South African

[Cooper]

Hi there!

 

I am totally new on this forum and to concertina's. I do play melodeons for quite while. I always lke to try out new instruments, and was wondering about a concertina,..but i always find that nice sounding/playing ones are quite expensive around here in Europe-continent. Especially since i dont play yet, and dont want to spend the world to do so.

 

Now as it is, my inlaws are living in South Africa, and I seem to remember South Africa has a concertina-tradition is that right?

So i was thinking that it could be cheaper to buy a box there, is that a correct assumption? Do they build anything there?

W

[jdms]

Others on this forum (particularly Ben) will have better information than mine, but there are definitely concertina makers in South Africa, notable among them Koot Brits and Willie van Wyk, if memory serves (I don't know of any websites for either, but their contact information is in some thread or other: plugging those names into the forum search tool might be helpful). A great deal of Wheatstone's postwar Anglo production (including my own 40-button instrument, purchased from the aforementioned Ben) went to South Africa as well. As for cheaper, well...when I was in the process of buying my Wheatstone, I also considered a 40-button Koot Brits that Ben had available for the same price. It was a good price--a bargain, even--but I wouldn't call it cheap. You might or might not be able to get a better bargain with your in-country connections, but even if you can, it's not a route I'd follow for starting out.

[Dirge]

I'd agree with that except as long as you do the research (huge amounts of info here and linked to here) and you have very long suffering and reasonably alert relations I don't see why you shouldn't have a go. Remember if they foul up you'll probably be honour bound to pay up anyway. You could do the initial searching.

 

After Xmas (especially when the credit card bill comes in) is a good time for keen bargains; everyone is broke. And don't let them post it until after Xmas anyway unless they are very fast off the mark or it'll sit Heaven knows where for ages in transit.

[ben]

Welcome to this forum. I have sent you a PM with contact information.

Edited November 8, 2012 by Ben

[Cooper]

Thanx for all your advice folks!

I will think about it for a while before i take action :-)

W

[Paul Read]

I have sent you a PM with contact information. You can get some sound clips on Youtube.com of Koot Brits playing some of his instruments. Type in the search engine "Koot Brits" or "Boer Music" or "springbok07" . I bought a band new Koot Brits concertina last week and it plays very well. Koot is finally listening to North American critique and building concertinas with rivited action.

But very slowly!