Bellows Paper

[John Wild]

the concertina equivalent of a pink paisley kipper tie

 

Sounds like a perfect use for a HERRINGton concertina

 

 

Well, a kipper is a smoked herring!!!!!. but keep the concertina away from the fire

 

[Eric Root]

Whenever I run across Ken Sweeney I admire the home-made bellows papers decorating his old Wheatstone English. They are old opened-out cigar rings! I think they look great, and think with envy on the fun of smoking all those cigars. I wouldn't dare smoke them around my house, though, unless I wanted to sleep in the barn!

 

-Eric Root

[David Barnert]

Or smoke in the house and leave the 'tina in the barn.

[grumpyhermit]

  So if you really hate the "papers" look, I think you should consider getting a new bellows made by one of the respected instrument restorers and let them keep the old bellows (or keep it yourself against the day somebody sticks a knife through your bellows and you need a temporary replacement ).

Well, neighbor, if this sort of things happens a lot, it might account for the small numbers of concertinas out there in comparison with guitars. (And concertina players, for that matter! )

 

Bob

[Tom Cowell]

Helen,

 

Your accordion went by the philosophy that if you're truly big, you can wear anything?

 

Could be. I'm average height (or maybe a little shorter) so I don't have much insight into this. Frankly, "not much" is about all the insight I want into the psyche of a large pink-and-silver accordion.

 

I take it you don't own this instrument anymore?

 

That's right. I changed to a similar size instrument in understated black-and-white, but now I'm trying the concertina. When I was a teenager I played the piano, so (I'm sure I'm not the only one) to play folk music I took up the piano accordion. It's a folk piano, right? Sometimes I wish that somebody had said to me "no no no, the harp is the folk piano".

 

Anyway, I switched to the concertina because of my inability to get pleasing sounds out of the bass end of the accordion.

 

And the color of your concertina (including bellows)?

 

It's a Stagi 30 button English. Plain brown bellows, wooden ends. My philosophy is "if you're a lousy musician, don't draw attention to yourself". Once, when I had the pink and silver monster and I was a worse musician than I am now, I joined an impromptu jam session at a festival. I was playing chords, relying on watching a guitar player's left hand (beause my ear isn't very good), using about 2% of the available notes and stumbling frequently. At one point I noticed that the melody had stopped and everyone was smiling at me - it was my turn to improvise a melody worthy of O'Carolan! I don't want this to happen again.

[Helen]

Hiya Tom,

 

Well,

 

Considering your trend: piano, piano accordion, concertina

 

to ever smaller instruments

 

I think you are on the way to the thumb piano followed by the harmonica.

 

Jaw harp and whistle (the type coaches use) might be next.

 

I think the concertina is more portable than the piano accordion, but I like both.

 

Have fun.

 

Take care.

 

Helen