Irina Posted June 20, 2023 Share Posted June 20, 2023 I'm thinking about buying a new anglo concertina... I play a Connor. One of the ones he made with/for Barleycorn concertinas with salvadged parts of old instruments. I have no idea if mine is a good/ excellent/ mediocre instrument and how far I am from being restrained by what it can do (as opposed to what I can and can't do). I'd love to be able to try one! Is there anyone in Germany who'd let me try their instrument? I'm in the very east so Poland and Czech Republic would be good too. Or anywhere between Dresden and Shetland, since I'll be going there in autumn... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Mellish Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 (edited) If you pass through London on your way to or from Shetland you can try mine. (But I don't know what 7mount means.) Edited June 21, 2023 by Richard Mellish Added comment on 7mount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, Richard Mellish said: (But I don't know what 7mount means.) Siebengebirge is an area/ range of (seven) hills in Germany and home to the maker of the concertina. Edited June 21, 2023 by Peter Laban Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglo-Irishman Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 7mount is the brand name for concertinas built by Ralf Schlimm within view of the Siebengebirge that Peter mentioned. The 7mount Website shows the panorama of the Seven Mountains. The view is familiar to me - it can be seen from my brother-in-law's back garden on the southern outskirts of Bonn! If you've got a moment for a bit of legend ... It is said that the seven giants who dug out the Rhine Gorge knocked the dirt from their spades when they completed their job on reaching the North German Plain. This resulted in the Seven Mountains. Much later, the area entered literary folklore when the Brothers Grimm wrote down the story of Schneewittchen (Snow-white). When the magic mirror revealed to the wicked queen that Snow-white was still alive and prettier than she was, it said, "Hinter den sieben Bergen, bei den sieben Zwergen ..." (Behind the seven mountains, with the seven dwarves ...). And sure enough: the village where my parents-in-law lived is in the middle of the Seven Mountains, and the nickname for the local inhabitants, in the regional dialect, is "Ledderköpp" (Leather-heads) - indicating the head-gear formerly worn by miners, which has evolved into the present-day dwarves' pointed cap. And miners in the olden days tended to be smaller than most people. If the 7mount concertinas are as fantastic as the area they are named after, they should be pretty good! Cheers, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takayuki YAGI Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 Somewhat off topic but... In the Kevin Costello's website http://www.concertinatuningrepair.com/about.html It says Quote He currently works with Ralf Schlimm of 7 Mount Concertinas in the construction of new concertinas for the Irish market. So I am not sure to what extent Ralf focuses on the German market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takayuki YAGI Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 On 6/21/2023 at 7:43 AM, Irina said: I have no idea if mine is a good/ excellent/ mediocre instrument By the way, I too own Connor with salvaged Lachenal reeds. It is not so fast/responsive but bellows and mechanisms are reliable. And I like the mellow tone of typical Lachenal, so overall I like mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Thorne Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 On 6/20/2023 at 11:43 PM, Irina said: Or anywhere between Dresden and Shetland, since I'll be going there in autumn... For the knitting "festival"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irina Posted June 22, 2023 Author Share Posted June 22, 2023 2 hours ago, Clive Thorne said: For the knitting "festival"? No. But for the sheep! And the music! I think our visit will coincide with the knitting thing so I expect lots of ladies from all over the world knitting in bars - in time to the session tunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Hersh Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 5 hours ago, Anglo-Irishman said: 7mount is the brand name for concertinas built by Ralf Schlimm within view of the Siebengebirge that Peter mentioned. But the website says, "due to the high demand of 7Mount Concertinas and the growing waiting list, I’m currently taking no new orders. " I think the website has said that for quite some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Mellish Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 Following the explanations of 7mount, and to clarify my own post, I do not have one of those, so cannot offer one to try, but I do have Anglos of several other makes, which Irina (or anyone passing through London) is welcome to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex West Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 10 hours ago, Richard Mellish said: I do not have one of those, so cannot offer one to try, but I do have Anglos of several other makes, which Irina (or anyone passing through London) is welcome to try. Same for me if anyone's passing by North Ayshire/Glasgow. I do know of someone with a 7 mount (GD I think) not too far away from me Alex West Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglo-Irishman Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 On 6/22/2023 at 6:18 PM, Irina said: ladies from all over the world knitting in bars - in time to the session tunes. Hmm! You'd have to play pretty fast to keep in time with a Shetland woman knitting! Maybe they have "slow sessions" for non-Shetlandic knitters 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irina Posted June 24, 2023 Author Share Posted June 24, 2023 On 6/23/2023 at 7:15 PM, Anglo-Irishman said: Hmm! You'd have to play pretty fast to keep in time with a Shetland woman knitting! Maybe they have "slow sessions" for non-Shetlandic knitters 😉 No chance I'll ever be able to play concertina at the speed of a Shetland knitter! Or a Shetland fiddler! But reminds me: It was a session in Shetland where one woman was learning to knit. Thinking hard about every move and ever so slowly getting her stitches done. It's really strange to do something 'in a rhythm' when someone else does something in a different ryrhm! Could be interesting to see if knitters at a session fall into the groove! Shetland knitter's at double time and most visitors at half speed... I'd also love to know if my preferred speed on concertina is set by what my instrument can do. I played flute before and with a half decent Instrument it's the speed of fingers and personal taste that set the tempo. No mechanics involved. But then: even as a listener I think I like (Irish) tunes on concertina better at a slower pace than on flute or pipes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Molkentin Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 I can only add that I once (many years ago) heard Ralf play a 7mount Anglo himself, and it sounded pretty good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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