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Hi, I wanted to drop a note and say hello. I'm new here and brand new to the concertina, like others before me I found an old used concertina on ebay and am now in the process of futzing about with it. One of the buttons was sticky so I took it apart, and the red stamp is the only marking I've found so far. I've yet to get the reed pans out though, perhaps there is something under there. I've been learning to play the fiddle since the beginning of the year, and wanted to pick up another instrument to deepen my understanding of a tune, I guess the tin whistle wasn't quite good enough and here we are.. Anyway, looking forward to digging into this and slowly gaining some skills over some time. Oh and I'm in Spokane if anyone else is from eastern Washington. Cheers, JT

Hi guys, I’m considering taking up Anglo concertina, mainly with the desire to play Irish tunes etc. My background is in piano/pipe organ, but I do also play B/C Irish button accordion. Recently I’ve become more and more enchanted by the sweet single reed sound of the conc, and I think I will pick it up quickly due to my experience with another bisonoric instrument. I don’t own a concertina yet. My concern is that my hands are quite large. They are not overly wide but I have long and skinny fingers. On a piano I can easily reach an 11th interval (eg C1 to F2). On a standard 30 button 3 row concertina, I’m worried that I would have to curl my fingers too much to reach the inside row and that my hands would cramp - this could have an effect on my speed and accuracy of playing. The other issue is that I live in Brisbane, Australia and there are literally no music stores which sell concertinas so I don’t even have the opportunity to play one or hold one to see what the spacing and comfort is like. Of course if anyone here lives in Brisbane and would be happy for me to have a look at their concertina that would be great! Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Are there any other large-handed Anglo players out there? Am I wasting my time learning and should I just stick to diatonic accordion? Any suggestions or a good intermediate starter instrument better suited to larger hands? And out of curiosity what is the distance between the palm rest and the inner most row of buttons? Thank you so much, Andrew (excited newbie)

Hi to everyone. I'm totally new here....and new to concertina ownership as I'm about to enter the world of the 'tina. And isn't it a minefield? I'm in the UK with a very limited budget (which isn't likely to get any larger as there's always something that seems to need fixing at home!) so from what I can see I'm going to have to go with Anglo, much as I'd love an English these are way way over my measly £45-£75 budget. (yes I know that's tiny but I have to start somewhere!) I'll only realistically manage 10-15 minutes a day to practice so I assumed that some sort of 20 button Anglo could be a good thing to start on? My entire experience has been a few months playing on our children's Scarlatti junior melodeon but that's very limited with only 7 buttons! But as a result I'm not entirely new to the diatonic instrument and have even learned a few tunes on the basic little thing - I give it 10 minutes a day nonetheless just to prove to myself that I will indeed keep it up. It's given me the bug and I realise that a concertina is the next step as it takes up much less room that a full size melodeon and (I think) looks far nicer! We're an English Folk-loving family so that's what I'll be wanting to play. I'd love a few pointers before I buy. There are no places near me to try things out (there's no longer a Hobgoblin in Nottingham) and the English Folk scene in my area is almost non-existent so I'm going to have to take the plunge and just go for it blindly and hope for the best. Probably something used on ebay - I've been watching the listings for the past month and researching models but the concertina is a complex old thing, isn't she?! Thank you in advance for any advice you can give to a concertina newbie!

Howdy everyone! I've juuuuuuuuuusssst purchased my first english concertina from Concertina Connection! A Jackie, naturally. After much research I decided I needed a fully chromatic instrument that was well suited for (eventually) complex solo pieces in modern, classical and other varying styles, but could also accompany singing, and I felt the English system was best suited to that. I'm a fairly good guitar player, mostly Spanish and Flamenco, but a bit of classical here and there as well, but reading music is still a challenge for me. Trying to change that at the present moment. Anyhow. I know this is gonna be a fun experience, one I hope continues for a long time, and I am very excited to get to know all of you over time

Hello all. I was directed here from another forum. I expressed my interest in finding a good cheap concertina to knock about on and they directed me to both the 20 button anglo and this fine board. I understand that that model is a bit limited, but due to how likely it seems that I will be able to get one within my budget and how easy it should be as a starter instrument I think it is a good fit. It also seems to be the perfect fit for the sort of music I'm interested in playing. Sea chantys, fiddle tunes, backup to a few drinking songs, that sort of thing. From what I understand I could then move on to a quality 20 button or even upgrade to a 30 button without having to relearn much if I ever feel the need. On the subject of budget I can potentially go as high as $200, but if at all possible I'm hoping to find something a bit cheaper. Thanks for taking the time to check out my request.