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Upgrade Hayden Duet: Peacock Vs. Beaumont, Wakker And Wheatstone?


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I agree with Jim on this. I've used a Wheatstone Bass in a dance band (jigs , reels and country dance tunes) playing two octaves below the treble range and no problems with slow reeds, and in more recent years I have used my Baritone/Treble in Irish sessions, droping down an octave just for fun and I do not notice any great problems with delayed reed-reactions.

 

There are ,of course , poorly set up instruments 'out there' and we must remember that many of the Vintage models have already given a lifetime of service.

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Thanks, all. I certainly will ask Button Box to have a crack at the low reed setup. If it only gets slightly more responsice, that's still some improvement. And, Mr. Taylor, I apologize for spelling your name wrong....Don.

 

Any more posted sound or video of the Elise at play? All I have found are a couple of songs from Lukasz and Matthew's piece from Afg.

Those are the pieces that motivated me to get one!

 

Regards,

 

David

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I started out renting an Elise from But.Box, which I eventually purchased. This was followed by the Peacock two years later. While the Peacock was certainly an improvement, it has not been an easy road. I live in New England in an older home that does not have good environmental control inside. Therefore, when it is dry outside, it is dry inside, and when it is humid outside, it is humid inside. Now the Peacock. The sound board is one solid piece of choice wood ideal for the purpose for which it is used, except that this piece of wood is quite sensitive to humidity changes. At the beginning of this winter, when things began to really dry out, the sound board responded by changing it's shape and allowing air to pass other notes, causing multiple notes to play, as well as other tonal changes - to the point where the instrument became unplayable. I contacted Wim, who immediatly diagnosed the problem, and I sent the instrument back to him which he corrected and then sent it back me; with instructions that I had to control the humidity carefully. To this end, when the instrument is not in use, it is kept in an enclosed air tight container with a satruated Calcium carbonate salt solution in a remote part of the chamber resulting in a relative humidity that is maintained in the low 40s%. This has worked very well. When I do take it out to play, which I do daily, if it is VERY dry out, the instrument will handle this for close to an hour until tonal changes again begin to occur, at which point I must put it back into the chamber and "let it rest". I know that other concertinas (such as the Baumount) will use a plywood for a sound board, which is less succeptable to humidity changes. So, when choosing which instrument to use, consider the environmental conditions that the instrument will be subject to. If you live in fairly stable environmental conditions, a traditional sound board may be best. If you live in an environment with wildly fluctuating envonmental conditions, perhaps a sound board made of quality plywood would be best.

 

Finally, the left side of the Peacock would often drown out the right side. So to fix this I placed into the concertina a baffle on the left side that has proved extremely effective.

 

With the two above issues addressed, the Peacock has been an instrument that I now enjoy playing; but it has been a learning curve for me on how to care for and work with a musical instrument. I have never played the Baumount, but perhaps the above would help in figuring out what to choose.

Edited by Noel Ways
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  • 5 months later...

Have many other members had a chance to try out the Peacock yet?

 

I'm still really enjoying my Beaumont, and since I don't want to take something that pricey to South America I spent $500 on a 35b Crane to take down instead. Still not sure if I'll end up warming to the Crane system or not. If no I suppose I'd have to decide between muddling through with the Elise (which is a decent box but very clunky compared to Beaumont), risking my Beaumont, or getting a Peacock to be my traveling Hayden since the Beaumont is 150% the price of it.

 

If anyone else has observations on Peacock I'd be curious to hear. Noel's observations do concern me a bit, since it would be a bit counterproductive to being a traveling-box if the Peacock is somewhat sensitive to climate change. Lots of difference between humid coastal Brazil and a dry winter in Chile.

 

Fallback hopeful option: find a South American accordion-maker who can rig me up a little square diatonic Hayden with just a few chromatic notes that I can make work for me. Dunno how feasible that would be, but entertaining idea.

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