jack baritone, wheatstone, cajun or melodeon?

[BrokeBlake]

Hello, my name is Blake and I recently was going to get a concertina but it's just so expensive to find one quality and there seems to be a lot of small accordion/ melodeon available in my area…

I keep trying to look them up though and I can't find any information on any of them except for the cajun IV BY HOHNER. If anybody knows any information about these three different boxes into steer me in the direction of which one would be the best value for me and the best quality I'd be super appreciative…

And of course, a Jack baritone concertina that I was gonna trade my resonator guitar for, then person would only take cash and i was about to buy then the guy backed out of it. he left the ad up though...now after two weeks he messages me back saying he COULD sell and I don't really have the money for it...

 so thats an option too but the melodeons/cajuns ui can get for a considerable amount cheaper..

the lester is the best priced by far and looks really cool. i just cannot find ANY info on it whatsoever

also there is a wheatstone concertina for WAY more but they will let me make payments so that could be an option. its hard to find info on this particular model tho due to the image quality..

 

 

any help identifying these models or advice on which would be best would be VERY appreciated. 

 

 I basically just wanna play simple sea shanty type things well me and my wife bus I play Clawhammer banjo and guitar and she plays fiddle in mandolin and I just wanted to be able to accompany her on a couple songs so I was thinking the JACK BARITONE would be good since she plays mandolin, but I'm wondering if I can do the same thing with the melodeon/Cajun accordion…

 

I've ALWAYS wanted to play a decent concertina after having a toy one while busking on the east coast for a little bit.(that thing was almost unusable tho!)

 

..ANYWAYS sorry for the novel y'all! Hopefully i will be playing one or two different box's soon and be able to post more interesting and helpful things in the future!

...thanks in advance for any advice!

Broke Blake

[Johanna]

I had a Jack once.  It was fun to play, although it's large and clunky compared to other concertinas, and the lowest notes are very slow to respond.

 

Have you seen the Wheatstone in person, and do you have any sense of what condition it's in?  (E.g., do all the notes play in both directions?  Is it in tune?  Are the bellows airtight?)  Vintage concertinas can have lots of little (or big) things wrong with them that aren't evident from pictures of the outside, so it's worth being careful.

 

With either of the one-row button accordions, you'd be pretty much limited to playing in just one key.  Would that be a problem for you?  Furthermore, as I understand it, Cajun accordions have their own distinct tuning that gives Cajun music its characteristic sound, but that might not sound right when playing other styles of music.

[Roger Hare]

5 hours ago, BrokeBlake said:

...so thats an option too but the melodeons/cajuns ui can get for a considerable amount cheaper.. (my emphasis)

 

If you wish to investigate going down the melodeon route, try asking on melodeon.net. You'll get plenty of advice there. I think there may be a 'guest login' function, but you'll need to register/enrol before you can use the site fully...

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12 by Roger Hare

[Tiposx]

Melodeons like the single row Hohner in your first photos are quite inexpensive (here in the UK). They are also easy to play, and fix up if necessary. Hohner in particular.

Many melodeon players own several single row boxes in different keys, typically G,D and C so that they can fit in with other players.

[Ken_Coles]

In the Cajun tradition, one-row melodeon is often played outside the home key. On a C box, G is second position (with a flat/bluesy seventh note), and so on. Check out Pine Grove Blues, played by the great Nathan Abshire in fifth position (minor, with only a few notes of the scale) - a tour de force. [This is ancient recollection; I probably have some of it mixed up.] Players of mouth harp/harmonica are familiar with these techniques, I imagine. Yes, do ask the real experts on melodeon.net if you want to know more.

 

Added edit: Make that fourth position for Pine Grove Blues (not minor)...the expert source is Ann Savoy's book on Cajun music.

 

Ken

Edited June 12 by Ken_Coles

[Johanna]

3 hours ago, Ken_Coles said:

In the Cajun tradition, one-row melodeon is often played outside the home key.

Thanks for the clarification.  I should have said, you're limited to the notes in just one key - i.e., you can't transpose things arbitrarily, whereas on an English concertina you can.  But yeah, if you want good advice about melodeons, ask the melodeon experts.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I have my late father's two row Hohner accordion/ Meliodeon from, which I use maybe once a month, it is in C and C sharp. With a selection of basses (.

I vmainly use my 30 key Anglo concertina (Hohner) both were made when they were still made in Europe Germany or Italy ( 1980s to the 1990s period)..(not in the far East) and so they have lasted. Fingering layout has some similarities ( note button numbers for a note).

Whilst you do not need to spend thousands..there's some very mass produced ones out there these days so do research carefully before buying one.

[Ken_Coles]

Welcome to the world of free reeds, BrokeBlake! As you can see, there are myriad ways to do/play anything. Some of us (me included) came to our choice by accident (price or availability or seeing an example); others I expect did reason their way through choice of first instrument to try.

 

Ken

[El Squeezer]

If you want a quality cajun accordion your talkin $2000-$3000 on ebay (can be risky) or $4400 and up new from a maker in Louisiana (Savoy, Martin, Larry Miller, etc..). Gabbanelli accordions in Houston, TX manufactures the "cajun king" which now runs around $1200 and they do usually play nicely (at least the ones I've tried out). I think you mentioned busking and having a dynamic instrument like a cajun box is a good idea because of their volume. You can play sea shanty's like you mentioned but they don't necessarily lend themselves to the cajun accordion. On the concertina side of things, yeah they are ridiculously expensive as well but more suited to the nautical stuff. I think maybe a two row melodeon like a Hohner pokerwork or something might be a good compromise for the music you want to play and price. Good luck.