Clive Thorne

Jake, Thanks for the heads up. I'm an english style player rather than irish, so i'll probably skip the Swan & Helmet sessions (I've been to a few rockier gigs in that pub though). Is the Amtphill session a general folk session, or concertina specific? - my first instrument is really a melodeon. Also how open minded is it?. Would it object to a saxophone (my wife's instrument). PS I am having lessons with John Kirkpatrick at the moment and he was very complimentary about your concertinas.

Thanks jake, A fascinating read.

I know that quite a lot of early C.Jeffies concertinas were actually built by Crabb, but beyond that I am unclear. Did Mr Jeffries re-temper and fettle the reeds etc., or did he simply stamp his name on the end, or what? I have an interest in this because when I had Colin Dipper do some work on my "C. Jeffries" aorund 15 years ago,he said that it was probably built by Crabb, and that it looked like it might originally have had wooden ends. To honest I'm not too bothered whether it's a Crabb or a Jeffries as it is a lovely instrument either way.

I'm not sure that this should be refered to as a "Faux" Jeffries. Others would know much better than me, but if it had the final reed work done by Jeffries, then I would have thought it qualified as a Jeffries. Even if not, then it will still be a top class instrument. I'd be interested to know what the reality of these "Crabb built Jeffries" is? Did he fettle them, or simply stamp his name on them?

My early C. Jeffries anglo has bon button which I would describe as somewhere between a dome head and an pan head. ie the central area has a gentle dome, with edges being rounded off. Many od these would appear to have worn a bit over the years. I find these very comfortable. I also have an old starter model 20 key lachenal with plastic/bone buttons, shaped much like the OP's metal ones. I don't mind these too much, but they are nowhere near as comfortable as the above.

There is piece of sotware called "scantailor" which I use to clean up and de-skew scans of electrical drawings (sometimes prior to converting to CAD files). It is not perfect but still quite useful, particulary for batch processing a set of drawings. In terms of scan/pdf to a Music file the only one Ive tried is something called 'Omer' (optical music recognition) from Myriad software. The only piece of music I've tried it on was an original arrangemet of 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square', and to be honest it did reasonably well in terms of percentage, but the remaining errors take ages to correct. Seems to get confused by slur lines etc, which that peice of music has lots of. I've not tried it on a single note melody at all. Caveat here - I've just checked on-line and there is a new version out, so I might try that at home. It's quite likely that a modern Phone App more successful, and certianly easier as it combines many steps into one.

Reading this thread it occurs to me that there is a big difference between "Pimping up" and" Pimping out"!

So low that only elephants can hear it!

Joined a new Morris side when I was 17 (not much else to do for a 17 year old in the Welsh/Shropshire borders). Melodeons and concertinas everywhere. Started with melodeon (still play much better than I do a concertina - which is not saying much!), then saved up and bought a concertina (anglo) as it seemed an obvious progression/addition.

Just to point out that I didn't intend "Monster" in a derogatory way, simply a reference to the number of buttons (and perhaps tbecause I find them a bit scary?)

Not a tune, not even a general concertina comment. More of life comment. I've just noticed my profile description and it says that I'll be retiring in 20 years, which at the time meant at 65 (now going to be 66). I have just had my 64th birthday!! Where did that all that time go? I must have blinked.

Just to make it clear that I am not a good player in that respect (or, let's be honest, any respect). TBH I sort of put that comment in to prempt other people saying it If I hadn't!

I always assumed that this was the starting point for an anglo, especially at the 20 key end of the market. You get a good range of notes and the main chords for each key in a small compact instrument. 30 keys then make it fully chromatic in the middle of the range. I does occur to me , however, that as you go above the 30 keys you start to move away from that initial idea, and whether you wouldn't be better if you'd started on a duet, especially as you get up to the 50+ key 'monsters', and any idea of saving reeds/weight/cost is gone. The critical point though is what you started with. If you started with a 20 key anglo, then a 30 key, even a 40 key anglo the logical progression, rather than jumping ship to a duet. I play a 36 key Anglo, and if I wanted to 'upgrade' I would certainly be looking at a higher key count anglo rather than a duet! If at the outset someone anticipates ending up with a 40+ key anglo then they might think 'hang on, should I be buying a duet instead?', but who plans that far ahead? Then, of course, there is the 'unique' sound of an anglo. Obviously good players can play a duet to sound quite like an anglo (or an anglo like a duet), but with an anglo that style and sound is an inherent feature of the instrument (which I love).

Note to self: Must reed thread properly before commenting!

Very much depends on the laser and the delivery system. It can be problem for internal corners (eg on the frame_, but for straight lines and external corners it doesn't really how big it is because, as long as you know what it is, the CNC can compensate for it.