Dave Prebble
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Posts posted by Dave Prebble
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Correct observation. the reed is sounded with the reed side down. the foam and your fingers plus positioning make the seal. it is more difficult to sound the longer reed sometimes, but it does work. eventually i would like to make the type that has been pictured here. some long winter.. wes.
Hi Dan,
The reed will only sound one way. For a good description of why this is check out this link:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/concertina%20reeds.htm
Cheers Dave
Beaten on the draw by tallship
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If I understand correctly what Wes describes, there would appear to be a fatal flaw in that, in order for a reed to sound, air has to be drawn through it from the tongue side, not blown through from underneath.
Now, ...a vacuum pump.....
I would stick to the bellows and plate - tried and tested
Cheers
Dave
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I would like to thank Mark and Joan for organising and hosting another super weekend and for arranging the good weather.
Geoff Crabb.
Hear, hear !!
Another great weekend of music enjoyed by all.
Even the sun shone on Bradfield
Very much looking forward to meeting up with everyone, again next year.
The Royal Hotel again hosted some unbelievable concertina music. The sheer number and quality of instruments assembled there and the huge range in playing styles was nothing short of a delight. That so much can be accomplished with the instrument continues to astonish me !
Thanks again to Mark and Joan for all their hard work and to everyone who came and helped to make it such a relaxed easy-going fun weekend.
Regards
Dave
PS A whole new experience for me was waking up at Bradfield without a hangover ....
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Hi Mark,
glad to hear you have remembered to order fine weather this year.
I have heard strange things go on up in them hills and am a little concerned.
Are clothes optional ?
Dave
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An industrial ratchet strap should do the trick provided someone will help by holding the box still as you crank up the lever.
On the question of 12 sided bellows for an anglo, the words chocolate tea pot come to mind.
The more sides you have to a set of bellows, the weaker and less stable they come. Certainly for any energetic playing in the English chordal style, stick to six sides. If I played a 12 sided Anglo with my usual gusto, the bellows would implode in about five minutes. The only real excuse for 12 sides on an Anglo would be to make it look fancy.... there is no practical advantage.
Regards
Dave
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My small collection of different diameter knitting needles have raised the odd eyebrow from customers.
Useful for gently reaming and shaping end bushings.
MC
For accordion tuning :- 2 vials of Morphine, 1 set hi attenuation earplugs and a 4 1/2" Angle grinder
Malc - For the same job, I use the tapered handles of artists paint brushes to good effect.
A 2" stub of a candle and a cigarette lighter- great for lubricating screws and endbolts - just drag the thread across the candle so it picks up a little wax and then pass it through the lighter flame. Melts instantly and gives a thin but effective coating to the whole thread
A selection of 2.5ml syringes c/w blunted needles, each filled with a different glue. Great for applying pinhead sized dabs of glue with great accuracy.
A 3" Cobbler's awl, set in a small turned wood handle. Kept ultra sharp, this is so much easier than tweezers for picking up tiny valves, washers and the like and leaves no visible mark but it will pass right through your hand with minimal effort so keep a cork on the end when not on use.
A 12" x 2 " section of leather belt stuck to a strip of wood. Dressed with metal polish this makes a great hone for keeping the keenest mirror finish cutting edges on scalpel blades, knives etc. If it ain't sharp enough to provide a good dry shave... then it's blunt !
Dave
(ps not kiddin about the morphine
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This is all getting rather serious !
International mono-cycling concertinists association ...hmmmmmmm we'd have the drug testers sniffing round in a trice !
mind you, they will have to replace the Tour de France with something
Dave
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I didn't realize that concertina playing was such an exclusive thing. Waiting to be black balled now.
Alan
Well, if you're black balled playing the concertina----I'm pretty sure you're not doing it correctly!
Don't worry, it comes off with methylated spirit
D
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Orf-Torpic, I know, but I think he's referring to the even-more-evil Starbuckian Empire...
I love the taste of their coffee...but not their tactics...
For those that haven't seen one yet, they keep opening Starbuxes directly across the street from the locally grown, Mom and Pop coffee shops. They are coming...We cannot get out...
They won't get me Pal.
The next Starbuck (whatever that is) Latte, Big Mac or KFC will be my first !!
I'll stick to a Pie and a Pint at the Royal.
JUST SAY NO !!
Dave
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I have just had a message telling me I am the successful bidder on Ebay for this Michael Hibbert LP. What surprised me was that I was the only bidder. I now eagerly await delivery.
- John Wild
Excellent album, John. Now all you need is a Jeffries Duet........
Regards,
Peter.
....or why not come up to Bradfield and hear him play
Dave
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Which makes it a Latke.Boxty is an irish potato scone .. ie grated and/or mashed potato, mixed maybe with some flour and milk (sour milk I expect for being authentic) and griddle cooked.Hmm. Is it kosher to have a latte with a latke?
Well, since Latte is a creation of certain Imperialist entity, reaching it's tentacles all over the world, and employing cheap labor in it's never ending lust for more money and power, it's product is drenched in Proletariat's blood and sweat.
Untill this Imperialist entity drains the blood out of it's Latte, it is not Kosher.
Didn't realise Latte was Russian
Dave
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Gosh! You're right about the price, but I suppose if you want the quality ...
Chris
Just the Biscuit !
Dave
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Hi Pip
If you want a 30 key C/G and you want to learn to restore and tune concertinas then you have two objectives that are not completely compatible. Learning to do tuning and restoration work is a process of trial and error, much better to make the errors on a cheap 20 key Lachenal than to risk a better quality, more expensive instrument. My suggestion is this: put 10% or so of your kitty into buying an old 20 key anglo and develop your restoration and tuning skills on that. At the same time you can continue searching for your nice £500 30 key anglo.
I have known Pip all his life and am most glad he is now tuning back more towards the concertina. I well remember him with his first concertina - it was nearly as big as him
Between you and me, I'm sure he will not go short of sound practical advice for his first restoration project.
Cheers
Dave.
PS Pip, if he's got two at that price, save one for me
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Alright lads and lassies, some-time lurker, first-time poster, just joined the forum and thought I'd say hello.
Welcome to the madhouse, Aogan
Feel free to tell us more about yourself... or we will start rumours...
Regards
Dave
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...I cannot proove all of the following. The word bellows appears to originate from the (anglo-saxon) german word "Balg" (this also counts for bag and belly). Both bellows and balg refer to the body (in germany "balg" is originally referring to the belly and in english "bellows" to the lungs). While most of the peoples in the middle ages that the same number of lungs as I have (two), the expression is likely to have evolved to have a pair of bellows. This has been used for the bellows for the fire place, where the pair of bellows took over the function of the lungs (just as the bellows for a bagpipe did). Later peoples forgot the original meaning of the pair of bellows as the lungs, classifying and using it singular. Anyone from Oxford who can correct me?
My copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary indicates that in English "bag" doesn't derive from the same earlier word(s) as"bellows", and that "bellows" derives from a two-word expression that meant "blowing bag". Yours is a good story, though, and without the details of intermediate evolutionary stages, neither scenario seems obvious to me.
The expression 'Pair of Bellows' derives from the fact that, in their earliest form, they were a two handled tool and, in their later and larger form, that they were just that, a pair of bellows which were separated by a driven central dividing board and designed to act on both the up and down stroke. I used to be the 'engine' for just such a set when, as young chap, I worked for a farrier.
Other than in official or formal written descriptions, such as wills, manifests bills of sale and the like, in spoken English, the whole set up has most likely for centuries past just been referred to as 'the bellows' for short .... we certainly did. This word usage would have carried over quite naturally as a singular noun to describe a similar looking device fitted to a concertina. 'Half a pair of bellows' is just a little unwieldy don't you think?
Peter,
You not seriously suggesting that they speak English in America are you ???
I quite agree with you. Evolution of the language is of course unstoppable. We speak far more than we write and certainly don't check on grammar and spelling before we open our mouths. As you correctly point out sheer weight of numbers will change language ... 'twas ever thus'.
A handful of folks in this forum proposing, to suit their own logic, that the word bellow(s) should be changed one way or the other would hardly qualify as an overwhelming change in general usage. If the case were any different I would ask the OED to settle the matter by changing the word bellows to 'windybags' ....... or should that be 'windybag' ???
Regards
Dave
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To "Bellow" in English is to let out a load roar or shout as load as you can,or the bellow of a bull or cow.
Fire bellows or Blacksmiths bellows have as far as I know always had the s on the end.
Al
Indeed so Alan!
Time for me to bellow my reply !
Bellows are bellows, bellows folds are bellows folds and are always counted by the peaks and, since we were never invaded by Russia, ever will it remain so.
I prefer to trust my meagre 50 or so years of speaking the language and the hundreds of years of study of both historical and current English usage upon which the Oxford Dictionary is based.
What was good enough for the Englishmen of Chaucer's day and before, is good enough for me.
(....from stage right - distant strains of 'There'll always be an England' are heard on solo concertina .....)
Regards
Dave
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Alan,
I think the depth of the bellows folds is also a factor.
The generous valley and peak of a Jeffries 6 fold can supply a lot more air than the typical Lachenal bellows even if the Lachenal had 8 folds.
Brian Peters just visited our area. I can see how his 7 fold instrument might help with his chords and accompaniment. His instrument is a Peerless by Crabb and has robust bellows like a Jeffries.
I had an eight fold Wheatstone from the 1950s that undoubtably came via South Africa. The bellows were not floppy. I always felt that the Irish music I try to play worked best if I stayed within half the possible bellows extension.
Greg
Hi Greg,
Depth of bellows most certainly is an important factor. I remember Geoff Crabb saying something like 1/8" deeper folds will give you the same extra air as would an extra fold.
Having nothing better to do one afternoon, I did all the calculations and this proves to be just about 'spot on'.
It is not the additional air trapped by the deeper folds themselves that makes the main difference, but the extra length (thus swept volume) of the main hexagonal core at the bellows centre, which is significantly extended by the deeper folds.
ie Deep fold bellows open quite a bit further.
I always used to maintain that 6 folds were sufficient for me, and that is certainly the case for chordal dance music where there is a lot of emphasis on snappy rhythm generated in large part by bellows reversals.
These days I find myself mellowing somewhat, experimenting far more with phrasing and playing more airs and melodies where I will play long passages on either push or pull. I am thus resolved to make set of seven folds for my main squeeze, a G/D Jeffries..... one fine day....when I have nothing else to do
Once you get used to them, and provided that the bellows are made well, there should be no less control over 7 fold, as opposed to 6 fold, bellows.
Regards
Dave
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Well if it's trouble you're looking for, how about the correct spelling: Jeffries or Jefferies?
Chris
There lies the difference between the Chelsea 'Jeffries' and the Mile End Road 'Jefferies'
Dave
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OK, while we're at it, the correct pronunciation of Lachenal, please!
Don't you start Clappo - or there'll be trouble.... Mark my words!!
Correct pronounciation is 'Latchbox' or 'Lasher'
Dave
PS remember to mark 'em 10 out of 10
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hi peter the dobro question would be no,alan is an anglo concertina player.
will look forward to seeing you on sunday night
bryan.h
Eh Up trooper,
Sorry but I'll not be able to make it down this year.... too busy looking after my humungous rebellious belly
Play a few for me and sup my share of ale
Prebs
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Hi Stephen,
I would be grateful if you could also contact me by PM on another matter.
My emails and PMs have been bouncing too
Regards
Dave Prebble
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Hello everyone,
I spoke to Val this morning and passed on the kind thoughts and sentiments expressed by folks here on Cnet and she asked me to convey her thanks to you all.
The funeral is to be held this coming Thursday 3rd may at 12:00 am at St Lawrence's Church, North Wingfield near Chesterfield and all Pete's friends will be most welcome.
There will be a reception afterwards at a local hostelry (details to be finalised)
I include some location maps below for those not familiar with the area. Feel free to email me or send a PM if you need further information.
Regards
Dave Prebble
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A sad loss to this community and to all those who knew him.
I first met Pete when he came to cnet looking for an replacement endbolt. He brought along his english concertina and a new bolt was sorted out in 2 minutes flat. We spent the following 5 or 6 hours in the workshop playing tunes and talking concertinas. It was immediately clear to us both that we were true 'kindred spirits'
By the end of that day he was a confirmed anglo addict, determined to learn to play in the English chordal style and to get himself a Jeffries. The first ambition, he achieved with astonishing speed and never looked back. The second he managed within a year and his Jeffries remained his pride and joy to the last.
I count myself lucky indeed to have found a friend who became as close to me as a brother - I shall miss him deeply.
Pete was very brave in the face of adversity, bore his illness without complaint and wanted no fuss. When I saw him in hospital, he asked me to apologise to everyone for keeping things quiet, and to explain that he had very limited energy and was saving this for his family. He asked me to forward his thanks to folks for their e-mails and letters and for all the kindness, friendship, fun and music they have shared with him over the years.
Sadly I didn't get to see him again as I was rushed into hospital myself and have only just got out. I am so glad Pete made it home to spend his last days in the love and care of his family.
I will let folks know as soon as the funeral arrangements have been sorted out and I am sure we will be organising a musical wake in the near future.
My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Val and his children, Emma and Tom.
Dave
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I've used XETrade (www.xetrade.com) for international transactions to the UK and Australia, and have been satisfied with their service. I've found their service fees to be significantly less than those of the bank. They will let you do either a direct wire transfer or issue a bank draft to the recipient in the currency of your choice.
Cheapest way is to buy the currency in a travel agents (far more comtetitive than banks) and post cash in a recorded delivery signed for letter.
Clearly a higher degree of risk, but certainly the cheapest way and often quicker than the bank transfer/international money order route.
Dave P
Looking At The Keys?
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted
Far better to breakout of this before it becomes an ingrained habit.
Practice in a dark room - If you can't even see the concertina then you won't be watching your fingers - not even to sneak a quick peek.
Not such a brilliant idea for sight readers though ... then again it might break their habit of staring manically at those dotty tadpole thingies they have printed out in front of them
Regards
Dave