Dave Prebble

Hi all I dearly long to try the British Museum Library Reading room Dave

Hello to everyone, glad and relieved to be back ! I’m Pleased to say that surgery seems to have been successful and I am now back home feeling suitably ‘gutted’ but improving fast. I’ve lost so much weight I have to keep grabbing the furniture to stop myself from floating away – no bad thing that as I weighed as much as Pavarotti before I got ill so as Alan suggested there is still a sylphlike 17 stone of the old me left. My deepest thanks for all your prayers, kind thoughts and messages – I am both touched and not a little embarrassed by all the fuss – starting this thread will cost Pete Dickey a pint or two I can assure you! On a practical note, I fully intend to take you all up on the free ale offers at the earliest possible opportunity - well, I did say I was getting back to normal ! I had expected to have to be ‘teetotal’ for life after my illness but I have just had the sterling news from my surgeon that, since my pancreatitus was not caused by degeneration from alcohol (now how ever did I get away with that ??) but in fact the pancreas burst due to a ‘mechanical cause' – a gallstone blockage, I can go back on the ‘pop’ as soon as I feel well enough ….. Oh! Happy news indeed!! Definitely back on the mend now and playing my concertina for short periods albeit with a peculiar vibrato effect to every tune – now why can’t I do that when I want to ?? Could take quite a while to get up to strength, probably months rather than weeks. At the moment I couldn’t rip my way out of a wet paper bag; still…one step at a time….. I really hope to get over to Mrs Crotty’s if well enough but the rush and bustle of Willie Clancy Week will have to wait another year I fear. Wherever and whenever, I really look forward to once more being in your company, catching up and knocking out a few of the 'good old tunes' – the sooner the better. I will write to you all as I dig my way through 14 weeks worth of emails !! Special thanks to Pete Dickey and Mark Davies who both came to see me in hospital regularly, kept me up with all the gossip and supplied with plenty of concertina music to spur me on. What Pete is too gallant to mention is that, when I collapsed at the session on boxing day, it was he who realised how serious things were, ‘scooped me up’ and whisked me off to hospital, in the nick of time I might add. Any longer and I would not have been sat here typing this. My heartfelt thanks to Pete, Mark and to you all. Dave

Hi, If you happen to be near a Maplins shop, they stock them too but give Old Nick a try first. Do be careful with the 'dust'. The tiny little bits of glass fibre are unpleasant enough to the skin when you have wiped the bench clear with the side of your hand so The Lord only knows what they would do in the lungs. I simply use use a new damp tissue to wipe up the dust at regular intervals and bin the used one immediately. Please don't try sounding the reed with your mouth. In the context of this post, I'm thinking of the dust, but there are other reasons too such as condensation forming on the steel reeds and leading to corrosion and the distinct possibility of inadvertantly releasing the reed and choking to death in C# Be lucky Dave

Eh Up all. I only have a Christian name and a Surname. I'm beginning to develop an inferiority complex I'll add my wish to Ken's....... I would be great if everyone would review their membership details and add a little more information about themselves, their interests and general location. Please give it some thought. I am aware that there are some folk with genuine reasons for assuming a 'screen name' but I feel that in a really friendly forum such as this, many more folk could consider using their real names. I really feel that it make for more personal and friendly exchanges. I think the use of screen names only really became an issue when we changed over from the old forum. A proportion of the existing members re-registered on the new forum with screen names and incoming new members simply followed suit. There was, at the time, certainly a large degree of mistrust of the new system which may have contributed to the situation and I also suspect that many of these re-registrations were 'in error'. I have a strong feeling that, given a 'hassle free' opportunity, quite a few would chose to change back to real names. I'm sure there must be a way of doing this somewhere in the software without losing 'credit ratings', previous posts and the like and I would have thought that a change from a 'screen name' to a 'real name' would be acceptable to the moderators. (as if they havn't got enough work to do to keep us all happy without this ) I may live in hope though I die in despair.... Regards Dave

I'm sure it's really just a Bernoulli-Doppler effect. Jim, To be sure is not good I think. These matters must be prooved ! Be lucky Dave

Hi to Alan and Chris, Despite prolonged effort and not a little guile, I was unable to raise the temperature of the Macclesfield canal to boiling point, so the original series of experiments was sadly abandoned. Notwithstanding the current resurgence in interest, there appears to be a shortage of willing 'guinea pigs' amongst concertina owners. Being reluctant to give up the crusade for knowledge, I now intend to conduct the next series of experiments by boiling accordions in waters of varying salinity. It will also be interesting to determine whether the 'screams' often reported to occur at the moment of immersion, emanate from the accordion itself or are in fact screams of delight from onlooking concertina players. Be lucky Dave

Hi Geoff, Are they this colour 'in the wild' or do they turn red when boiled in salt water ?? Be lucky Dave

Eh Up Bill, all I can suggest is that you stick to 'common ale' and give up drinking 'stingo' Regards Dave

Quote Mark :- <A friend of mine always says I look as if I am chewing a wasp when I play!> Hi Mark Sooner that than hear that it sounds like you are chewing a wasp..... Cheers Dave PS I would love to see a picture of Harry Litherland playing. Now there is a real 'concertina face'. His normally cheery expression totally changes as his mouth inverts completely to form an upsidedown crescent. Any piccy's from BTMW?? D

Hi Ross, Not sure where you are from.....member profile is a little 'sparse' For anyone in the UK you could try:- GPS AGENCIES SUPPLIER OF IVORY SUBSTITUTES ETC. Material is cast polyester and can be stained by soaking in tannic acid or dyed with Dylon dyes Round rods 1.5m long 20mm – 75mm Rectangular bars 1.5m long 25 x 35mm, 33 x 45mm, 45 x 75 mm Sheets 40cm x 48cm x 3.5mm thick in following finishes: Grained ivory, White & Oyster Dark Abalone Mother of Pearl Bone Horn and tortoiseshell in rod, bar and sheet form Units 3 and 3A Hambrook Business Centre Chichester West Sussex PO18 8XP Tel (01243) 574444 If you have one in the area, try an organ repairer/restorer Old organ stops were often Ivory; or perhaps chose a cheaper and easier to obtain substitute such as staghorn. You will earn your crust for the day cutting and shaping that! Cheers Dave

Edited to remove a comment no longer relevant to this thread Dave

Fella goes into a bar and says to the barman...I've got a new Banjo joke... wanna hear it?? Barman stands up off his stool (all 6' 8" of him) and says " Have a care Buddy... I play a banjo.....and you see that bloke over there ( points to a 25 stone much scarred lump of Neanderthal gristle) he plays a Banjo too....... and see him over there, (a pockmarked weasel faced mafia type sharpening a cut throat razor) he plays a Banjo too". pause...... Well?? did you tell the Joke then?? What .......And have to explain it three times !! Dave PS Joke courtesy of Rob Murch..... A truly superb Banjo player...

Q. How do you put a sparkle in a Melodeon player's eye ?? A. Shine a torch in his ear Dave

QUOTE Stephen Chambers Sep 9 2004 <How about to rhyme with "Armalite" ? > Hi Steve Not many Lachenals have that level of fire power Dave

Hi Steve, Lachenalite - how would you pronounce that ?? Dave

Hi All, I should like to echo the vote of thanks proposed above and extend this to Mark's long suffering better half, Joan. In addition to the joy of meeting a lot of old friends, the sessions and events were all a great success and provided for me one astounding revelation....... A Banjo can actually be used (just how, I know not) as a musical instrument !! For that, my thanks to Rob Murch..What a superb player! Thanks to all who attended and made the event such a success and thanks again Mark & Joan I look forward in eager anticipation to more next year Dave

Hi Stuart & Dave, Thank you very much for your help Gentlemen. Stuart's suggestion works a treat. Though I am sure that the software suggested by Dave is OK, I am a little wary of download accelerators and since Stuarts suggestion seems to do the trick for me I shall pass for the time being. The last one I tried invited spyware, malware, spam, popups ........ in fact I think, everything short of the plague, into my computer and it took a hammer, chisel and blowtorch to un-install it! Thanks again for your help Dave

Hi to all. Living in a somewhat rural location I am unable to get a broadband connection and am stuck with a 56k Modem link for the foreseeable future. One most annoying aspect of this is encountered when trying to listen to music clips such as those generously shared by members of this forum. The modem is far too slow to play the tracks as a continuous stream and stops playing half a dozen of more times in a tune in order to buffer the next section. I would have thought that there would be some simple software package available that can download and buffer the whole file before starting to play it, thus resulting in an unbroken music stream. Does anyone out there know of such software or know of any other 'dodges' to achieve the same result ? Help and advice would be much appreciated Regards Dave

Hi Chris, Must be something in the water down your way ? Dave

Hi Lester, It shows 'reserve not met' on my screen so it looks like it did not sell at all. Dave

Hi Jim, After a little googling (I'm told they can't do you for it ....provided you don't touch ;-} , I found a link that works. (Ken... links page might need updating) http://www.hgmitchell.co.uk/ once on that page, click on Concertina then Anglo Concertina Chords. The original article by the 'Grand Master' himself is to be found at http://www.johnkirkpatrick.co.uk/wr_Anglo1.htm Hope this helps Dave

Good evening Gentlemen, At last Goran I think you really might be onto something useful here. The idea has real appeal to me and I just know it makes sense. You will certainly gain more 'converts' with this method than your proposals to date have attracted. Please be a real pioneer for the instrument and get these modifications carried out to both of your hands asap......Clearly well thought out, they seem 'just the ticket' to me and will doubtless improove your playing no end. Jim:.... If you're going to pick semantic nits, you should be aware of what they can hatch into.

Hi Goran, Perhaps you were not whipped enough as a child ? Dave

Hi Jim, Sorry to hear of your dilemma. This is clearly un-ergonomic Can you describe the handle design and how you gripped the instrument.... a video would perhaps be more instructive? Dave