Fergus_fiddler

Sorry, how can I cancel my account? Thanks.

It's not racist. It's a fact. Concertina Connection's instruments are made in China under Wim Wakker's especifications & control. My first 'tina was a Rochelle and I've not complain at all - for the price I paid, of course -. On the other hand, chinese clones with 20 and 30 keys are crap. So, please; don't follow the 'racist, fascist' path. It's overused & boring. Even if they were made by martians, I'll say they're awful.

Truth hurts when it's not politically correct. And oriental people only know to manufacture quality native things. Everything else is crap - with the exception of japanese and, to some extent, korean -.

Hi, Greg, Do you think the embossing could be made on an already made 'tina? It's because Suttner puts bellows papers on his instruments, but no gold embossing, And I was thinking about to talk to some bookbinders I know here, in Madrid. Thanks! Fer

Here you are: http://www.suttnerconcertinas.com/ Without waiting, it's going to be a bit more difficult...

Wow, how many EC players around! Thinking a bit about the subject, that generalization could have its origin in the fact that EC was originally a 'posh' instrument, meanwhile the anglo was more likely played by peasants. Just an idea!

I think I readed in this forum or elsewere that, generally speaking, people who plays by ear feels usually more comfy at the anglo; while the 'dots readers' feel better with the english. This works for me, because although I can read music am very lazy and slow to, and only look at the score when unable to learn something by hearing Cheers, Fer

I'm much better at picking up tunes by ear on fiddle than on concertina, too. But I suspect has nothing to do with the distance of the instrument to your ear: I think that the fact that you have to tune the notes on fiddle, when concertina is already tuned, helps to develop your ear. And the choices of notes on fiddle are more limited than on anglo, and somehow more logical. OTOH, I played fiddle for 15 years, and if not knowing at the beginning where the 'tina notes where, the intervals between the notes of a tune were already deeply rooted in my memory. Just my humble experience. Cheers, Fer

When I began to play on stages I had 3 or 4 pints of Guinness before playing; the fear went but is not a very advisable method ... What really helped me to get rid of the stage fright was busking. After hundreds of people passing in front of you, nothing scares you anymore at least, on a stage! -. Cheers, Fer

I feel a lot of pressure on sessions that usually doesn't happe a my home's kitchen... I think Irish music ha s gone mad in last years & I'm not into wild sessions anymore, too much hormones to my taste. So getting in my forties only go to one session of old farts, whose younger old fart is me A lot more joy in playing at a steady - not slow, mind you - pace with a strong rythm. Actually, tunes seem to be played faster than they really are... Cheers, Fer

Sell your english & buy an anglo No, seriously; playing by ear is like any other skill: you can have good qualities but it needs a lot of practice. Besides, if you play mostly one style of music - say, irish . you'll find a lot of phrasing similar in several tunes. And your fingers have memory, they'll know were to go - even sometimes amazing yourself! -.

Judging by the look on her face, I suspect she's doing it because she enjoys it. Or she could be a damn good actress too. Judging by the look of her face, too.

Jim, funny you quote all my post but the Just MHO line. It seems it has to be a forum of lads patting each others in the back. Am I allowed to desagree, please? I was only talking about MY experience & people I know around me. The thing I most dislike about new materials is that they're suposedly 'enviromental friendly'. That's b*ll*cks to me. Indeed, instrument makers make the most of the materials they use. Furniture and paper industry are a lot more damaging for forests. So, the label 'enviromental friendly' is a highly hypocritical thing to me. And sorry, I wouldn't touch one of those plastic fiddles even with a blarge pole. Cheers, Fer PS: Coming back to the begining of the thread, I think that approach to build concertinas is to try to re-invent the wheel. The point is, if something works fine, why to change it?

Wonderful, but only if she is playing because she wants to and is not under any pressure. I hate when you see vids of young people in competitions totally dissapointed & wasting their childhoods.

Don't believe any fiddler - me included - would spend $5,539.00 in that thing if they could spend that money in a real, wooden fiddle. Some friends of mine developed some time ago the vpipes, sampled - not midi - electronic uilleann pipes, with drones, changing pitch... after an advice from Paddy Keenan they're going to develop regulators, too. Well, most pipers regard them as a beatiful toy, useful for to play with headphones, but not a real stage instrument... The point is, I know a carbon fiber fiddle is a real - no electronic - instrument, but is the same that about pipers above: the trad. musicians are found of the real vintage 'noble' materials: wood, brass, ivory, german silver... Is difficult to try to convince any of them to play a 'plastic' thing...And even more if we take into account the amount of time a trad. muso spends 'living in the past'... Just MHO. Cheers, Fer

Yes, but: How durable are these going to be? The old solid metal Jeffries still are among us. I wouldn't like to sound conservative, but I don't trust new materials, I'm afraid they're going to fall apart in any moment... Cheers, Fer

Much obliged

Is precisely because of that I called my group in Facebook 'Concertina in Spain' and not, as one of the lads suggested 'Iberian Concertina'... Nothing against them, but I wouldn't like to see the group invaded by melodeons Well, it seems I'm not alone... Thanks, it's a real relief!

So, I decided to record something on video & upload it. I totally panic when recording myself, so please forgive the mistakes! First one, an irish reel - The Star of Munster - : C & C welcome - don't be cruel, please -. Cheers, Fer

Have you got an URL for the program, please? There're quite a few of them around with that name. Ta'!

I don't understand what you mean. Levers and buttons are a lot more easy to produce in the traditional way, - turning or tooling - and for the fretwork, well; laser routers are already cutting perfect fretworks. I never played a Jeffries - unfortunately - but suspect that the really unique parts of the instrument are the reeds, and don't see how could they be replicated with a 3D printer. Just my point of view, but to me seems like to kill mosquitoes with a cannon. Cheers, Fer

To people who ignores what a concertina is and asking why you don't get a real instrument, is enough to tell them how much cash a decent instrument is worth. Is even worse with bloody lads at the session: 'Oh, boy; first you learned fiddle, now concertina. When are you going to play a non-girlie instrument?'. Charming... Of course, this comments almost invariably come from uilleann pipers/guitar players/banjoists who seem to have lots of testosteron and be real macho men.. Funnily enough, I only get some acknowledgements from melodeon and piano accordion players, who regard the anglos as 'devilish instruments' and 'difficult as hell to learn'... Cheers, Fer

...or more likely, 'Concertina en España'. This is a new group in Facebook created by and for spaniards - and some portuguese - lads, for to discuss everything about tinas. At the moment we are only 8, 7 anglos and 1 english - of course - but anyone is welcome. It's in spanish, so if you can speak it we are waiting for you! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1654306848367&oid=175242589153013#!/home.php?sk=group_175242589153013&ap=1 All the best, Fer

¿Conditions & price, please? Cheers, Fer

Spanish - or Castilian, for to be more precise - Galician and Catalonian share the same origin from latin. Nobody could tell were the Euskera came from, so traditionally they put it with finnish and hungarian in the 'odd languajes drawer'. But not too many years ago were discovered some clay pieces in an archeological digging & they discovered they were iberian - pre roman writing - and translated them. It seems that is very close to euskera. So, would be a fine irony if it was the most spanish of all lenguajes - if you know the basque country issue -. The 'trikitixa' word is not totally accurate. The real name for the instrument is 'akordeoiak', and it's a D/G or C/F melodeon with 12 unisonoric basses. The fact - ver few known, and often mistaken - is that 'trikitixa' is the ensmble of melodeon and tambourine. Very good tune, Fer. Not too bad for an english