Parnassus

[Geoff Wooff]

I got my Parnassus about a week ago. It is starting to work in nicely.

 

....oh holy cow...you better do a sound bite for me and Goeff--so we can bluther some more! Shelly

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Dam!!

 

 

Michelle,

when I saw your new post in this thread today I immediately thought... "yes she's sending me one to review or better a late Christmas gift"..............

 

Oh well at least someone got more than a pair of winter socks

[Geoff Wooff]

I got my Parnassus about a week ago. It is starting to work in nicely.

The reeds are thinner so the sound is richer and broader.

Since it has some spruce wood, it has a lot of resonance and vibrance.

The action and button short travel distance are even more responsive than I thought it would be.

It is as good as any concertina I have ever played and far better than most.

Of course the 12 sides makes for a wonderfully unconstricted sound.

It is not a honker or a screamer so it is perfect for playing with 2-3 other musicians.

Even better for playing solo if the acoustics are good.

The only bad thing I can say is that it will spoil you rotten.

You won't want to go back to your other concertinas.

I have to force myself to regularly play my Wheatstone Aeola so I do not get too spoiled.

 

 

 

Natureboy,

congrats on your Chrismas present.

 

Could you expand on your comments ; " reeds are thinner so the sound is richer and broader", " lot of resonance and vibrance" and "12 sides makes for a wonderfully unconstricted sound" ?

 

In what way are the reeds thinner ? Do the Spruce ends vibrate ? How do the twelves sides make for unconstricted sound ?

 

I am sure I am not the only person who is interested in your thoughts. There is ,after all, no substitute for having the instrument in your hands. A sound sample does not tell us very much and pictures are nice but..... let us salivate a little, please.

[David Barnert]

pictures are nice but.....

Well I, for one, would be interested in seeing pictures, particularly of the inside. Wim's web site (which has plenty of pictures of the outside) makes mention of sound posts. As a cellist, I can't help but be curious how this necessary component of the violin family plays a role in the construction of the concertina.

 

Edited to add link.

 

Edited again to add this photo of the inside of a bass:

 

Edited December 31, 2012 by David Barnert

[ceemonster]

yes, how do thinner reeds make for a fatter, richer sound? enquiring minds, and all that....

[Henrik Müller]

1334740542[/url]' post='135299']

...

Perhaps I am just a misery guts and really just interested in its usefullness as a musical instrument.

 

Geoff.

Like me ;-)

/Henrik

[NatureBoy]

Mine will take some more time to finish working in.

But you can hear Wim playing his after it has worked in at:

 

We both have a treble.

 

Hard woods such as walnut, maple and ebony will reflect sound.

Especially the higher harmonics.

They can be very loud and piercing.

Mahogany will absorb the higher harmonics so it creates a loud but nasal mellow sound.

Spruce is soft so it absorbs and vibrates with the sound.

It makes for a very rich resonant sound.

That is why most guitars have spruce on the top panel.

 

I have a spruce concertina that I play by myself or one other player at most.

It is too soft in sessions.

I have an Aeola which is mostly maple and mahogany.

It is good for sessions with 5-6 players.

I have a walnut concertina which is very loud and I only play in large sessions.

The Parnassus fills the gap when I am playing with 2-4 people.

 

Wim tells me the thin reeds increase the amplitude range.

The sound waves travel in broader sweeps.

More overtones.

Hence richer.

I used to own an early Lochnel that was specifically designed to play the treble range in a classical quartet.

It had a very narrow amplitude range to cover the treble part of the quartet.

Back then it was used mostly for classical.

Think of the instruments in an orchestra.

Each designed to fill a narrow gap and all work together for a full sound.

The Parnassus is richer so it can stand on it's own better.

 

In the early research done by Wheatsone, he discovered that the more perfectly round the concertina the more unconstricted the sound.

Just like stealth aircraft, soft edges do not cause waves to bounce so much.

The sound is smoother like a round bell ringing.

You can hear all of the overtones instead of some of them being blocked.

Edited January 1, 2013 by NatureBoy

[ceemonster]

hrrrmmmm, walnut for large sessions/dance bands. i would never have thought. the parnassus is really gorgeous. the design of the rosette has a bit of a deco feel to it that reminds me a little of the legendary delvecchio resonator guitars produced in the 1930s in brazil and played by some of the nashville guitar wizards such as chet atkins....[there is a contemporary edition, but supposedly kind of cheapie-ish and not as remarkable sonically and tone-wise as the old-school delvecchios]

 

 

 

personally, i do want a "honker" (though not a screamer), and am kind of thinking about getting on the list for a metal-ended wakker E-1 baritone 48, if wim wouldn't object to making a bari designed for dance-band music.....so long as i had up to "high C," i think that would be fine...