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Wanted - Large Crane duet concertina


Peter Smith

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I am looking for a larger Crane duet concertina, probably 68 button.

I have a 35 button but find its range rather limiting and am looking for a Crane/Triumph duet which goes down to the G one & a half octaves below middle C. 

If anyone has a larger Crane they are looking to sell, please contact me.

I have seen the occasional large Maccann for sale but no large Crane concertinas.

I’m new to concertina.net so am learning how it works. If you have difficulty contacting me on concertina.net, please e-mail me at psmith3087@aol.com.

Thanks

Peter

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2 hours ago, Takayuki YAGI said:

It's not 68 button but if 55 button is enough, The Box Place currently sells one.

I don't think this is what the OP is looking for. The 55 button layout only extends the range to the top, if I understand the charts on http://craneconcertina.com/layouts.html correctly, so anybody who wants lower notes must go for at least 68 buttons...

 

Edited by RAc
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16 hours ago, Takayuki YAGI said:

It's not 68 button but if 55 button is enough, The Box Place currently sells one.

Many thanks for the suggestion. I was talking with the Box Place last week about this concertina. As RAc says the bottom end is only down to the C below middle C. I’m beginning to think that maybe I should start with this 55 button!

Thanks for your help

Peter

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13 hours ago, saguaro_squeezer said:

That was what my 69-key Crabb had.  But didn't Paul McCann have a 55 that went down to that G, or below?  A Connor, or a Crabb variant?

Thanks for the suggestion. I have been unable to locate on the internet the variants to the 55 button that you suggest. Could you give me some direction?

regards

Peter

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11 hours ago, Peter Smith said:

Many thanks for the suggestion. I was talking with the Box Place last week about this concertina. As RAc says the bottom end is only down to the C below middle C. I’m beginning to think that maybe I should start with this 55 button!

Thanks for your help

Peter

 

Actually it depends on what kind of music you intend to play with it. I have a 48 and a 55 button Crane, and for about 95% of the music I play (mostly English and French dance tunes) the range of the 48 is perfectly sufficient. I even found that a larger keyboard has its drawbacks. For example, the shape of the Crane keyboard makes it rather susceptible to being a row off which happens less likely with fewer rows.

 

One of the things that could improve the Crane design dramatically would be less overlap between the left and right hand sides and instead add lower notes (eg shift the entire left side one row up such that the B below the RH lowest note would be the LH highest note and fill the lowest row with the three notes below the low C). The only drawbacks about that design would be that 1. the LH and RH scales are not the same anymore and 2. some chord shapes would move downward, but I'd think both novices and experienced players would pick up that oddity rather fast.

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On 8/8/2018 at 8:04 PM, RAc said:

 

Actually it depends on what kind of music you intend to play with it. I have a 48 and a 55 button Crane, and for about 95% of the music I play (mostly English and French dance tunes) the range of the 48 is perfectly sufficient. I even found that a larger keyboard has its drawbacks. For example, the shape of the Crane keyboard makes it rather susceptible to being a row off which happens less likely with fewer rows.

 

One of the things that could improve the Crane design dramatically would be less overlap between the left and right hand sides and instead add lower notes (eg shift the entire left side one row up such that the B below the RH lowest note would be the LH highest note and fill the lowest row with the three notes below the low C). The only drawbacks about that design would be that 1. the LH and RH scales are not the same anymore and 2. some chord shapes would move downward, but I'd think both novices and experienced players would pick up that oddity rather fast.

 

Many thanks for your thoughts.

I like playing hymns on my Crane concertina - hence my desire to have some lower buttons on the left hand side. The Salvation Army seemed to manage without those lower keys but I like the full depth of the base line!

I completely agree with your suggestions about improvements to the Crane concertina but don’t know if anyone has done this.

Thanks again.

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I did once play a Crane - I think it was a 55 button Wheatstone but I can't be sure - where the LH was shifted down a fourth. I had only five minutes on it and it was a bit disorientating, but I'm sure one would quickly get used to it and it's certainly an attractive idea.

 

I understand the desire for lower bass notes. My solution is to adapt smaller instruments (e.g. 42 or 48 buttons - for me anything else gets too big for comfort) by re-purposing the rarely used C#3 and Eb3 buttons. That gives me very useful B, Bb and A or, on one instrument, B, A and G. The price for this is the loss of C#3 and the introduction of two anglo (bisonoric) buttons. For me it's a very worthwhile trade-off.

 

LJ

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Many thanks for your suggestions. I was beginning to think on these lines to see what could be done. As you suggest, a smaller e.g. 48 button instrument would be more manageable than my original thought of a ‘large’ Crane duet.

I’ll look at this further.

Many thanks

Peter

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  • 2 weeks later...

Much to my surprise, a good 67 button Crabb Crane concertina with ebonised ends turned up out of the blue. So I am now the proud owner of this concertina.

Many thanks to all those who have put up posts and made suggestions.

Peter

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13 hours ago, Peter Smith said:

The range of the 67 button concertina is E-2 to G2. See attached Excel file.

For pictures, see the end of the post entitled '48 button Wheatstone Crane for sale'.

Regards

Peter

67 Button Crane layout (No. 18238).xlsx

 

Thanks for this. It certainly does go low! (Eb rather than E.) I'm always intrigued by the seemingly random way Crabb added the extra notes. The sixth column under the little finger makes sense, but the Eb - Bb transition looks awkward. I'd probably consider swapping the E2 and Eb2 reeds.

 

I also detect a bias towards the flat keys. This example omits F#2. Other extended Crabbs, e.g. 57 or 58 button versions, add just Bb2 and F2.

 

Once you've had time to familiarise yourself it would be interesting to hear how you find the transition from 35 to 67 buttons.

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Thanks for your comments. I agree with the bias towards flats and would have expected the F#2 to be there.

Regarding the change to the 67 button, I love the lower notes - great sound. My 35 button has the Lachnal layout, so it’s taking a bit of adjusting to the more angular Crabb layout but I’m getting there. Really pleased with this 67 button.

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21 minutes ago, Peter Smith said:

My 35 button has the Lachnal layout, so it’s taking a bit of adjusting to the more angular Crabb layout but I’m getting there. Really pleased with this 67 button.

 

I had a Crabb 55 with the chevron layout for a couple of years. It didn't take long to get used to it and I didn't have any trouble swapping between the Crabb chevron and the Butterworth arc. But I couldn't really get on with the physical size of it. At 7 1/4 inches it didn't feel concertina-like to me! Your 67 must be much bigger.

 

LJ

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