Ken_Coles

Hello all, Priscilla and I get to visit England the last week of July and first week of August this year. Naturally I wondered what musical events might be on. I thought of trying to see the first day of Sidmouth, but we fly out of London that Sunday so that may be too rushed. In 2018 we made it to Swaledale and mostly toured around Scotland, Wales, etc. This time we won't try to cover as much ground, sticking to southern England where it takes no effort to see the summer tourist crowds. Suggestions (musical and otherwise) are welcome. We have a full week in London, maybe we should try to get in to the Proms. 😎 Ken

If it is like the Italian concertinas I've used, photos in an ancient article I wrote about them may help. The rubber tubes are the black things on the buttons above where the action arm goes through them. The late Geo. Salley wrote an article about fixing up Stagis; if I can find it I'll post that link too. Ken

What seanc says - arch fingers, don't flex wrists backwards. Some, but not all, of us are prone to problems if we aren't careful about that. Ken, speaking from (painful) experience

n.b. You posted this thread to Tune of the Month, which is an old, moderated forum. I moved it to Tunes/Songs. P.S. Gary Coover might know! Perhaps he will comment. Ken

Maybe you can come to the Northeast Squeeze-In some year (in Connecticut in September this year); in recent years there have been Balfolk tune swaps there. Ken

You could do worse than to look at Volume 1 of Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hEireann at the pages showing ornaments on different instruments. The text is written in Irish in my copy, but easy enough to sort out. Where it shows a cran on low D for pipes it shows the ornament (would I call it a roll? A grace note? I don't know) as I've heard it done on accordion and concertina. There is much more info out there but that might get you started. Have fun! Ken

This is a worldwide site. You should specify what currency your asking price is in (Euros? GB pounds? US Dollars?) and/or what continent/nation you are in. Good luck with the sale. Ken

ButtonBox used to suggest photocopying or scanning a reed assembly of the proper size and sending them that to match the size. Ken

The last time I saw Bob Snope's repair set up, he had a box full of reeds salvaged from crashed Lachenals. Get in touch with him via ButtonBox. Ken

You also learn that while it doesn't sound loud to you, it can sound quite loud to someone next to you. I have learned to avoid sitting next to fiddle players, who have a lead role in the sessions I go to and need to hear what they are doing rather than hearing me. Being next to a bodhran works fine. Ken

Bill Geiger and I have both been too busy this year to put something together, but we'll start thinking ahead for the next one (and everything inbetween). Ken

I think that was Wendy in Massachusetts, but others (David Barnert ?) would know. Ken

I'm tempted to speculat that might be one of many badge names for instruments made in China - someone here may know better and can correct me. The quality of those factory instruments varies a lot and you can likely do better. Where are you located? Someone nearby may be able to help you choose an instrument or show you some examples. Ken

Folks, please stay on topic as in the original post rather than hashing out other debates. Thank you. Ken

Ken Sweeney (northeast US) also does amazing irish music on EC. Another person who IMO was doing very well at it was Ed Delaney (Indiana, US) but I hear he is playing Anglo lately. Many great examples. Ken

One way to sort of get the buttons farther away is to raise your hands on taller handles. I do it by cutting up inexpensive pipe insulation. (An article from the static version of concertina.net two decades ago). It's cheap and quick to try and see if it helps with any fingerings. Good look with your impressively ambitious work! Ken

Topic moved to Construction and Repairs forum - thanks Bill. Ken

Are you looking for someone to do repairs, or do you wish to sell? If the latter, I will move this topic to the Buy and Sell forum, where it will get more attention. Ken

In the case of anglo concertinas, some of the notes are necessarily under your palms and they sound different to me than the ones that don't have my hands in the way. Ken

Policing a thread to ensure it contains only posted recordings and nothing requires a significant effort from your administrators. The only "administrative precaution" I can come up with is for Paul and me to moderate and approve every single post in that thread after an unknown and variable delay. My guess is some people will avoid such a process and start their own thread, as they are welcome to do. Another approach any one member could curate themselves (feel free!) would be to follow the model of the "Current makes of concertina" thread: Edit current links to each recording into the first post and let everyone add posts to the thread as they wish. That is how a community like this tends to function - people read/hear something and immediately think of, and want to post, a response. We're happy to have them do so. Ken

So sorry to hear this. When I visited Australia in 2006, Chris G. arranged for me to visit Richard up in the Blue Mountains - a spectacular setting. It was a great experience and his knowledge of the instrument was fascinating. My impression is that he was a bridge from the old days to the modern era of the concertina in Australia. Ken

There is another thread on this very topic here. Good luck. The upgrade option is a good one; and "riding a bicycle before you get your first car" isn't all bad. While a 20-vintage may limit what you can play, a Rochelle or Wren will too, in another way. I didn't find missing a few notes on my Italian 20b the first two years was a handicap; there were plenty of other things to master anyway. And while you can't do every melody, you can do partial chords (D, A, B, etc.) on a C/G 20b - I have songs I still accompany that way, and that was good early training for me also. Ken

To all, The way to promote gentler language is to quit posting in this thread and instead open a new one (with a nicer title) if there are things worthy of discussion. Ken

Years ago, in some other thread here IIRC, someone called our current era (since approx. the 1990s) a "silver age" where the original golden age was late 19th century up to the 1920s (when we had Wheatstone, Crabb, Jeffries, and yes, Lachenal). Ken

Why not write directly to Dana at Kensington? He'll know better than anyone how to treat/retreat the bellows he made on your instrument. I know he'd be happy to do it. Ken