Tom Cunliffe

Thanks, this concertina has now sold. At a fair price which I think leaves both buyer and seller satisfied.

Hi blue-eyed sailor - we met at Seaford Folk Club last year didn't we. I hope you are doing well and still enjoying your music. I still have another Lachenal concertina so can continue to "keep my hand in", but I really want to buy a new octave mandola by a good maker I know in London. all the best, Tom

I have owned this concertina since 2007. It was sold to me by a well-known concertina.net player. The instrument was fully restored by Andrew Norman in 2007. It was purchased from the grand-daughter of a Yorkshire miner and it had been stored and unplayed for many years before it was restored, thus the excellent condition. It is tuned to concert pitch and every one of the 48 notes plays loud and clear on bellows push and pull. Photographs of this instrument can be seen in this Picasa Web Album. It's serial number is 56309 which I think means it was manufactured sometime after the First World War. Videos of me playing it can be seen here I am selling the instrument with a brand-new "super deluxe" gigbag as can be seen here The Music Room I am selling it because I no longer play this beautiful instrument as much as I would like it to be and it seems a shame that it is not being used as much as it should be. I also play plucked stringed instrument which take up more of my time. It is for sale at £1,800. I will cover the cost of courier-ing the instrument to the purchaser (in UK only). It can be viewed on the Sussex Coast in Seaford or by arrangement at a relative's house in Brighton. I will accept payment by Paypal, cheque or electronic bank transfer. I require cleared payment before despatching the instrument. I am happy to answer further questions or to provide further photographs or videos of any aspect of the concertina. The instrument also appears on ebay. Tom Cunliffe email: southcoastsounds@gmail.com mobile: 07857 982331

My Zoom H4N easily gets over 4 hours on two Duracell AA. I tend to use Superdrugs own brand of alkalines to keep the cost down and don't find a lot of difference. I don't think 4 hours is bad for a recorder of this quality. Best to Google around and see whether you need some of the advanced features of the H4N. There are definitely running-cost recorders. I don't think 2 AAs lasting 4 hours is bad anyway - for twin stereo mikes with a pre-amp. I've just found a great audio comparison test including sound samples of several recorders here. Includes cello, wind instruments, piano etc. Tom

In my opinion, its hard to beat the Zoom H4N with its twin condenser mikes and simple to use controls. Its a professional level recorder with its own pre-amp built in so you can plug extra mikes in should you so wish. It uses SD cards and so can have vast recording capacity. Its very robust indeed. I use mine regularly and the sound quality is superb. Look at some reviews and you'll find it hard to find anything other than the highest praise for this versatile recorder. If its too expensive for you, I am told that the H1 is very good also. Tom

A fantastic evening at the Folk Club last night - Jody is a great communicator and musician. He held the audience in his hand for his whole performance. Watch the video of his opening song by clicking here

Sounds like your well on the way to joining the concertina lovers community! It gets addictive I warn you. By the way - here's a tongue in cheek warning against becoming a hoodie - http://ukesnotdead.bandcamp.com/track/oi-kid-dont-be-a-hoody (lyrics perhaps not quite suitable for your young'un) Tom

Jody Kruskal is coming to Seaford Folk Club (East Sussex) on Friday. A great event for concertina players in Sussex. Further details on the website Seaford Folk Club Apologies for posting this again - I put it in the wrong place last time and want it to be picked up by the feed on the front page of concertina.net.

My Edeophone is extremely loud and has a very fast action. I have a brass-reeded student model (the one with red and white buttons) and it has a lovely sweet, soft tone but can't compete in a band.

If you want to hear what it might sound like, Pauline de Snoo has a .

Its a lovely thing isn't it. A slightly larger model can be seen here http://www.concertina.net/crabb_miniature.html The Horniman Museum have a lot of information about early concertinas Tom

I run the website for Seaford Folk Club (East Sussex) and just thought I'd let people know that Jody Kruskal is coming to Seaford next Friday. A great event for concertina players in Sussex. Further details on the website Seaford Folk Club Tom Cunliffe PS - sorry, I should have put this under public news and announcements. Could an admin move it please? Thanks.

Barry's just visited us for the weekend as we were all going to the Lewes folk festival (very good by the way). I took the opportunity of videoing him playing his new Dipper in my back garden. The results are here: As you will see he's playing his harmonica at the same time which he says might be gilding the lily! The Lewes Folk Festival was really good, and Valmai Goodyear and Bryan Creer led a wonderful session on Friday evening - plenty of concertinas, plus fiddles, bagpipes, flutes, whistles etc, etc. Tom

Gosh, I'd forgotten about that. I've got four tunes on it from some years back and I've just replayed them from my computer versions and they sound terrible. If anyone offers to update it perhaps they could delete the brightfield tunes. I'm inclined to think that now YouTube has become so prevalent perhaps this one isn't quite so necessary. If someone offers to redo the page, they might like to look at the list of mandolin tunes hereas a model. Tom

Concertinae are generally louder than harps...especially outdoors. Is the concertina a competitor to the triangle then? . . . "A single stroke on the triangle clearly penetrates the full force of an orchestra" I always thought the mandolin could do that too. Tom

Thanks Beezer, that's very helpful Tom

I'm learning Leaving Stoer, which I found on YouTube as played by Murray Grainger. I found a version on www.thesession.org but its not quite the same, and I prefer Murray's version. I wonder if anyone can tell me which is the correct version (i.e. as Ivan wrote it). Its a fantastic tune and works really well on my English (apologies to Scottish concertina netters). Tom Cunliffe PS - my first post here for a while - I used to be username brightfield, but seem to have lost access to that since moving house and changing ISP