Steve Mansfield

We need another one, "No concertinas are left in this vehicle overnight"

I regularly play harmony/backing multi-note chords on my Morse baritone and, whilst it sometimes needs a bit of thinking about and planning, I can get a lot done before I start running out of air (and the occasional bellows reversal can be used to emphasise a beat or a word in the song. So yes more folds would always be useful, but the 6 folds of the Morse give a lot of air to play with.

I saw Tarren at Shrewsbury Festival last year and was immediately smitten with Sid's EC playing and the band as a whole. I particularly enjoy the stylistic way he'll provide accompaniment to a tune through repeated motifs, almost live loops, rather than a 'traditional' counter melody or chord pattern. He's fitted plates to the ends so that the buttons push in flush to the plate like a button accordion, seems to prefer that. He's good isn't he!

Have a listen to Simon Thoumire, Rob Harbron, Alistair Anderson, Lea Nicholson, or Danny Chapman. They all put a great deal of thought into the use of the bellows for expressiveness and punch, and the results are plain to hear. It's true that the EC design makes it easy to play legato, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing that the instrument is capable of.

Wrong. The Jackie button spacing and size is exactly the same as a Wheatstone.

I'm with the Scottish musician John McCusker, talking about folk music. "Every now and then they discover us and say we're cool, then they lose interest and move on to something else. Then a few years later they're back again ... and guess what! We're still here!" If we can pick up a few new practitioners and devotees through the latest media spin, or have a few more people appreciate the Morris, then great. The rest of you ... see you next time!

Wow that's excellent advice @AndyNT, top work. Sorry I've not seen this sooner, life has been getting in the way of the important stuff ...

Interested to know more about what chalameau you are playing, as there are several different instruments around with that name, from historically correct reconstructions to modern 'bung a single reed head on a cylindrical body' frankeninstruments ...

Hi https://thesession.org/tunes/7282 (setting 1) The Savage Hornpipe is a cracking tune, but all those arpeggios in the B part are (for me at least) a real stumbling block on English concertina; particularly the succession of upwards 5ths (B to f, G to d). Has anyone got any good fingering tips for that section? TIA

I'll put in a word for the English system here. The EC is ideally suited to the repertoire you're describing as you can play melody and chords, there's comparatively loads of choice of instrument, and there are certainly decent starter boxes within your budget.

If there's any other M400s out there once AndyNT has stocked up I'd be very interested. Preferably UK for postage reasons but any offers considered! I'm going to have to move off of Microvox at some point now they've stopped trading, but can't get my head around that atm...

Interesting stuff as I'm looking to move away from Microvox for EC (swapping between two boxes, Treble and baritone). What specific clip-on mics do people use / recommend?

Just as an update i did it for a couple of weeks, then put the reeds back in & adopted the Alistair Anderson method instead. Don’t know why really, just didn’t feel right ...

Thanks all. I shall go with the consensus and put the reeds somewhere safe 🙂

The only thing about my otherwise splendid Wheatstone treble EC is that there's no air button - I don't need it while playing, but closing the bellows up after tunes would be a benefit. So I was going to take out the pair of reeds on the very highest note, because I never ever use it and it's only really audible to dogs and bats. Are there any problems with that? Am I going to put strain on the pads or otherwise compromise the instrument? Obviously I will keep the reeds safe and slot them back in if I ever part with her. Any thoughts? TIA