StuartEstell

Personally, I've only met a couple of anglos with 8 folds and a couple with 10. Not something I'd want myself.

Les, I think I read on another thread that you were looking to play Irish music -- is that right? If so you might find 5-fold bellows just about OK-ish but as the others say I'd personally look for 6 as a minimum. If you then diversified and wanted to play a more "English" style as well, with fistfuls of chords, a 5-fold bellows would have the potential to be an ongoing source of frustration. My G/D has 7 which I think offers a good balance between lung capacity and ease of handling -- really big bellows (8+) can feel a bit unwieldy on anglos in my experience. The C/G I sold recently had 6 and I used to have to plan bellows reversals quite carefully during songs/tunes in F, for example.

And if you're happy with your Morse English, you might want to look at a second-hand example of one of Andrew Norman's anglos. They're immensely playable -- I recently sold my C/G in order to assist with funding a Bb/F but still have a G/D Norman which is my Morris-tunes box. As has already been said, it's very subjective, and all of the makers of melodeon-reeded concertinas, in my experience, make good instruments.

Great -- will look forward to hearing some of it. I enjoyed your stuff recorded on anglo.

There's nothing wrong with a good thousand-yard stare!

Good luck selling the anglo, Robert, and welcome to the dark side

I'm wary of wading into the muddy waters of acoustics as I don't really understand it all that well. So a qualified "yes", in the hopes that someone else will answer your question with greater authority

Also, consider using a different note -- you could use a drone note higher up the instrument, i.e. above the melody, rather than below it, so that the drone note is not as strong and obliterative... Another trick is to play the tune the first time without the drone, and then introduce it the second time. The ear will fill in the blanks!

Thanks Randy, I enjoyed this. If you carry on down the Ellington path, could I request a tune or two from the "Money Jungle" LP he did with Mingus and Max Roach?

These consecutive posts are making it look as though I've been busy -- I haven't This is another recording from earlier in the year - one of the best of the ballads that end with the true lovers' knot, for my money. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/lady-margaret-and-sweet-william

Another from the same batch of recordings as The Prickleye Bush. As I've written in the SoundCloud blurb, this performance came out strangely jolly https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/oh-dear-rue-the-day

Don -- thanks for listening. I played a lot of this in the overlap between the two sides, which isn't huge on my Jeff duet; the overlap is just a minor 7th from middle C to the Bb above. I was holding down an open fifth D and A (above middle C) in the left hand as well as whatever bass notes presented themselves with the remaining fingers. Then it was simple 1-4-5 harmony in the right hand, with bits of the melody as well. I confess it wasn't an arrangement I thought a great deal about -- it's one of those songs I tend to treat fairly improvisationally.

Here's a recording of The Prickleye Bush / The Maid Freed from the Gallows I made a little while ago, learned (loosely) from Nic Jones's version. https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/the-prickleye-bush

Roger -- the more confident you get as a player, the less significant those layout variations will feel, and the quicker you'll adapt. A good Jeffries would certainly be worth the inconvenience of relearning some fingerings.

Excellent news Lakeman -- there's nothing like the sound of those reeds, and in a duet box they're particularly great I think. But then as a Jeffries (system) duet player I may be biased.

I last played this song in public at Concertinas at Witney in about 2006 -- but I've been thinking about Syd Barrett, the original leader of Pink Floyd, quite a bit lately. It's 40 years since he turned up unannounced at the Floyd's recording sessions for Wish You Were Here, one of a series of LPs of which he was a large part of the subject matter. Anyway, I dug it out of the recesses of my memory as it seemed a good time to revisit it -- it's such a desperate, yet desperately beautiful song. Those of you who prefer a less droney approach may not find much to enjoy here https://soundcloud.com/lachenaliamusic/dark-globe

It makes it difficult to play a brass band part

I'm an ex-brass player, Jim - the really remote keys are flat, not sharp

Indeed so! Which on that basis would make an Ab/Eb a Db instrument. Yum.

Bump! Still looking for a 44+ button Bb/F in the UK...

I played with Kora player Dan Wilkins in a Finals recital performance of a mutual friends' composition some years back. Dan's a fabulous musician: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Nr7WaJWgc At one rehearsal I asked if I could have a go on his kora, and yes, there are similarities to the middle two columns of buttons on the English concertina in the alternation of the hands up the major scale. I was no more successful at playing kora than I ever have been at playing EC

I'm very keen on Funkbox -- a set of vintage drum machines, including LinnDrum, Roland CR78/707/808/909 Rebirth -- better on iPad than iPhone. 2 Roland 303s, an 808 and a 909 Animoog -- a full blown software Moog synthesiser iTablaPro -- brilliant tanpura drones, and very nicely sampled tabla patterns Korg iElectribe -- sequencer/ software synth/drum machine thingy. Classic squelchy synth noises, emulated valve overdrive

See you in Malvern!

Hello there - yes, still looking for a 44+, in the UK so I can try it...

Bump... still looking