Intro, and Anglo help request

[RIchard York]

Hello,

I've just found the forum and registered.

Introduction first:

I've played Anglo for nearly 40 years, both with the Brackley Morris here in the UK, and also for my heritage work in schools and museums.

More about that on http://www.richard-york.co.uk/

I started, as a student, with a cheapie German 20 key, and worked up, via a couple of Lachenal mahogany ended ones to my present lovely C Jeffries C/G , with the extra keys in all directions, thought by Colin Dipper to be around 1890-ish.

 

It had a hard life before it came to me, but since Colin's been looking after it it has worked wonderfully every time, and should last a lot longer than me!

It's currently in need of new bellows and some more refurb work - the bellows I have are not original, and they're wearing out, and at least one pan was a bit warped before it came to me (nearly 30 years ago when such things were a lot cheaper), so it'll probably need some surgery in replacing the bellows. Rosalie & Colin have it booked in for early in the New Year, but I have some work during that time where I'll need to use an anglo in schools for a small number of Victorian days I'm running before mine's due back.

 

I know it's like asking someone to rent out their baby, but I'm hoping there's someone who can point me at a source of borrowing/renting a decent CG for a few weeks while they do their work on mine. I will expect the owner to want to meet and check me out, I will expect to insure it at my expense, and I will look after it as I do my own. I don't play it hard, and I do look after it! Nobody gets to handle it except me when it's working in a school.

 

Because this is in danger of sounding like a scam - I'm new here, and it's my first request, I'll also expect the owner to want a verifiable reference if need be. I'll provide this, and am sure Colin & Rosalie Dipper would also vouch for me too if contacted - they haven't a spare one to rent out, sadly, or we'd have gone down that route.

 

It would be polite to have hung around here for a while before launching into such a request, and I apologise for this, but I only just found this forum, and there's not much time to sort out a box for these school gigs!

 

I will be most grateful for any offers, leads, contact, or anything helpful anyone can offer. If anyone wishes to contact me off-list, you can contact me through my website, as above.

 

With thanks and best wishes,

Richard York

[RIchard York]

I never cease to be impressed by the generosity of the folk instrument world! I've had two very kind off-list offers, and have spoken to one owner already.

 

Thanks for being such a great community!

 

I've also enjoyed reading some of the other threads here, which just go to show how much help fellow musicians are prepared to offer each other. I also play hurdy gurdy among other things, and they're so temperamental - yes, a lot more so than concertinas! - that new members there tend to get greeted with sympathy for joining fellow sufferers, but also helped with the same quality of advice I'm seeing here.

 

Thanks for looking,

Richard.