Don Taylor

The new lower-priced mid-range models like the Minstrel are much closer to the more expensive (still accordion reeded) models like the Clover. Some cost reductions like having bought-in non-Wakker bellows (still leather) and what looks like stemless buttons, but otherwise very similar. I think that they use the same reeds and the same reed pan and action. They are not really like the beginner (eg. The Rochelle) models at all.

This is a suggestion/question completely out of left field: Is it feasible to adjust the reed plate rather than the reed itself in order to reduce the gap? Maybe by a little bit of thin glue or varnish, or very thin metalized tape on the end of the plate? I also recall reading somewhere that harmonica fettlers bevel or emboss their reed plates in order to improve response time: I have often wondered if embossing would cure leaky Lachenal reeds. Warning. I have not had my first cup of coffee this morning so these suggestions need to to be validated by someone who knows what they are talking about!

Noooooooo....

You could objectively test this notion using one of the many free tuning apps available for smart phones.

How about a large plastic poncho where your arms are inside the poncho. There are bike capes but if they are not big enough then maybe you could try the ponchos that are sold for riders of mobility scooters. There seems to be quite a selection on Amazon.co.uk. Anyyway, there can't be two Mary Humphreys in West Yorkshire who both play the concertina can there? This is completely off topic, but I sure hope that you do not switch to trombone or trumpet and that you continue to make wonderful, inspiring music on the concertina and banjo. Fortunately, the banjo does not figure too much in English ritual dance otherwise you would have an even bigger problem keeping it dry.

I usually take my music books to the local Staples store and get them to cut off the spine, punch holes and insert a plastic comb binding to replace the spine. Cheap and effective, the books stay open on a music stand.

Isel Alex is a very creative and innovative maker, perhaps you could ask him to design an adjustable hand rest that can be swiveled and locked between at least the two main angles used in Hayden concertinas. The simplest way to do this would be to design the scroll work so that two sets of screw holes could be provided and still look good whichever pair (parallel or slant) was in use. I can imagine more mechanically elaborate solutions. Personally I prefer parallel hand rests and I do use my pinkie fingers, but I have large hands and can reach where I need to reach. For me, height of the rest is also important, maybe more important than the angle. I can use the Hayden slant hand rest on an Elise but I could not get along with the stock low hand rest and had to make myself some taller hand rests.

A waterproof and almost bullet-proof Pelican Storm iM2075 case would store your new baby safely. Shop around for a good price. Did you get the standard bellows or the Wakker bellows?

It is a fantasy, an imagination. There were no concertina playing Cornish hobos but that does not matter, what matters is the musical and visual imagery. And no, the book does not really explain anything in any literal sense. Actually, maybe I should retract my comment about there being no Cornish hobos. I don't think that the term hobo fits but there were certainly lots of tramps around the UK after WWI, demobbed soldiers with what we now call PTSD. I suppose that some of them played the concertina and maybe some of them hopped the freight trains, so maybe it is all true...

Last time I checked with the Concertina Connection (March this year) they said that the designs for both a 36 and a 39 button Hayden Troubadour are complete but that orders for their other mid-range Anglos and ECs are so strong that they do not have the production capacity to start up the Troubadour line as well.

Is this a publicly available place? I can't find it here on concertina.net. Also, I really hope that you get some of Iris Bishop's work in the collection. I think her stuff is sublime. I enjoy listening to Martyn Wyndham-Read but I often find myself trying to ignore him in order to hear what Iris is doing.

Forgive me but that is like saying 'I am not really able to read regular web pages. I find raw html works the best for me'. Also, standard music notation is beautiful and abc notation is fugly. Abc notation is intended to be written by humans and then read by machines in order to produce ... standard music notation that can be read by humans. My two bits of advice to the OP would be to work with Gary's books, figure out how to capture Youtube videos (especially Gary's videos) as sound or sound+video files and then use one of the many slow downer programs to play them back at a speed that you can play along. (I like Transcribe! but there are others). Use Gary's tabs, but also try to figure out tunes by ear by picking them out on a slowed down audio file, then write down the tabs for future reference. Later. spend some time learning regular music notation, not to become a speed reader but so that you can access the world of music that has only been written down in standard notation - like this book for example. ...

I found that playing with the left hand side of the concertina close to a wall, and right side with lots of space, made the left side sound louder. Moving to a different place in the room helped. I did try various baffle materials but found that most made the sound a bit muffled. The least sound affecting was some simple EVA foam sheet from a hobby shop. Unfortunately, there is not really enough space inside the ends for more than maybe 2mm of foam. This helps a bit but I have learned to live with the more dominant sound from the LHS and to realise it is much more obvious to the player than it is to a listener.

There is a dealer in concertinas in Canada? News to me, anyone know who that might be? (Well, Ben Otto in Toronto is a dealer, I suppose, but he usually buys in SA and sells them from Canada, and he only seems to buy and sell Anglos).

A normal 46 button Hayden does not have Eb on the left so neither Bb nor Eb is one of the easy keys. Aldon wants Ab and Db as well so the shift would have to be two whole notes down.