TomB-R

Bob Tedrow's here http://hmi.homewood.net/twitterzephyr/zephyr8/ Is that what you mean, or are we talking about tunes in 6:8 ! Tom

A patent does nothing unless the owner takes, or successfully threatens, legal action, (as Chris said.) (But not "prosecution" technically, since it's a civil, not criminal, law matter. Sorry!) It may be that although registered, Wheatstone were too slow with their patent so it wouldn't actually have stood up in court. What was "patent" about Lachenals? Tom

Okay, so matters of religion (and politics) should be kept off forums like this, but even if this book is legally out of copyright can I say don't forget the old Sally Army? (Particularly if you learn anything from their old book.) You may not agree with (or you may strongly disagree with) their religious stance, but they do a great job of helping people who no-one else would want to help or to have anything to do with. Their international website is at http://www.salvationarmy.org Tom

Over at www.thesession.org members can only start one new discussion per day. Is it possible to restrict the number of people a member here can send PMs to per day? Many thanks to all those who keep these forums clean for their intended purpose. Tom

Would that be nearer a dealer price rather than an Ebay auction starting price? More generally, will the auction get up a head of steam from that starting point? Everyone dislikes reserves but if the initial price is too high potential buyers don't get the security of knowing that other people are interested at that sort of money. If you have to go too far out on a limb, the first bid may not happen. It's nice when making a first bid to think "well, I may be taking a bit of a risk, but I'd be pleased to get it for that."

Do you play any other instruments Cruachan? (It makes a difference to your expectations!) On a forum like this one tends to get advice saying, "don't waste your money on something cheap," or "you really need...." I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's important to deal with what's possible. I think it's wonderful when one comes across battered old instruments with loads of signs of repair, use, damage, and repair. Maybe they were rubbish, but someone cared about them enough to want to keep playing. To my mind, the important thing is to get playing, (particularly if you're not already playing another instrument.) If you have a nice concertina to play, and are a decent player, you'll pick up a cheapy and may think, "good grief, that's terrible!" Someone who is just starting doesn't have the skills to know that. In the first instance it's great to press one button and get a note, and then change something and get a different note. If your preference is Anglo get something that'll start showing you where the pushes and pulls are. I've got a fairly dreadful old wooden Hohner 20 button CSO (concertina shaped object.) The buttons stick and it's pretty dreadful in every way, but I still enjoy getting a tune out of it. Recently I played a more modern one that a friend had bought before heading towards English concertina. It was a lot better. Mrs Crotty (look her up if you don't know) got a cheap German concertina from the local general store and went on from there..... Start playing!

Good stuff Mark and fair play to you. Tom

Okay it's 21 buttons rather than 12, but the Traveller from Marcus Music looks a neat little thing. 5" across the flats. http://www.marcusmusic.co.uk/concertinas.html#newmodels

The USA has some very good Morris sides, but don't tell them I said so. I don't know about California in particular, and I can't help feeling that Morris danced by bronzed fit people with big hair and perfect teeth would just look soooo wrong. Just did a Google search: http://www.henrick.com/pennyroyal/Contacts.htm http://www.berkeley-morris.org/ http://www.moretonbayfig.org/ And although the link was boken, I found reference to the amusingly named "Faultline Morris". There's White Rat from San Francisco. http://www.whiteratsmorris.org/ When they danced at Graham's sixtieth in Winchester a few years back, I don't think other sides realised they were dancing with "the world's first queer/pervert/leather Morris team," (or so the website claims.) Tom

'cos even if you forget, the metal won't! Tom Magnetic Memory??? D Tiny rings on a lattice of wires......? Ah the days of REAL computing. (Before my time actually. I came in at about the time of 7" floppy disks and 16k of ram.) Tom

There are a few seconds of John Williams playing a somewhat similar concertina in the preview clip from his teaching video here, http://www.concertina.net/learning.html#williamsvideo

'cos even if you forget, the metal won't! Tom

Good replies folks. It's a pleasure to hear people saying, (quite rightly, I think, in this context) go for it, learn what it can give you, have fun, etc. rather than negative comments and the "if you can't spend £1000/$1500 you're just wasting your time" type replies that you get all too often in internet discussions. Tom

I'm very sorry to hear that Peter, and a joky post wouldn't be appropriate, but any chance that this will give you a bit more time than usual? With a bit of ingenuity, and maybe the odd compromise, a project like this could be done with extremely low material and tool costs....... Tom Edit: Just in case hexagonal mitreing seems a bit tricky, how about http://hmi.homewood.net/square/

Yes, these are an approximation. You can make it as complicated as you like. Obviously the button moves in an approximately straight line, but the end of the lever is moving in an arc..... How much play is one going to allow for due to compression of the bushing at the button end of the lever? Given the statement of the question in terms of measurements to the nearest mm or so, I'd have thought this method would be close enough. Perhaps I'm just hopelessly imprecise

Just restating Tony's answer as a calculator-friendly decimal rather than a fraction, the proportion of the distance from button to pad is :- proportion button to pivot = button press / (button press + pad lift)

Well played, (and sung) Steven. Intriguing one-handed playing! Don't want to be Mr Grumpy, but it does bug a lot of people quite considerably when "tunes" "instrumentals" etc are referred to as "songs." Songs involve singing, and I've never yet heard words from an Anglo! All the best Tom

Searching past sales at www.bonhams.com will show several results in their London sale on 11 March.

Most of my making experience is on violin family instruments, and on the relevant forums you quite often get people saying, "I'll do the first one with cheap wood" etc. I think this is a pity because there is generally so much work involved in making an instrument the "time investment" far outweighs the materials cost, so it's a shame to cripple the result from the start. Similarly, there's so much work goes into any concertina, the saving from reducing the number of keys is pretty small in the overall scheme of things. (Think of all the work that is the same for anything from 10 to 56 keys!) I think it's also partly a matter of temperament. If you're a slow and methodical worker, taking no step until you're very sure about it, and meticulous along the way, why not try to build something you'd really like as your first effort. On the other hand if you prefer to "go for it" and learn by actually making the mistakes, then it might be worth going for a minimal "proof of concept" type thing with the recognition that it's just a stepping stone, and if you can knock a few tunes out of it, then that's as good as it gets. Either way, best of luck. Tom

The one reed both ways concept is interesting, but shouldn't this be taken to another thread, Peter's is about minimal Anglo layout etc. Edit: And the same reed both ways concept will never work for an Anglo! Tom