asked me about this offline, and I sent him this picture which I'll post here, from late 1855, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin. Concertinas were arriving by clipper ship. Although it mentions a French maker for these various musical instruments, the concertinas were likely to have been German. Thanks for the article from the Alta paper, also in 1855. Because the player was Irish (Hooley), they were dancing jigs in a middlebrow setting, I'll guess it was a German concertina; they were well flooding England and Ireland and the States by then, from all available information. Cheers, Dan Thanks for the information, that works great, just the type of info I knew I would get from Concertina.net. I was just kidding about the Bodhran.

Its from your neighbor. or your wife. be very worried. I'm sure Elton got called "piano fag" alot.

Raining Anglos? thats' why I carry an umbrella...

The band "Horslips": they have an English box on the cover of one of thier albums, but at the time I didn't know English from CBA, just knew "concertina". The concertina shows up on a few tracks. I wanted something different, that would give my mandolin string indented fingers a rest. Unfortuntely it dented my bank account.

Thanks, thats the kind of info I was looking for. at first I doubted the concertina would be there, but after reading Dan's article (and I agree it would be easy enough to carry), I think it could have been there at that time. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, just being a bit of a historical-stickler. Plus, it was "gold rush days" festival, so a few years after the 1849 date would still qualify. Since most people can't tell one concertina from another the type of box would certainly go unnoticed by the patrons of the festival. Now I'll have to find out if they had a Bodhran player too...

On the sister site Concertina.com, there is an article about the history of the concertina in the U.S. It appears Concetina's were in the U.S. in the 1840's, so I suppose it is possible that an English box could be in California in 1849-1850. Still, anybody have any definitive records of such?

I tried to do a search for this, but the flood control is on: Anybody have information on when the first concertina in California arrived? I'm askign because recently a co-worker was playing his fiddle with accompianment from his wife on English Concertina for "Gold Rush Days" in old Sacramento - I pointed out that the concertina may not have been in California at the time. I suppose its concievable a concertina may have been in California in 1849, but I doubt it.

I would say examine the systems, look at what you think will suit your neeeds, and just buy one good concertina, don't goof around with the low end junk, if you have decided you want to play a concertina then play a good one. all you will EVER need is ONE good box, unless Concertina is your primary instrument, in which case you will never have enough.

wow thats a long wait! at least you have a box your happy with, thats good. So much playing to be done, better late than never. You will be doubly excited when you get your hands on a Lachenal, and just imagine when a Wheatsone falls your way... congratulations and have fun

I was surprised at how loud my first concertina was, how hard it was to get any dynamics, it was loud and harsh. My current boxes (both Lachenals) are far more dynamic, softer sounding but still quite loud. I think you need to consider how loud a trumpet is, or other wind instruments. I have found that I can get away practising at full volume, so long as I do it within certain hours and on certain days. I have a partially completed practice booth (which I plan to get some pics for once I'm done), but I shelved the project seeing as I can play till 10:00PM on weekdays and 11:00 PM on weekends with no complaints.

"Terrorist Concertina" - now theres a tautology Imagine the restoration cost after the bomb squad leaves. (edited to correct English use error: I had said "oxymoron" but that only relates to two things which are opposite, whereas the topic here is actaully stating an obvious rerlationship.)

Snowed under in August?

Thats pretty cool, now we need a sound clip.

It looks like a fake ad, the seller name is a just a number with zero feedback. if you hadn't staed it was yours, I would ahve thought it was a scam. Why such a low startign price?

ah yes the Tedrow Zephyr, you have taste my friend. I'm waiting for the Crane version, truly to the envy of ye concertina gods.

I have heard there are modern day pirates, not the swashbuckling golden-toothed variety, but pirates nonetheless. Perhaps some of them have taken to the concertina, the thieving bilge belching scoundrels!

I think its due to momentum: once they start, nobody really wants to stop. I have yet to see any Celtic performance where the triple-tune wasn't present, in fact, most of the muscians refer to them as sets, like the "Galloway set", or something similiar. Its often a running joke "we don't remember the name of this tune either..." This may sound bad, but after three days of non-stop reels, jigs, hornpipes, et al, I'm pretty much "celtic-ed" out, and they all start to sound the same, probaly why they forget the names. A bluegrass banjo player asked me once "are celtic tunes like bluegrass tunes - you only give them a name so you can tell them apart...?"