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Beginner Needs A Wheatstone Maccann System Duet


Hallamtrads

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Hi, yet again one of my beginners, having played my loan instrument to destruction - needs to buy her own. Well strictly, her Dad's going to buy her an instrument for her 18th birthday which is imminent. Not content to keep squeezing away on a 46 button Lachenal, the gifted child wants a Wheatstone of 55 keys plus. Can anyone out there help?

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Hi, yet again one of my beginners, having played my loan instrument to destruction - needs to buy her own. Well strictly, her Dad's going to buy her an instrument for her 18th birthday which is imminent. Not content to keep squeezing away on a 46 button Lachenal, the gifted child wants a Wheatstone of 55 keys plus. Can anyone out there help?

 

If she's going to make that jump, I think she should be aware that the standard 58-button Wheatstone Duet -- and some, but not many, with fewer buttons -- go down to middle C in the right hand, rather than just to the G above. She might want to consider whether that could be important to her later... or even now.

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How about: 71 key 1920's lightweight special aeola, dural ends and reed frames, std keyboards, completely overhauled incl voicing by Richard Evans recently (Richard plays Maccan and seems to be the only repairer able to test his work 'in anger'). His brief was 'get it absolutely right.' It hasn't really been played since because typically while he was doing that I acquired my current instrument, which is what I'm sticking with.

 

71 is the ultimate size for one of these if you ask me. Buy this one and she can keep it for life. I used it for the debussy track eg.

 

View Marlow; £2600 firm (because it's with my parents and they won't thank me for getting them involved in horse trading). I think that's priced to sell for what it is.

 

Perhaps more than Dad wants to pay...

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The whole point of requiring the Wheatstone version is that the C octave is duplicated in the right hand. But thanks anyway.

71 buttons is way too big for a youngster especially one with small hands. 61 key would be tops, but ideally a 58 key would do the job.

Thanks for the replies.

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The whole point of requiring the Wheatstone version is that the C octave is duplicated in the right hand. But thanks anyway.

Indeed but not usually on a 55-key, even from Wheatstone, though a rare exception did turn up recently. And not all Wheatstone 57-keys (as the 58-key is usually called - the extra key is an air button) do it either - in particular the early instruments usually don't.

 

A 57-key was on offer on this website not very long ago, and they are slow to sell, so do have a look around, it might be still available. Because the market is very small, buying just the Maccann you want can take a little while, even though there seem to be more sellers than buyers in the market just now.

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The whole point of requiring the Wheatstone version is that the C octave is duplicated in the right hand. But thanks anyway.

Indeed but not usually on a 55-key, even from Wheatstone, though a rare exception did turn up recently. And not all Wheatstone 57-keys (as the 58-key is usually called - the extra key is an air button) do it either - in particular the early instruments usually don't.

 

A 57-key was on offer on this website not very long ago, and they are slow to sell, so do have a look around, it might be still available. Because the market is very small, buying just the Maccann you want can take a little while, even though there seem to be more sellers than buyers in the market just now.

 

Agreed that not all 57/58's have the C . As to the matter of whether that recently offered 58 is still up for sale ... ahem, I think Hallamtrads might very well be aware of that ... it was originally his, and was sold by a family member ;)

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If one is looking for a small Maccann ( 55-56 keys) that goes down to C (middle C) on the right hand then a Lachenal is a more likely bet.

Lachenal's catalogues show their 55 (56) key models being available, as standard, either with G or C as the lowest right hand note. These instruments are hardly any bigger than a 46 key.

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