Martin Essery

Nice piece. Do you have an opus number, or a link to the music, Please? I looked but could not find it.

Wales, UK, you just sent me a quote 🙂

Lol, I am getting good at transposing 😄 I have been playing through the Bach cello suites, and the single line tunes are all playable, although some can be awkward, but I will need a 40 button to make some of the chords work. I currently am looking at the Stagi W-40MS as a cheap-ish first option, to see what is possible, which is wheatstone type layout.

Unfortunately, I am addicted to the Anglo! No one said concertinists have to be sane 😄 I have a grand concert harp if I want a nice orderly instrument. I have played many instruments, but learned mostly by the book. Father Christmas brought me a 20 button concertina (the cheapest you can get) when I was far too young, but he forgot to bring any instructions, so I had to find the music for myself, and that inner intuition has stayed with me to this day.

I am not conventionally wise 😄 My inspiration is such as these 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yI1GQM_NMk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0LtMgMgNcA I feel it is the very inconsistency of the Anglo that gives it an extra dimension of life that the English and Duet seem to lack. I like the challenge 🙂

That is most interesting and explains a lot about the way my instrument reacts. Thank you ❤️

Thank you for your response ❤️ I think you just confirmed for me that the 40 Wheatstone arrangement is going to be best for me. I can see that the Jeffries is good for Irish, which is not really my thing, and that the Wheatstone has a few extra high notes which will be useful for violin, flute and cello music.

Under new management now, so we shall have to wait and see. So you are happy with your Stagi in general?

What an interesting topic. I would certainly like to know if stubborn reeds could be made friendlier by filing or scraping, but would that not also change the pitch, and if so, could the pitch be adjusted back another way yet still keep a friendly reed?

Yup horrified!,

Does anyone have any experience with a Stagi W-40 MS? I would love to hear your opinion ❤️

I am currently playing a 30 button Wheatstone Anglo, attempting classical music and finding challenges, especially with chords, so am contemplating saving up for 40 buttons. Does Wheatstone or Jeffries have any advantages for playing classical music? Just to be clear, I am talking of he different reed layouts (not vintage instruments), and whether one falls more easily under the fingers than the other.

Thank you for the confirmation. I am in the middle of possibly changing streams. My main interest is in classical music, some of which is possible on 30 buttons, and was going to get a better 30, like the Marcus before going for 40 buttons, but am wondering whether I should save for the leap to 40 straight away?

I had indeed considered that, but came to the conclusion that I have tried a Marcus and like it, Marcus is only an hour away with lifetime warrantee should I need it, so any small loss in resale price will be offset by the added convenience of a local provider.

While I am having a quibble. When I played the Marcus, the air button was free, silent and quick, while comparatively the Rochelle-2 was reluctant, wheezy and slow. It cannot cost any more to make a larger air hole, so shows a fault in design, and another reason I would not trust the same manufacturer.

Wouldn't the air button end up under the little finger too?

It is a sad fact that film directors who are not musicians do not seem to care whether their actors look like they are playing the instruments. It is not really the actors fault. I once had a job playing flute in a film. The casting director went to great pains to ascertain that I was indeed a proficient flautist. I turned up on set and noticed the harp they had was 200 years later than the film was set in, then they handed me a piece of broomstick with thumb tacks pushed into it, and I had to pretend it was a flute! The music I was supposed to be playing to did not even have a flute! I was background, so it did not really matter, but it is all about creating the illusion for the masses and has nothing to do with being consistent to any form of truth.

Thank you for your input, but I have been a musician for over half a century, at times professional and not stupid. It sounds like you are talking of the Rochelle, not the Rochelle-2, which is a much smaller instrument, presumably smaller bellows and maybe shorter reeds. I am glad of your validation for the Marcus, as that is where I am headed next. I have tried a Marcus and was instantly twice the player! I tried a brand new unused Marcus too and there was twice the air in the bellows on an unused instrument compared to the Rochelle-2, which arrived very stiff and is still stiff after months of playing, with so much spring there there is no need to push, I just stop pulling as much. Where I have run out of air and am not up to speed, I recognise that fact, but that is not what I am talking about, and not every tune can be played fast just so you have enough air. Although my skill with the air button could be improved, I do know how to use it, but that only helps if you have some opposite bellows notes to use it on, which is not always the case. Yes, playing staccato umpa notes makes things easier, but that is not always musically suitable, and other players on youtube do not have to resort to those techniques in the sorts of tunes that give me concern. My reference to harmonic style is to Gary Coover's Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style. For instance, page 33, Auld Lang Syne, bars 6 and 7 are unbroken pull. My concertina, played at the right speed, the same speed that everyone else plays it at, barely makes 1 bar of melody and accompaniment on a full bellows and 2 bars is literally quite impossible. Stopping mid tune to empty the bellows would be silly. Other concertina players on youtube do not seem bothered, but my particular instrument cannot do it, and there are several other tunes in the book that produce similar problems. There are other signs that my particular instrument suffers from lack of quality control. The button profiles vary from entirely flat to very rounded, so they have been hand made, but not by anyone actually paying attention. The bellows are still way stiffer after months of playing than seems reasonable. The pressure needed to make the reeds speak is very inconsistent, and with instructions from Concertina Connection, I had to retune them. Why should I need to do that on a new instrument? As soon as I can afford it, I shall be getting a Marcus. I had thought of upgrading to a Clover, but if attention to detail is so absent on the cheaper instrument, I do not feel inclined to trust their more expensive ones. In a life as a craftsman, if I was required to make something cheaply, I did not make it shoddy, I made it as well as I could within the price constraint. While Concertina Connections makes much better instruments, the fact that they allowed this one through shows a lack of caring that I would rather not be associated with.

Very much on topic by the way 🙂

Thank you. I was sent the instructions on how to adjust the reeds from Concertina Connections, instructions that were already prepared because it seems to be a common occurrence. So, my question would be, how many accordion players are required to rip a new instrument apart and fiddle with the reeds? So, I have moderated the reeds that were inconsistently reluctant to speak, but I am still left with the right side requiring so much more air than the left that the harmonic style is difficult and in some cases impossible, as I will share in a later response.

Thank you for a useful perspective.

Maybe I am just a bad player 😄 The quality control on this particular instrument in general is very poor. The button profiles vary from entirely flat to very rounded, so, good that they are hand made, but bad that someone was not looking at what they were doing.

I think it is the inherent quality of my instrument, there are signs that quality control went on holiday when they made my instrument and the colourful ruminant reseller in this country, UK, did not seem to notice either.

Thank you for recognising the difference, where others seem to want to jump to the defence of the concertina and accuse me of being a bad player 😄 You have outlined the technical differences, which is what I wanted to hear, although my instrument is a hybrid and so the excuse of more expensive reeds does not apply, and does not explain why some of the reeds do not want to speak, while every accordion I have known, the reeds seem to speak freely and equally.