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30 key duet?


varney

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HI folks,

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

 

A friend of mine from the Uk who lives here in Ireland was telling me his parents have an old concertina back in England which has 30 buttons ( plus and air button ), handstraps ( not thumbstraps) but the notes are the same on the push and pull. At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure as he used to muck around recording songs on guitar and used the concertina to play drones.

 

Could it be a 30 key duet? 30 key English?? If not any ideas what it might be? He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

 

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

 

Mick.

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HI folks,

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

 

A friend of mine from the Uk who lives here in Ireland was telling me his parents have an old concertina back in England which has 30 buttons ( plus and air button ), handstraps ( not thumbstraps) but the notes are the same on the push and pull. At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure as he used to muck around recording songs on guitar and used the concertina to play drones.

 

Could it be a 30 key duet? 30 key English?? If not any ideas what it might be? He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

 

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

 

Mick.

 

 

Mick, if you could find out how many rows the buttons are in, that would help. But 30 TOTAL keys? That sounds like an odd duck ... no Crane references implied blink.gif

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I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

...

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

 

Mick,

My first thought was a Jedcertina, but the models I've seen photos of have only 20 buttons + air valve. Then there are those old German "Chromatic Concertinas", with piano arrangement on the RH side and chord buttons on the LH side. They have more than 20 buttons, but I don't know whether there was a model with exactly 30 + air.

 

As far as I know, the smallest Crane duet has 35 buttons. How many has the smallest Maccann got, by the way?

 

Cheers,

John

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I once saw a concertina belonging to Stephen Chambers that looked like a large Anglo but was actually tuned like a chromatic button accordion, which has the same notes on push and pull. Stephen thought that it was probably a one-off special order, and this could conceivably be another oddball instrument like that one. Pictures would of course help if you can get them.

 

HI folks,

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

 

A friend of mine from the Uk who lives here in Ireland was telling me his parents have an old concertina back in England which has 30 buttons ( plus and air button ), handstraps ( not thumbstraps) but the notes are the same on the push and pull. At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure as he used to muck around recording songs on guitar and used the concertina to play drones.

 

Could it be a 30 key duet? 30 key English?? If not any ideas what it might be? He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

 

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

 

Mick.

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HI folks,

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

 

A friend of mine from the Uk who lives here in Ireland was telling me his parents have an old concertina back in England which has 30 buttons ( plus and air button ), handstraps ( not thumbstraps) but the notes are the same on the push and pull. At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure as he used to muck around recording songs on guitar and used the concertina to play drones.

 

Could it be a 30 key duet? 30 key English?? If not any ideas what it might be? He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

 

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

 

Mick.

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HI folks,

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

 

A friend of mine from the Uk who lives here in Ireland was telling me his parents have an old concertina back in England which has 30 buttons ( plus and air button ), handstraps ( not thumbstraps) but the notes are the same on the push and pull. At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure as he used to muck around recording songs on guitar and used the concertina to play drones.

 

Could it be a 30 key duet? 30 key English?? If not any ideas what it might be? He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

 

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

 

Mick.

 

I am Harold Herrington, and anglo builder in Texas. I would love to see how this instrument is arranged. It might be quite interesting. I've never heard of such a creature.

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I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

 

A friend of mine from the Uk who lives here in Ireland was telling me his parents have an old concertina back in England which has 30 buttons ( plus and air button ), handstraps ( not thumbstraps) but the notes are the same on the push and pull. At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure....

 

Could it be a 30 key duet? 30 key English?? If not any ideas what it might be? He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

With hand straps, not an English. (OK, I know of one Wheatstone English that was apparently made with anglo-style "rails" and straps... it was once discussed in a thread here. But it also had the thumb loops, and by the time it came to our attention the rails had been removed.)

 

I would guess an unusual duet... either some one-of-a-kind "special" or perhaps a lower-register instrument, likely made for playing in a concertina band. I seem to recall a few of the latter in the Wheatstone ledgers, though I don't recall the details. Nor do I have any idea how many -- between Wheatstone and Lachenal -- there might have been. Such an instrument made for band use would likely have had a more limited range (fewer buttons), both because band parts wouldn't be overly complex and because that would help counteract the greater weight of the lower-pitched (and therefore larger) reeds.

 

Mick, if you could find out how many rows the buttons are in, that would help. But 30 TOTAL keys? That sounds like an odd duck ... no Crane references implied blink.gif

Even a baritone (one octave lower than usual) duet would be unusual, so I'm pretty sure this one will quack. :D

 

Maybe someone with some reed-tuning skills decided they wanted to make a bizarre duet out of their anglo??

Possible, but extremely unlikely, I think.

 

My first thought was a Jedcertina, but the models I've seen photos of have only 20 buttons + air valve. Then there are those old German "Chromatic Concertinas", with piano arrangement on the RH side and chord buttons on the LH side. They have more than 20 buttons, but I don't know whether there was a model with exactly 30 + air.

A Jedcertina-like concertina with more than 30 buttons was brought up in an old thread, and there was mention of Jedcertinas with 4 rows instead of just two. So that's possible, but I don't know how probable.

 

How many has the smallest Maccann got, by the way?

How about 10 buttons, or aren't there mini concertina's with a duet layout??

I know there has been at least one 12-button duet mini on eBay (a few years ago). The layout seemed to be based on the Maccann system, to the extent one can do that with only 12 buttons.

 

I once saw a concertina belonging to Stephen Chambers that looked like a large Anglo but was actually tuned like a chromatic button accordion, which has the same notes on push and pull. Stephen thought that it was probably a one-off special order, and this could conceivably be another oddball instrument like that one.

Could be. There are various other oddballs, though I don't know how many with only 30 buttons. Stuart Eydmann (member aeolina) has one, discussed in this thread. I have one, which is one of a few different Pitt-Taylor designs. And I've heard of other one-of-a-kind concertinas.

 

Pictures would of course help if you can get them.

Photos are always appreciated, but I don't know how much help they'll be in explaining the instrument if it's a real oddball, and not just a fewer-button version of a Maccann or Crane.

 

Could it be a 'lower' register english?

No. (Or at least, almost certainly not.)

 

Didn't some of them have fewer keys and wrist straps?

Yes, and some had both wrist straps and the standard number of buttons or more. But wrist straps are not hand straps: They are mounted differently, serve a very different purpose, and are in addition to the thumb loops and finger plates on an English, not a replacement for them.

 

At first I thought he might be mistaken about the number of buttons or the notes per button, but he's absolutely sure as he used to muck around recording songs on guitar and used the concertina to play drones.

Does he remember how many buttons there were on each side of the instrument, or at least whether there were more on one side (the right, almost certainly) than the other? If so, then it's likely some kind of duet.

 

Also, since he played some music (even if only drones) on it, might he remember the range (highest and lowest notes) in each of the two hands or even just overall?

 

He might be able to take some pictures when he goes home at Christmas, but in the meantime does anyone have a clue what it might be if not an Anglo?

For "a clue", see all of the above. :D

 

Pictures would be very nice, but even more helpful would be a drawing of the button layouts of both ends, labelled with the note each button plays.

 

We look forward to learning more.
:)

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HI folks,

 

I just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard of a 30 key concertina which is not an Anglo?

Mick.

 

I have a 26-key English concertina. the range starts on the G above middle C, and goes up to an F, just short of 2 octaves, and with all the semitones in between. that puts it in the middle of the 48-key treble range. Thanks to Roger Gawley for taking the photo, and to the West Country Concertina players for putting on their website.

 

- John Wild

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Yes, Jim, I know the difference between hand straps and wrist straps, but the description is so vague that they could be confused.

 

I think pictures would be very useful, in as much as it would eliminate at least a few variables!

 

Chris

Edited by cnrobinson
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Yes, Jim, I know the difference between hand straps and wrist straps, but the description is so vague that they could be confused.
...handstraps ( not thumbstraps)...

Doesn't seem at all vague to me.

 

In spite of the fact that handstraps have often been mistakenly called "wrist straps", I don't recall ever encountering the reverse error. And the wrist straps of an English are always in addition to the "thumbstraps", which varney said were not present.

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He doesn't know the make and is kinda vague on what it looked liked ( "metal and wood ends with straps for your hand" is about the best I can get from him!).

This doesn't seem vague to you?

Well, there's the word "vague", to be sure, but I took that statement to mean that the specifics that were mentioned were those few things the son of the owners was not "vague" about.

 

  • number of buttons - anything but vague; he insisted that it's 30
  • "the notes are the same on the push and pull" - again, he insisted
  • "straps for your hand" - seems a pretty clear description to me; very difficult to make the wrist straps of an English function as "straps for your hand", and as I noted, this is combined with a definite "not thumbstraps"
  • "metal and wood ends" - no details of what part is metal and what is wood, but of all the concertinas I've seen, this description fits only two kinds
    1. a metal-ended concertina, almost certainly of English make (unless it's a more recent Bastari/Stagi)
    2. a wooden-ended concertina (English or German make) with significant metal inlay

    and I'll bet on 1.

You're welcome to remain "vague", if you like, but I'm confident of my analysis.

 

Meanwhile, however, I've made sure that I have some tomato sauce in the pantry... just in case I have to eat my words. ;)

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