gcoover

Well, it’s certainly not the amazing Jowaisas Christmas Pyramid, more like the Coover Autumnal Quadrangle, but I’m putting up for sale four concertinas that have been sitting around taking up space when they should be getting played instead. Wheatstone 30-button Anglo concertina #51362 in C/G - $1850 Metal buttons, metal ends, early 1950’s, dovetailed steel reeds (regular reeds, not crimped), tuned to concert pitch, 8-fold leather bellows, Wheatstone handstraps. Recently refurbished and retuned by Greg Jowaisas who thought the reeds were “better than average” for instruments of this period. This is the concertina featured on the cover of “Christmas Concertina”. Comes with the original black square case that has sexy crushed red velvet inside. Gremlin 30-button Anglo concertina in G/D - $950 Metal buttons, metal ends, accordion reeds, concert pitch, 6-fold airtight bellows, riveted action. An early hybrid concertina with accordion reeds built as a budget model by Gremlin in the early 1980’s and purchased a few years from Marien Lina. I had taller handrests made for it, but can also include the shorter original ones. Featured on the cover of “Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style” and “Easy Anglo 1-2-3”. This is the second G/D I’ve owned but I find I still never play in G/D, so time to find this one a new home. Comes with a black square case with built-in combination lock. Lachenal 20-button Anglo concertina #198455 in C/G - $650 Bone buttons, mahogany ends, dovetailed steel reeds, concert pitch, 5-fold original bellows still airtight, new handstraps, recently refurbished by Greg Jowaisas (“a good 20b from a late period in Lachenal's history”). Probably built in the 1920’s, and although a fairly inexpensive instrument at the time it has a nice tone, somewhat soft due to the leather baffles (which could be removed if desired). Featured on the cover of “Civil War Concertina” and “Easy Anglo 1-2-3”. I’ll even throw in a copy of “Civil War Concertina” since all the tunes in that book can be played on a 20-button instrument. Comes with a beat-up hexagonal wooden case that works ok but has definitely seen better days. Wheatstone 22-button “May Fair” English Concertina #1263 – $550 This is a very rare 22-button English concertina that would be ideal for song accompaniment. It’s a Wheatstone May Fair English concertina #1263 in close to mint condition, built sometime in the 1950’s. It has 22-buttons (10 on the left and 12 on the right), wooden ends, 6-fold airtight bellows, accordion-style reeds in concert pitch, and comes with its original Wheatstone tweed case which is also in near-new condition. Having only 22 buttons, it is fully chromatic from G' below middle C to e above high c, 1.5 octaves. That’s it. It does not have any notes above e in the upper octave, so it probably would not suit if you’re wanting to play lots of Irish tunes, but it would be ideal for accompanying singing. Good examples would be the playing of Louis Killen, Tony Rose and other singers of traditional songs. You can play Planxty Irwin or Carolan’s Draught (or the first part of King of the Fairies), but it’s much better for songs like Pleasant & Delightful or Blackwaterside. Every note plays well, the bass notes are strong and clear, and the bellows are incredibly airtight. It plays way much better than one would expect for a budget instrument, has really nice and very strong tone, and even has fancy little violin-style f-holes in the fretwork. I'll be putting these on eBay shortly, but wanted to give the loyal cnet crowd a first chance. Shipping and insurance is extra to wherever you are. Simply PM me with your email address if you're interested and I can send you more photos of the interiors and exteriors, or I could even give you a Skype tour or a tune. Remember, Christmas is only a few short weeks away! Gary

Might this be the tune ye be lookin' for? Hope this helps! Gary 18-PSFC-All-For-Me-Grog.pdf

Larry, I'll get to the bottom of this sub-equatorial quandary! Nothing to do with rights or Rollston, but everything to do with Amazon. I think they are planning to add Amazon.au soon, but in the meanwhile we'll figure something out. And no, nothing downloadable yet (in spite of all the spam and phishing websites claiming so). Gary

Well, there's unison, there's harmony, and then there's....jazz! Who knew it started in the 17th century? Own it, Adrian, no apologies! Gary

I’m very excited to announce a brand-new 155-page book by Adrian Brown that features 44 tunes from the 16th to 18th centuries, all arranged in full harmonic style with standard musical notation for the melody, chord symbols, informative and historical notes on the tunes, plus easy tablature for 30-button Anglo concertinas with Jeffries AND Wheatstone/Lachenal accidentals. Yes, with this book you get two-for-one. Adrian plays a 38-button Jeffries, but since the Wheatstone/Lachenal system is much more common we decided that with a little minor tweaking here and there we could accommodate both. This is perhaps the first book to include music for both Anglo accidental systems. Regardless of which system you play, you’ll find these tunes vary from moderately difficult to really difficult. Definitely not beginner material! But the really good news is every tune comes with a scannable QR code that links directly to a very professional YouTube video of Adrian playing the tune from several different angles. The dots on the page are only part of the equation – once you hear Adrian’s musicality you’ll see how much more expression you can add to make some absolutely beautiful music. And on a purely personal note, I must say it has been an absolute pleasure working with Adrian on this project. In spite being half a world apart (12-hour time differential) and the millions of back and forth emails and trial proofs. And not to forget the frustratingly scrutinous proofreading making sure the arrangements successfully made the transition from Adrian’s 38-button Jeffries to being playable on both 30-button Jeffries and Wheatstone/Lachenal instruments. Totally worthwhile, and a final product I think you all will really enjoy and get a lot out of. It’s now available online through Amazon worldwide, and I’ll bet we can talk the Button Box and a few other retail outlets into carrying it too. Attached is the Table of Contents for "A Garden of Dainty Delights". It has a QR code that will link you to the full YouTube playlist, and each song in the notes also includes individual QR codes links to videos of every tune. Once I figure out how to make more upload room here on cnet (maxed out right now) I'll post an example tune for both systems. A hearty congratulations to Adrian for creating such a fine book of wonderful tunes and "difficult" delights! Gary TOC-GardenOfDaintyDelights.pdf

Wow, great photos of concertina construction if you scroll down the link. I especially like the clever way to make the button bushings - insert a long piece of felt through a bunch of buttons at once and then just snip. And clear plastic reed pans - I wonder how well these hold up and adapt to the wooden action pan over time? Gary

Yes, if you're wanting to play in all those wonderfully difficult keys like Cm, Fm, Eb, Ab, etc. you'll definitely need more options and alternates than you'll find on a 30-button. Otherwise you'll find yourself having to do lots of adapting and leaving notes out because they won't all be in the same direction at the same time when you need them. With a 40-button you pretty much have every note in every direction, I've heard it referred to as a "poor man's duet" - but there's nothing poor about a nice big 40-button Anglo! Gary

Hey Bob & Marcus, yes indeed what a lovely instrument! Jake has done a masterful job. It's not quite as loud and bright as my Herrington (but then again no other hybrid has ever come close to any of Harold's instruments), but it's solid and very well built, plays with a lot of dynamic range, bass is clear and not muddy (a problem with many hybrids) and it is a pleasure to play - that's the most important part, yeah? I love the stainless steel ends - there will be no problems with pitting or corrosion like the nickel silver on my Jeffries Duet. I'll do a full review here on cnet once we work out a slight problem with the button dampers (leather for now, not working as well as felt). Re: videos. Be careful what you ask for! I've not posted for awhile due to moving to a really noisy environment and having a problem with the tuning of one reed on the Herrington, but... now that I've got this fantastic new instrument look for a few pirate tunes as well as 75(!) videos of cowboy songs coming soon to an internet near you. Gary

Hi Don, Sounds like what you're describing is the "tenor vocal clef" which would work for "octave-displaced" instruments: http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/clefs-for-music-notation/ I like the idea of the little "8", but being "octave-displaced" sounds like a serious medical or concertinistic condition! For the time being, I've chosen to show the melody lines in my books at normal treble clef and then do a total cop-out by not showing any type of bass or octave or double-treble clef for the left hand and just show button numbers instead. It's a lot cleaner visually that way, and all those extra clefs would probably just drive me more crazy and make it even harder for beginners to learn an already fairly difficult instrument (the Anglo). Gary

In honor of "Play Like a Pirate Day" I be needin' to say a hearty shout out to Robin Beanland for this photo of ye book alongside the very concertina used to record all the concertina parts in the Sea of Thieves video game. Arrr!

And some use the pitch convention from abc notation - lots of choices! Gary

Thanks so much for posting this, Larry! I had the good fortune to see that very concertina and also have a few pints at the Chequers with the Headington Quarry Morris Men a few years back. Also got to visit William Kimber's final resting place complete with carved stone Morris bells and concertina. Gary

My go-to harmonic-style favorite for years has been "Lumps of Plum Pudding", followed closely by "Glorishears", and lately "Bird's a-Building" has been showing up a lot. Oh, almost forgot, "Ladies of Pleasure". Yes, I prefer Morris tunes since they're often a bit quirky, with most of the versions I play nicked from John Watcham's most excellent playing. But I also often play "Eleanor Plunkett" and "Blind Mary" with full harmonies. And... "Love of My Life" (Long Live Queen!). Gary

And here is my brand new Wolverton C/G 30-button Anglo made by Jake Middleton-Metcalfe, enjoying a refreshing local beverage at Tisa's Barefoot Bar in Pago Pago. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote of concertinas from time to time, so perhaps this is not the first concertina in American Samoa? Nice to be able to continue the tradition! Gary

Ah, a sneak preview of great things to come... Astute viewers will notice the reference in the credits to a book of Anglo concertina tunes by Adrian - something many have asked about, and the good news is it should be available within the month. 44 tunes, with videos like this for every tune, including arrangements and tablature for both Jeffries AND Wheatstone systems. More info soon! Gary