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Ooops! I Dropped My 'tina


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I carry my concertina in a padded gig-bag with a shoulder strap.

 

Soo, I lifted it out of the back of my car last Tuesday, swung it over my shoulder and ..... down it went on to the tarmac!!

 

One clip of the strap had in some mysterious fashion become UN-clipped!

 

The damage, I hear you ask??

 

It's a 30 button metal ended Marcus. The resistance of the strap over my shoulder meant that it landed fair & square on the left hand end. The impact on the hand rest has distorted the grille quite badly without damaging the wood/carcase. Bellows are OK but the shock has obviously disturbed some of the reeds.

One note just don't sound at all whilst others are slow to start or choke shortly after sounding.

 

So it's off to hospital for the poor wee thing! all packed up by the front door ready to go to the Post Office tomorrow.

 

Jake

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Ouch! My sympathies.

 

A similar experience in my teens - saved up for a decent guitar - the improvised fabric slip case didn't provide much protection from a slamming car door. Unfortunately it was more of a trip to the guitar undertaker than the guitar hospital. The next [cheaper] guitar was purchased with a basic hard case - and sod's law, no one has ever slammed a car door on that one!

 

I tihnk I remember seeing someone with a Marcus in a rather nice hard case with internal padding at a festival some years ago, if I recall rightly they said the case came from Marcus too.

 

Hope the treatment is effective and the hospital stay not too long.

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I believe that soft cases for concertinas should come with a strongly worded health warning. In that last couple of years I have had to do expensive repairs to 5 different concertinas that would have been undamaged Ina hard case. They were a Wheatstone model 21, two Edeophone a, an early flat rosewood ended Wheatstone, and most recently an ebony ended New Model. It breaks my heart to see these beautiful antique instruments smashed up because of carelessness. Fortunately I have been able to fix all the casualties so far, but it would be much better if concertina owners accepted the slight extra inconvenience to protect what are often irreplaceable instruments.

Edited by Theo
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Once, I dropped my 'tina onto a concrete floor. It smashed into quite a few pieces which were put back together by a well known concertina joint in Massachusetts.

 

I always travel with a soft Lowepro camera case and I've never had a problem aside from that hard floor at home with no case in sight.

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I use an Eagle soft case for Morris .It allows my hands free to play and carry my case when in for instance a parade.I dont have to rely on other people carrying items for me or returne to the start to collect my case.

PS The one time I did damage my concertina badly was when I stood on a Morris stick ,which acted like a roller skate and could not get my hands out of the straps quick enough to save myself .Bob

Edited by KelTekgolow
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