40 button Anglo's

[accordian]

How comes 40 buttons aren't made as much compared to a 30 or 40 Button? I know duets are available but that being said the bisonoric "feature" makes it interesting. You can play most notes in both directions but the one you can't you have to go in the other direction and so it can still stay bisonoric. 

[Wolf Molkentin]

6 minutes ago, accordian said:

How comes 40 buttons aren't made as much compared to a 30 or 40 Button? I know duets are available but that being said the bisonoric "feature" makes it interesting. You can play most notes in both directions but the one you can't you have to go in the other direction and so it can still stay bisonoric. 

 

Just a remark re your second consideration:

 

an Anglo would always "stay bisonoric", as you'd be perfectly ably to play scales (i.e. two consecutive notes of them) through just reversing the bellows direction (starting with the inner and middle row) - a feature which can't be emulated soundwise by a unisonoric instrument like  EC or Duet.

 

Best wishes - ?

[accordian]

Ah right I probably didn't explain myself very well. I'm looking into playing with accompaniment on left hand like toru Kato on YouTube. I understand that to get the next note just change direction but I'm personally looking for notes which on a 30 button would be in both directions and so impossible. A 40 button allows you to play the same as a 30 button but it can do extra stuff. 

[accordian]

Just now, accordian said:

Ah right I probably didn't explain myself very well. I'm looking into playing with accompaniment on left hand like toru Kato on YouTube. I understand that to get the next note just change direction but I'm personally looking for notes which on a 30 button would be in both directions and so impossible. A 40 button allows you to play the same as a 30 button but it can do extra stuff. 

It's nice to have the extra bits even if you dont use them much. More stuff to play 

[Devils' Dream]

Coming to concertina from melodeon, I just see Anglos, no matter how many buttons, as having "limitations", much like the melodeon; it's part of their "charm".  My first concertina, back in the pre-internet mists of time was an English, one of those ubiquitious Wheatstones in the wooden box with the little key.  It was fun to play and could play "anything".  But it did not have "charm".  Easy to play all the notes = EC or CBA.  Lacks something, tho....  (but in the hands of a great player, can be done, I must admit....)
"

[Chris Timson]

John Kirkpatrick has a 40 button Crabb C/G anglo and famously taught himself to play in all keys an both directions on the instrument. So yes, it's possible but also yes, it's not easy.

 

As to why they aren't made so much, well it's because most prospective purchasers want to use them for folk music, English, American or Irish mainly, in a limited number of "sharp" keys and for that 30 buttons is perfectly adequate and much cheaper. Also accordion reeds are larger than concertina reeds so makers of "hybrid" instruments find it difficult to physically fit that many accordion reeds into an anglo, remembering that unlike the English concertinas all the larger bass reeds are on the same side.

 

Chris

Edited October 21, 2018 by Chris Timson

[alex_holden]

23 minutes ago, Chris Timson said:

As to why they aren't made so much, well it's because most prospective purchasers want to use them for folk music, English or Irish mainly, in a limited number of "sharp" keys and for that 30 buttons is perfectly adequate and much cheaper. Also accordion reeds are larger than concertina reeds so makers of "hybrid" instruments find it difficult to physically fit that many accordion reeds into an anglo, remembering that unlike the English concertinas all the larger bass reeds are on the same side.

 

That's true, plus even with traditional reeds it's quite a squeeze, which can lead to the designer making some less than ideal compromises like very short action levers, inboard reed chambers, and low reeds that are smaller than they would have used in a 30 button. Plus extra buttons typically makes for a slightly heavier instrument.