Annoyed by technology

[Henrik Müller]

I played around (pun intended) with a video camera an afternoon

during the week after New Year, only to find that the equipment,

surprisingly, had gone on strike = no sound

 

 

The only result is this video, left

on YouTube for you to peruse...

Hope to do more next time -

 

/Henrik

[David Barnert]

Interesting. Can you tell us more about the instrument? An English Concertina with no thumb strap or pinkie rest (and it doesn't look like it ever had them), hand straps (indeed, your youtube handle seems to be "handstrapz") and only three columns of buttons on the left, plus one button (haven't seen the right side). It looks like almost all (if not all) of the playing is on buttons in the 1st and 3rd columns.

[Henrik Müller]

Interesting. Can you tell us more about the instrument? An English Concertina with no thumb strap or pinkie rest (and it doesn't look like it ever had them), hand straps (indeed, your youtube handle seems to be "handstrapz") and only three columns of buttons on the left, plus one button (haven't seen the right side). It looks like almost all (if not all) of the playing is on buttons in the 1st and 3rd columns.

 

Easily: I built it in 2005/6 as the only way out for me to continue playing Irish music.

 

It was modelled after a Stagi miniature, that I had modified to "feel" like a standard 6 1/4" size. I experimented with various hand strap positions and landed on this, slightly angled version. It did have thumb straps, though - the small-width bellows on the Stagi would, combined with full-width sides, make the bellows collapse akwardly on the pull.

 

So the new instrument had modified thumb straps: half-width and positioned so that the thumb should go all the way in, to minimize strain on the joint. Half-width to prevent an unpleasant feeling when the thumbs were slightly bent.

 

In 2007, I discovered, through curiosity, that I could loosen the thumbstraps and play away as before and after one month of intensive playing (3-4 hour non-stop sessions) I removed them and changed the handstraps to what you see today. Never looked back.

 

Not so obvious are the changes in the buttons (apart from the reduced number): the horisontal spacing is wider than a "normal" EC (whatever that is). Today I now consider this width ridiculous narrow (and I don't have big hands) - the greater width allows me a playing style which would be difficult (though - in all fairness - not impossible). If one considers the spacing on an Anglo there is no comparison (taking into account the differences in the layouts)

 

The only "real" instrument I have ever seen, with wider horisontal spacing, was a Wheatstone hex-baritone from 1914, item no. 57, in the Horniman museum. A custom job, maybe?

 

The other change - also taken from the Stagi - is that the buttons go all the way down. Que?! Meaning that you feel the hole/the bushing/ the plate when you press it. I have always felt it unpleasant when, after a while, the buttons feel like they are little needles going into the fingertops and it was one of the things I felt good about the first time I fell upon the Stagi. It turned out to be another parameter that allowed a new style of playing.

 

The whole story can be seen (with a few image mistakes) by following the link in my signature.

===

The number of buttons: I don't need all the bs and #s, hence the peculiar look of the right side. The left is ever worse...

 

/Henrik

Edited January 17, 2010 by Henrik Müller

[David Barnert]

Easily: I built it in 2005/6 as the only way out for me to continue playing Irish music. [...]

Thank you. And nice playing in the video.

 

Edited to add:

 

I still don't understand your 3-column button arrangement.

Edited January 17, 2010 by David Barnert

[Henrik Müller]

Easily: I built it in 2005/6 as the only way out for me to continue playing Irish music. [...]

Thank you. And nice playing in the video.

 

Edited to add:

 

I still don't understand your 3-column button arrangement.

Thanks, David.

 

Well, there are four columns

- only the the fourth contains only one button, the one you can

see in the video, hanging there by itself, all sad and lonely.

Come to think of it, I never use it. Hmmm...

 

/Henrik

[David Barnert]

Well, there are four columns

- only the the fourth contains only one button, the one you can

see in the video, hanging there by itself, all sad and lonely.

Come to think of it, I never use it. Hmmm...

From looking at the video, it appears you never use the 2nd column either. Is that where all the accidentals are?

[Henrik Müller]

Well, there are four columns

- only the the fourth contains only one button, the one you can

see in the video, hanging there by itself, all sad and lonely.

Come to think of it, I never use it. Hmmm...

From looking at the video, it appears you never use the 2nd column either. Is that where all the accidentals are?

Again, we are being fooled by the video. Yes - it looks like nothing goes on there.

In this tune I use 3 buttons in the second column, the d, the a and the e'.

 

This is what I have:

 

 

 

Ahem... the high c" in the left side is a mistake.

On the little Stagi, I marked the extra buttons I would need by gluing small paper dots on the ends.

Where the c" should be, was the decorative cut-out. Once I had marked all, I switched the brain off (or on to other things).

Very embarrassing...

 

/Henrik

[Azalin]

Very late to the party, but good stuff Henrik, even more impressive is the fact that you're able to play this with an evil non-anglo 'thing' from outerspace

[michael sam wild]

Nice tunes and well played Henrik!

 

My friend Pete Smith here in Sheffield wrote a comic song to the tune Daniel O'Connell but didn't now what or where from. I'll tell him at tonight's session

 

 

It's based on a true story of one of his young unemployed friends who went to be a sperm donor for the money but went into Age Concern charity not the donor clinic in the same building and got a frosty reception!.

Edited February 23, 2010 by michael sam wild