Help For A Noob

[vcf.cramer]

So I am a total noob but concertina's have interested me for a while now and I have been looking for a decent second hand one.
Recently I found one a Fa. F. Lange, Chemnitz, Saxony; with on the left side16 buttons and on the right side 22.

 

I am in the proces of buying it and we have made an deal for 80 euros and still have to pick it up.

the seller did not know the key it was in, any tips to find out which key? I want to play irish and celtic

 

​So Point is there is a damaged point at the ballog as seen in the second picture

and I don't know how bad it is but want to do research for possible repairs do you have any tips hints on repairs,

on what key it might be/how to check it

or if i'm buying like a headless chicken because i have not heard or seen the instrument in real life (my idea is that for that money it is worth the risk of potentially buying a great instrument for a steal price)

 

 

 

[Wolf Molkentin]

So you're raising more questions than you might be aware of...

 

If you intend playing mainly Celtic and Irish stuff, an instrument like this one would be fairly uncommon. I'm not an expert with these, if it has octave tuning you might get a sound similar to those "German" concertinas as introcuded to Ireland long ago. However, today's instruments will rarely have two reeds sounding together per button (it's just one).

 

Since the instrument is bisonoric, the key really matters! My guess (not more) would be it's in C, which would make playing Irish stuff, at least alongside fellow musicians, difficult.

 

As to repairing, there are experienced people (not including myself) here, but you might find closer advice at another place which I don't recall at the moment. The concertinas we're regularly talking abougt here are from another branch of the family, with the "Anglo-German" being the closest to the instrument you're mentioning.

 

Best wishes - Wolf

[JimLucas]

So I am a total noob but concertina's have interested me for a while now and I have been looking for a decent second hand one.

Recently I found one a Fa. F. Lange, Chemnitz, Saxony; with on the left side16 buttons and on the right side 22.

 

I am in the proces of buying it and we have made an deal for 80 euros and still have to pick it up.

the seller did not know the key it was in, any tips to find out which key? I want to play irish and celtic

 

The good news: For that instrument 80 euros is probably a bargain even if it needs more work than just repairing the bellows. And for that I would suggest you contact Harry Geuns, in Belgium.

 

The "bad" news: That's not the type of concertina popular in Ireland. It's from a different branch of the concertina family, is much larger than the "Irish" sort, and with a quite different keyboard layout. If you want to learn to play jigs, reels, and hornpipes on that one, you'll be pretty much on your own.

 

As for what "key" it might be in, even how that is classified may be quite different from how "anglo" concertinas (the most popular in Ireland) are classified. I.e., I'm told that "in C" has very different meanings for those two types of concertina.

 

Feel free to ask more questions, though, and we'll try to help you out.

Edited June 22, 2014 by JimLucas

[vcf.cramer]

Thanks guys, I will arrange that i will pick it up as soon as possible.
fix it up and try to learn the basics with this one and save up for one more suitable for irish celtic music.

 

Is there any way to find out which key it is in? or is that just a case of a trained ear?

 

I have read somewhere on the web that the keyboard layout should be the same as the anglo type concertina, hope that helps

 

I am glad to hear as much as I can from you all and will keep you posted!