MatthewVanitas

I have a somewhat cosmetically worn but reasonably functionally solid Bastari 20b Anglo. I believe it's C/G but can't confirm due to a bellows issue. The bellows simply won't close properly, are very unlimber and completely stop folding a few inches before the closed position. I emphasize, I'm holding down multiple buttons, not fighting against the vacuum here. I took off one end, and the bellows are just as inflexible. As best as I can tell, somebody reinforced each fold with some leather, so it simply can't compress properly. I'm reasonably sure this would be a functional 20-button with a non-jammed set of bellows, so I'd like to buy a set of bellows if someone has some, or alternately if someone wants to buy the two ends with complete reed-banks (buttons need re-sleeving, and I'm missing 2 buttons but those should be easy to source) I can sell them quite inexpensively. Also if anyone wants the ill-patched bellows for anything, let me know. PS: Here's a pic of the inside of the bellows; does it seem to anyone else that the problem is a bulky patch-job gone wrong?

I ran across this item mislabeled as a "57-button Anglo", so I contacted the seller to let him know what he had, and what the retail price was; Jim Laabs has the lowest at $669 currently. The seller is fixing the title, and has it at $399 currently. I'm not sure if that's a good price or should be lower, but I don't see a lot of 56-button Englishes used, so thought someone might want to know. Seller doesn't know anything about free reeds, so no ability to judge condition. No personal stake in the sale, just thought it might be handy: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251231186255&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123 It's expiring soon, so might relist, here's the seller: http://www.ebay.com/sch/myblackdog77/m.html?item=251231186255&ViewItem=&ssPageName=ADME%3AX%3ARTQ%3AUS%3A1123&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Meaning that the chord buttons on the left hand of a melodeon don't do half-steps? Since this is still going to be an Anglo, and not an Organetto, it'll be a strict C row on one row (across both hands), and an exactly equivalent but transposed C# row on the other row. Not sure yet if I can easily have the C row moved to the lower and make the C# the upper row, since I presume that'd be easier. The buttons are a bit further apart, granted, but the same is the case for 30b Anglos, and those seem to play across rows just fine. A C/C# box will have some shared notes as well, just a half-step higher than B/C, so though it might not be ideal for the same keys, the relative intervals are the same. Honestly, if I were messing with it I'd just transpose mentally and play it as a "D" even though I'm playing in C. It's not like many folks trying out the initial experiment have a great need to use it in a full band, so for just solo or playing with a friend or two, capoing, downtuning, or using a C tinwhistle doesn't seem unreasonable, just for feeling out the system. I'm not at all suggesting that a C/C# Anglo is superior to either a B/C or a D/C# or D/D# Anglo, just that those options would cost twice as much and take longer. Michael said a C/C# conversion he can knock out quite quickly, keep half the stock reeds, and get back to me before the St. Patrick's rush; and for such a quick change his price is very reasonable indeed. This is part of my initial idea: a lot of two-row buttonboxes are really underusing a whole hand. The three-row Tejano/cojunto players are even more so, with some just taking out the whole left-side reed assembly to save weight, so the whole left hand does nothing but pump bellows, not unlike an Indian harmonium. The thought had occurred to me... This Silvertone could certainly use any small improvements (better straps, fresh mesh/tule in fretwork, resleeving, valves checked, etc), so while I wouldn't make that a requisite for the passaround, I certainly wouldn't say no to anybody wanting to do a little tweaking to make it smoother.

I'm perfectly happy to mail it to anyone who's well established enough on any of the major folk music boards that we can consider them "someone the community knows". A lot of other passarounds are done with some geographic priority to keep shipping costs down, such as moving west to east across the US, dipping up to a few folks in Canada, and then over to Ireland and the UK. I'd aim to do something like that, but within a given continent I'd be open to shuffling folks if there's a specific musical event that a borrower wants to take the 'box to for more folks to try it. I'll hold off on soliciting folks until I can get the box down to Michael and converted, which apparently shouldn't take too long at all. Just to make sure that this box will work out and the final product be decent. This could be fun, and there are certainly enough old 20-button Italians kicking around that anyone who really enjoys the loaner could obtain a conversion of their own quite affordably.

Been talking to Michael at Irish Dancemaster the last two days, and he's willing to convert one of my C/Gs to C/C# at a very reasonable price. I have an old Silvertone 20b, almost identical to the Bastaris and presumably a Sears Roebuck rebadge of them or a similar Italian maker. It's in pretty good shape, interesting label but nothing valuable or fancy, so seems a good candidate for the re-reeding. If I get this made, I'm thinking that its max utility might come from letting other musicians mess with it, see if anyone ends up taking a liking to the half-step system. Would folks here be interested if I end up doing a passaround? I've done them on other forums, compile a list of reputable/recognised/long-term members who want to try it, and each person agrees to try it for three weeks and then pay postage/insurance on to the next person on the list. I'm also thinking that Irish BC buttonbox players might be as or more interested in this than concertinists, so I might check in with The Session and Chiff & Fipple forums to see if their folks are interested too. That way a number of interested parties can feel out this format at really minimal cost. What say y'all?

I was messing with my one-row melodeon recently, and reflecting that a D/D# or D/C# box would be kind of cool, since I could play it in much the style of a melodeon, but with all the chromatics available. Then it occurred to me: a 20-button Anglo is basically two 10-button rows split between two hands. Have there every been any Anglo-based bisonoric boxes with the two rows a half-step apart, similar to the Irish B/C and D/D# boxes? If one had, say, two cheap Italian G/C boxes, would it be possible to take the G row out of the second box, raise the 20 reeds a half-step each, and plug it in place of the C row on the first box?

It's my very rough impression that the folks most pleased with their Elise's tend to be players of the more stripped-down Trad styles, and/or who do vocal accompaniment or similar. I wouldn't want to try to keep up with a fast jig using just my right hand, but for playing a slow air, doing an instrumental melody of a ballad between sung verses, or just playing backing chords and ornaments while singing, they can really serve. Also those sort of folks don't tend to fret the missing D# and G#. I wouldn't mind being able to play in A, but I don't feel hamstrung by its lack. Similarly there are few non-Western tunes I do that call for a few irregular chromatics, and I have to play towards the middle of the keyboard to make sure I have enough extra keys on the margins, but for the kind of music I do it's little hassle. I wouldn't at all suggest an Elise for Classical or jazz, but I've been really quite pleased with it for what I do. Oh, and as to the "squawk", I'm actually thinking of making some homemade baffles to mellow the sound of mine for singing. Horses for courses, I suppose. Dangit, you got me all excited thinking these cats were offering a new Hayden. I will say though, I am rather interested to hear of a box of such specs that sells so low as £450 oh snap, that's Euros. In that case, at €450 I'm definitely very curious on general principle, though a bit incredulous as to how they're getting all those nice things in at that price. And again I'm mistaken; the fancy one is €1850, the €450 one is a beginner model that I can only assume is a properly QC'ed/tweaked China-made box, which could still be a good thing. In fairness, that page linked is not at all easy to read, especially with all the capital letters and bouncing between columns. But I definitely would love to see them come out with a Hayden too, either beginner level or the nice one. But I reckon Hayden is not particularly popular in Ireland...

Not to muddy the waters too much, but speaking as one with a bit of experience training non-musicians on Appalachian dulcimer, and also singing while playing one-row melodeon, I wonder if a 20-button (2-row) might not be an easier way to meet Barry's skill level and budget? A total music novice might find it easier to play "harmonica style" (as another concertina novice posted about this week), playing largely on one row with dips to the other for alternate directions or a rare F/F# change. One can still play basic chord progressions for accompanying voice, a lot of basic folk melodies, hymns, etc. Further there's a decent amount of raw-beginner instructional material out there for 20-button, so a novice is unlikely to really miss the chromatics/alternates for a lot of the purposes Barry describes. As Mike suggested, Button Box does rentals (though not sure if they do 20s or just 30s), but also if price is a factor maybe getting a playable used 20-button Italian from a reputable seller/musician might work? I feel a bit bad that I don't have any running right now (until I re-sleeve and check the three sitting on my bookshelf awaiting tweaking), but I've sold several 20-button C/G Bastaris and similar to novices for $100 or less, after having checked out the sleeves, pads, and played the reeds against an electronic tuner. If someone on these boards has a "beater" Anglo they're not using much, such a box might give Barry a really inexpensive way to learn the basics of Anglo at minimal expense, and then decide what his next step should be. So far as key, I'll side with Anglo-Irishman and submit that for a lot of folk music it's not a tremendous issue. Between a 20b C/G and G/D, doesn't that give one almost the same keys to sing in? You can play in G (and its relatives), and then either C or D depending on box. So in either case you have basically the same span, albeit different octaves (which doesn't really effect the singer). Maybe it's the melodeon/dulcimer playing minimalist in me, but it really seems that a 20-button might suit Barry fine for his purposes and starting out. And a new 20b from Button Box is far less expensive than a 30b, or a used 20b that's been properly verified as a decent player by a fellow musician is cheaper still. Presumably a lot of working-class musicians a century ago played 20s, so for Barry's straightforward and folkish uses it seems a good fit.

What you're describing is almost exactly what I do, and the kind of music I play, and I've had an Elise about two years now. Elise does great in C, G, D, and F (and their relatives minors/modes), and can fake its way through A with very little compromise (missing the G#). So as far as Celtic/Anglo/American folk goes, it pretty well suits the bill. I would definitely say it is far less key-limited than a 20-key, though in fairness I will grant that a 30-key D/G concertina can cover those same keys (plus Emaj with that D#), albeit not consistently in all octaves and with some juggling required. This is a much clearer reason to get a Duet, since this is what Duet does better than the other boxes. I do a fair bit of this, usually while doing root-fifth/open chords on the left. I find full chords (I-III-V) harder to finger and maybe a bit cluttered, while a simpler two finger I-V gives a sparser sound that sounds great on hymns and minor tunes. In particular, I really like doing Shape Note tunes. Check out this clip of mine, and if this is your kind of playing then a Duet could really be a good call: My only hesitation is that you're already familiar with Anglo, so I'd at least consider a 30-key D/G Anglo in your wonderings, but a 20 seems a very minor increase in chromaticity for the trouble. While you're at the Button Box, I'd definitely advise you try a 30-key Anglo, G/D or C/G (and C/G 30-key can do D tunes just fine, as the Irish can attest), side by side with the Elise. You can get a feel for whether you want to add that "helper" chromatic row to your "two harmonicas" method, or whether you find the Hayden system as intuitive as those of us Elise enthusiasts do.

I recently bought a beat-up Silvertone 20-button Anglo for $50, that's going to need at least a re-sleeving of the buttons with silicone, good cleaning, and probably replacing some pads. The original cardboard box it came in was likewise falling apart, and since this is not an overly collectible piece and the box was disintegrating, I cut off the panel with the label on it. If anyone collects concertina ephemera, let me know and I'll toss it in a padded mailer and send it out to you for free.

Congrats! I take it a 20-button Anglo? Or did you find some other type? Are you finding your other musical skills to be crossing over well?

Taff, just to make sure I'm seeing this correctly: so the buttons are plain metal, none have any kind of rubbery coller or gasket or whatever on them? And at the bottoms, they're resting on some kind of felt pad? Not set into holes in the pad or anything? That is an interesting difference from the other internals I've seen online and in person.

This is one of the only YouTube hits for "cowboy concertina" that seems to be what we're looking for: - Jody Kruskal and Paul Friedman performing "Bravest Cowboy" on Anglo concertina and fiddle from their album "Paul and Jody - American Songs and Tunes" JMK 104, available at http://www.jodykruskal.com/ We need more cowboy concertina on YouTube (hint, hint).

I take it that'll be easy enough on the out-facing reeds, but a fair bit harder to do on the inboard reads? Or is there some clever workaround? UPDATE: Ah hah! I think I figured out why one button occasionally lets its notes keep sounding (quite clear) after using it. Took it apart again, and I note that when that key is depressed the arm wobbles a bit. So depending on how it comes back down onto the soundboard, it either seals properly, or doesn't. All I can see of the difference between that button and others is that the little bracket that holds its arm seems slightly more open than its neighbors. Does it seem smart to take some pliers and pinch that bracket a little more closed in hope it'll take the wobble out of the lever and make sure it lays the pad down consistently in the right place? UPDATE: Dangit, I tried crimping the bracket for that button's lever a bit tighter, and it does have less wiggle in it now, but it still behaves the same way when I re-assemble it. Buttons will all be nice and sealed, but when I depress the specific button it has a 50%+ chance of that note then staying open both on push and pull, fully loud just as if the button were still held down even though it's sprung back up. Could it somehow just be a pad issue? And on my highest note, the the push note is still strangled despite cleaning with a piece of paper. I'll try again, and also get some canned air from an office store to see if I can blow anything loose.

Can you post up a photo of the kind of key action that you do have? Seeing if it's something hook-based or rivet-based, or yet some other method, will help folks a lot in diagnosing any problem. You can use tinypic.com to upload photos and post the "img" code here to display it.

I ended up finding some blue silicone fuel-line for about a buck a foot on eBay, so this weekend I cut all the pieces and got the buttons set up. Interestingly enough, some previous owner had tried to solve the button-sleeve decay issue by making makeshift sleeves of rubber-bands. But of course by now those were pretty crusty too. The instructions in the article worked great, and a few observations: It's not immediately clear how far along the arm to slide the buttons, so I did a combination of watching for wear marks, or sliding the buttons after finding they didn't line up with the holes. The buttons appeared to be uniform overall, which is good because I didn't bother labeling which button came from which arm. All had some amount of "lean" where the tang wasn't quite square with the button, so I assume that's intentional. The degrees of lean varied by button, but didn't appear to have any consistent pattern, so I figure that's just sloppiness and the buttons are generally interchangeable. I did realise pretty quick that the lean is supposed to face away from the pads when installing the button. Getting the end on when the buttons were loose before was a nightmare, but once I had them with tight silicone and nudged into the right parts of the arm, I could often get them to drop into place on the first try. When a button didn't line up exactly right, I found the perfect tool for nudging them from above. A pen or screwdriver or whatever isn't much good because both they and the buttons are slippery, however a small piece of silicone tubing works great, since it's gummy enough to catch a little grip on the button, and drag it into alignment with the hole. It's probably work even better if I took some small poke-y item and sheathed it in silicone tubing to make it firm but with a gummy surface. Speaking of not labeling things, I learned the hard way that many parts aren't totally standardised, but they just drilled holes wherever, so the strap-guard from one side might not fit the other, and the bellows-pins only line up with their holes if put back in the original configuration, so next time I'll get some post-its or whatnot and clearly mark what marries up with what. I have a few buttons where the plastic end can be pulled off the tang with very little pressure; might it be advisable to use some kind of non-permanent glue (Elmer's White?) to make it just a bit tighter to its tang? The buttons are now fixed, and the decayed straps I replaced by buying a lady's belt of roughly similar thickness and width for $3.99 on clearance at Target. I didn't want to mess with buckles, so for now I joined them by drilling holes in each end of the strap and weaving some fishline through it; I can drill holes further down if I need to tighten it, though it's not much adjustable on the fly. The left side plays great, except for the basses being a little honky (probably nature of the beast), but on the right side the C-row 7th button keeps playing (in both directions) after I let go of the button, so I need to see if the lever isn't returning, or the pad is misaligned, or what. The very last note also whistles a bit (in one direction) while I'm playing, so I'll check on its pad/lever as well. Aside from those two notes, everything is peachy. I do have another of the same type to fix, but its keys are overall fine, but one single note sounds "strangled" or "choked". Any suggestions on how best to troubleshoot that? Likely fluff/debris interfering with the reed, or some other probably cause?

Not necessarily a "brand", just that "vintage" connotes a certain level of value, whereas a more generic old Italian/German box is just "old". Some of it's a timeline cutoff too: yours is almost definitely a post-WWII box, so not particularly venerable by concertina standards. Yours would've been made in a period of mass-production when the Italians used accordion-based structures to produce budget accordions efficiently. "Vintage" would tend to refer to older concertinas using traditional "riveted" or "hook" actions rather than the accordion-like lever action yours uses, and a flat pan vice the "harmonicas". These early-contemporary concertinas, like all but the most expensive modern concertinas, used accordion reeds as a cost-cutting measure. "True" concertina reeds are very different in construction and not so easy to just stamp out in bulk. That's why you'll see the term "hybrid concertina", to refer to concertinas made with accordion-style reeds. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and there are people who prefer the accordion-reed sound, but it's less "classic", somewhat different sound, and generally leads to bulkier instruments. Huh, nailed? If you can double-check on that and get some photos that'd be great. It's certainly possible (but unlikely) that there's some other screws somewhere that unfasten the board, but failing that you probably will have to get the brands out (and replace them with screws?) if you ever need to work on the buttons/levers/valves. Are these brads holding the reeblocks onto the boards, or are there also brads (and not screws) holding the board onto the "end" (the plastic shell)? I'm looking forward to reading the replies about troubleshooting your reeds; that's something I need to do on some of my beaters. I'm curious as to what degree the issue can be trouble-shot to pad issues, improper sealing between chambers, or gunked-up reeds (fluff? corrosion?). I've similarly had good luck with older Italian boxes: mine haven't been in great condition, but probably not a whole lot worse than they started in. Just my view, but I think the board here has a particularly harsh view of the beaters because a lot of folks serious enough to hang around a concertina forum will have ponied up for much nicer concertinas, and have realised how inferior the cheapies are. But that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of more casual players of cheapies who enjoy them, and also folks playing serious 'boxes who started on worse than yours. So long as it's not bad enough to discourage you, it's something to learn on.

Sometimes you just have to learn by doing. Buying an older concertina (or any free-reed) off eBay can be awfully risky, but I'd imagine the Rigoletto might be close enough in design to the other Italian-made post-WWII concertinas that most of the advice about tweaking Stagi/Bastari/etc. here should be helpful. Have you seen the article Making a Bastari/Stagi Playable? That might be worth a read for info on fixing any stubborn buttons, bellows repair, etc. I used that article to fix up an Italian 1960s-ish Silvagni Anglo concertina, and though I still have some tweaking to do at least it basically works now. Do you mean literally harmonicas? Or do you (as I'd guess) mean there are these wooden chambers with reeds on them set at a right-angle to the keyboard sticking inwards to the bellows? If you have a camera or one on your cellphone, I'd suggest posting an image so we can see what you mean. You can use tinypic.com to upload images for free and post them here. If you mean "wooden, harmonica-like reedblocks", then yes that's really common in the Italian concertinas. I don't know exactly why (carryover from more familiar accordion construction?) but I'm sure some folks here have some idea. Does yours look rather like this? Also, what do you mean by "iffy" on the buttons? Are the buttons rattling, or inclined to get stuck down in their holes? Or are their notes not shutting off after you release the button? Or does the actual button work fine but the sound you're getting is out of tune, or muffled/strangled? A little detail there would really help diagnose the problem. If the buttons themselves are wobbly or poorly-responsive, that is likely the very common issue of the old rubber button-sleeves having decayed over time and lost their flex. It's a minor hassle, just a matter of buying a certain type of silicone tubing off eBay for a few bucks, cutting little bits of it, and sliding them onto the keys. But you'll have to access the action to be able to inspect/improve the button issues. So far as accessing the action from the inside: if yours is like ones I've worked on, when you have the end sitting keys-down and reedblocks-up, you might see some little screws in the board. Those screws hold the hexagonal board with reeds/action into the end. If you undo them you should be able to lift the reed/board/action assembly out (carefully!) It might be kind of stuck in there, so takes some finesse. Glad you've got a concertina and are excited to learn! Getting an Italian beater might not be the easiest way to start playing, but you'll certainly learn some things about how concertinas work. And I've had good luck with beater Italians being at least playable (if not smooth), so with a little luck once you get it cleaned up and tweaked it'll be a serviceable starter piece.

Turns out grille fabric is a bit pricey, like $25 per sheet. Some folks on Melodeon.net mentioned using "milinnery net", the lacy mesh stuff that sticks out of ladies' hats, for grilles. A related American term seems to be "tulle", and that's literally $1.25 with free shipping for a yard of it on eBay. I might just try buying some tulle and giving that a shot and seeing how it goes. So long as it glues in place and is mesh-y, I don't think I can go too wrong...

That is awesome! Glad you got to get out there and represent. Do you have any YouTube clips of your arrangements of those songs, or at least a description of how you mix playing and singing? Do you mainly do some basic chording to sing over, or something fancy? It is sad though to hear that canned music is common at such an event, and that they don't bother to make the kids sing traditional cowboy songs instead of modern country. Anachronism is a funny thing: I figure in a few centuries all our current eras will be so conflated together in the popular conception that they'll unironically have troops in World War II movies singing songs by Led Zeppelin for lack of proper musicological research... Speaking of anachronism: do we have much evidence of cowboys playing concertina? Dan Worral's Social History of the Anglo Concertina doesn't say much about that specifically, though apparently some of the late-1800s pioneers did play, as did many folks in the Midwest (Anglo, not Chemnitzer) in that period. I wouldn't find cowboy concertina to be any less credible, and probably more so, than the "sailor with concertina" popular conception, but I am curious how much concrete evidence we have of cowboys playing Anglo.

I've been working on tweaking a few beater Anglos recently, and a couple of Bastaris I have either have really grimy (rusted?) mesh screens in the fretwork holes, or are missing the screen in some places. I did also have some of the mesh come loose on my Elise Hayden, but I believe it's still in one piece and can be secured back up. I glanced through a few posts about this, but most were from 2007 or earlier; I'm also still not totally clear what the "dust-preventing mesh screen" is called. I understand that "baffles" are something different that are deliberately made to soften the sound, but I'm talking about just the dust-screen on cheaper concertinas. Between PVA, double-sided tape (some fancier kind, or just the kind used to paste up paper notices?), spray-adhesive, etc., what's the consensus on the way to install new screens, and re-secure my loose screen on the Elise? I don't necessarily need anything fancy, just something to keep foreign objects from falling in, larger bits of dust, etc. I'll take a closer look at the Bastaris, but the gunk on them is reddish, so it's my impression it's actually a ferrous material instead of just gauze. I read the bits about using silk or nylon stockings, but that seems a lot less durable than what these have now. So any suggestions on what has turned out (since the old 2007 discussions) to be a durable wire screen stuff would be great. While I've got these cracked open (which I also need to do for the standard Stagi/Bastari replacing of fossilised ruber button sleeves, any other recommendations of things to watch for and fix? I'll check for any bellows rips (I have bellows tape), any leakages between chambers or loose pads, etc. I read something somewhere about using some kind of weather-stripping for cases where air leaks between the bellows-seam and the ends; is there any standard brand to use for that, or thread with advice on it? Lastly, while I'm learning to tweak these, any recommendation for what to use to clean these? Both for getting out gunk internally, as well as polishing up the outsides? Yes, the outsides are some kind of ply (and on the two other generic Italians they're ABS or some other kind of plastic). But still it'd be nice to de-grime them with whatever won't damage ply veneer and celluloid (?) plastic. Thanks!

Łukasz, great post and pic! Do you have any close-up photos or write-up as to how you did your bushings and new buttons? Do you have a lot of background in machining aluminum, or was making the buttons less difficult than it sounds? I'm not sure there's any chance that making aluminum buttons would be within my skill/tool level, but maybe if it's something easy for someone more skilled I can do a skills exchange with some acquaintance to knock out a batch of buttons for me. Your English is great, so no worries there. Looking forward to hearing more about your project and music! EDIT: if I go looking for buttons, does anyone know if the buttons are all the same across all the basic CC models? If I'm looking to convince a friend to make some aluminum ones, it may be an easier pitch if it's something that he could template out for larger production, and then maybe get more sales for if there are other folks wanting to do some DIY hot-rodding of the basic CC boxes.

Good catch; the guy did mention that good Scholers are in-tune with themselves, but not in A=440 (standard pitch). So a Scholer (assuming it's in working condition) would be okay for playing on one's own, but not so much for jamming with others. In any case, I haven't hands-on experience with Scholers, and I don't think their "standard fixes" are as easy as the Italian boxes. So personally I stick to the aforementioned Italians as my beaters and to pass off to newbies. I think a Gremlin-Stagi is/was going for 50 quid on eBay UK recently, but glancing at the "Completed Listings" option to see that past 30 days of auctions, there aren't as many affordable Italians as I'd hope to see. Tons of Scholers and other German cheapies, and the usual Chinese and a few high-end quality vintage (and a few modern high-end), but not necessarily a ton of Italians. Someone had a Bastari red plastic, but at the same price a Thomann-Stagi runs. So while eBay may be a good option, Italians don't come up every single day there.

If you haven't yet seen , I think you'll enjoy it. It is (the late) John Nixon playing classical guitar music on a MIDI english concertina set to sound like a classical guitar. English would definitely be better for playing those kind of guitar-like melodies, but isn't (at the basic level) as intuitive to chord and harmonise as the Anglo. I reckon generally a harmonica is the best thing to compare an Anglo to; maybe the best (abstract) parallel for an English would be the mandolin? Easy to do fast and nimble melodies on, but the chords take a bit of finger-scrunching. Depends what sound/style you're prioritising, and of course a skilled player on either can pull off a lot of techniques that a beginner isn't just going to pick up. Again I'd submit that watching some "tutorials" on eBay for each style, and seeing someone slowly explain how each is played, would give you a good feel for your options. Of course, as others have suggested, nothing would beat meeting some concertina players in person. English concertinas are less common on the used market in the US (and a glance at ebay.co.uk seems to bear that out for Blighty as well). Just glancing around, the new English options in the UK appear to be the Concertina Connection (£370), the Thomann (rebadged intro-grade Stagi, £380 and apparently not as well-regarded as the CC), and the full Stagi £700 at Hobgoblin. I was a bit surprised at the price on the CC English, since they're US$390 (£250) here, but Music Room is the exclusive dealer, and there's trans-Atlantic shipping and Customs and VAT and all kinds of things I'm sure. The Scarlatti (Chinese-made) is £180, but those have gotten rather rough reviews here on CC; though a couple folks have posted that they bought Scarlattis, and didn't regret it because it helped them decide that they did enjoy English. Just be prepared for some real roughness on a Scarlatti and possible breakages and sticking buttons. Again just one man's opinion, but given the affordability of Anglos, you could do worse than to buy an inexpensive or used Anglo and mess with it, and sell it if you either don't take to concertina or decide English is really for you. Thomann ABS-bodied 20-button C/G Anglos are £85 new (I think they're also sold as "Brunner by Stagi"), and I've seen used plastic Gremlin-Stagis and similar go for £50 or so on eBay UK, as well as some older plastic Italian boxes which you can search here by name to see which are reputable (Silvagni isn't bad). Be prepared to do some minor tweaking of pads or linkages (and there are good writeups here about that) if need be, but so long as the reeds are in tune the rest can be fixed with baling-wire and bubblegum (or whatever the British equivalent phrase would be). So far as reeds, personally I've not been bashful and on several occasions have messaged eBay sellers of melodeons and arranged for us to connect on the telephone so they could squeeze a handful of keys and play them in-and-out for me to listen for sour notes. Alternately, if you're in a good-sized city your Craigslist equivalent (is it Kiji in the UK? nope, Gumtree) might have Stagi/Bastari/Brunner/Thomann/Gremlin concertinas that you can go check out in person for proper functioning. You could also always put up online want-ads on here and at forum.melodeon.net (which is mostly UK) seeing if anyone has an inexpensive starter piece for a noob. One guy on Melodeon sold a beater Scholer for £35 last month; my impression is he buys and fettles beaters pretty frequently, so maybe you can ask him if he has any on the workbench he's tweaking. Hope I'm not overwhelming you with pricings and names, but this is the kind of dorkery I enjoy doing, and it's always exciting to see someone looking to branch out and try an instrument outside of guitar.

Speaking not as a concertina expert (which I certainly am not), but on a more conceptual level from someone who's done a good smattering of fixing and dealing in beaters, music education, helping young folks find their first instrument etc: as a general rule I take some exception to the argument that you shouldn't start if you can't buy the best. I've seen this in a number of (but by no means all) instrument communities. I was particularly baffled by folks on BanjoHangout who told a young noob who was "kinda considering learning clawhammer" that he should start saving up $1000ish to commission a custom from "John Smith" of East Authenticityville, Alabama, and that there was no point starting with anything less. Plenty of the most famous clawhammer pickers of history started out with either some Sears Roebuck mail-order piece likely no better than a 1970s Korean import off eBay, or some homemade jobby assembled with hand tools and something less than a skilled luthier's touch. So far as concertinas and other squeezeboxes, I'd be happy to be corrected here, but haven't legions of German peasants, Argentine dockworkers, British (and Zulu) miners, and all other sorts made plenty of great squeezebox music on cranked-out German concertinas (back when Germans made all kinds of junk) that probably were notably worse than what a Stagi is today? I'd venture to guess that most of those blue-collar folks weren't playing Wheatstones at their payscale. Yes, I'm sure their boxes were inferior, and that's probably why we don't see many of them in use today since they weren't made to last a century, or used such non-standardised parts that there's no practical way to fix them down the road. But regardless, it's a way to make music. To the questioner, I'd submit that a used Stagi (or equivalent) that at least functions basically is something you can feel out and enjoy. If you don't end up liking it, you can sell it for what you paid for it if you got a good deal. If you like it, you can start saving up for a better one, and watching the forum sales listings, specialty shops, etc. for a good used (or vintage) concertina in your price-range. Yes, £1000 would be a lot to start out on if you're on a budget, but a few years down the road if you've gotten skilled at Anglo it might not sound so bad. People, even not-rich folks, buy motorbikes and high-end stereo gear for far more than that. So my basic argument is that a lot of folks have started on beaters, ideally one not so rough that it'll frustrate you on the instrument. Plenty of folks in history have stuck with and made music on far rougher instruments, and many played far better than I. And thanks to modern tools and reeds, a quality concertina, while pricey, is by no means outrageous for someone who's taken a real shine to the instrument after playing a beater for a while.