Shas Cho Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Good afternoon, y'all. It's been a while. Ken (tall ship) dragged me over here and I thought I might use the opportunity to say a general 'howdy' and to ask for the thoughtful advice of the group. With the encouragement and assistance of you good folk I adopted a Rochelle last autumn and have never regretted it for a minute. In fact, I'm very grateful to you and for her. I don't know that my playing has reached any stellar heights but my enthusiasm for the instrument has never flagged. Very few days have passed without my playing it, at least for a few minutes and I often spend a good bit of the evening playing Irish tunes and pr-1980 favourites. I just play the melody line in a one-note-at-a-time style, like a wood wind or a hand-operated harmonica. I haven't heard many decent players use that technique, but it's all I can manage and I get a lot of pleasure from it. Actually, it just occurs to me that you might be able to advise me... I pretty much live in bed, and most days I lack the strength to hold the tina up for more than a few moments. Typically I rest it on the bed clothes while playing. As you can probably imagine, the 'bottom' creases of the bellows are becoming quite worn. I'm sure that prevention is easier than repair but I don't know what sort of prevention to apply. I look at these increasingly threadbare folds and think about gluing on chafe patches of cloth or soft leather, but my courage fails me when I consider that my modifications could spoil the action or create excessive resistance. I would be very sad to damage her. Suggestions, please? After looking at Pete's shoulder harness I'm thinking the ultimate solution might be to hang a pair of long straps from my ceiling to suspend the instrument just a centimetre above my bed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidesqueeze Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Hey, Shas! What's that you're pulling on in your picture? It doesn't look like a Rochelle! I will defer your question to the experts here. Best wishes! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shas Cho Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Oh, dang, dang, DANG! I can't believe I did that. It was sidesqueeze Ken who dragged me over here. Man, I miss my brain. Sorry, Ken. That picture, which I cannot find, is no doubt a pre-Rochelle photo of my first concertina, a leaky Stagi my in-laws brought home from Ireland. Either that or you caught me plinking on my ukulele... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Molkentin Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 I pretty much live in bed... Hi brother Chas, that's a real pity; imagined you roving around through the Fraser Valley and all... Straps from the ceiling might be the solution for at least the concertina problem; fine that you're sticking to playing your black shiny beast anyway! I whish you all the best! W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 Chas, I've put thin leather corner reinforcements on many of my 'tinas with no problems. Seems like a good idea to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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