Concertina failure

[SteveS]

The thread on concertinas going out of tune during the course of an evening got me thinking about the times when I had a concertina fail on me - in public.

 

Maybe forum members would like to share their experiences.

 

Here's mine:

 

------

 

I was once playing a ceilidh - about 1 hour into a 3 hour gig I heard a funny noise from my EC, the noise became a dull buzz, then a reed broke. I continued to play trying to compensate for the broken reed - not an easy task.

 

Another time I was busking in Copenhagen when a pad came off. My fellow buskers continued to play while I went off to buy glue with which to stick it back on - so once back to the busking site, I opened the 'tina and glued the pad back on. Within 15 minutes or so I was back in action again.

 

I've also had a spring break in a jam session - since I always carry a few spares and a screwdriver in my concertina case, effecting the repair was easy - meant partially clearing the table of beer glasses, wiping spilled beer away, opening up the 'tina, replacing the spring, then back into the fray within 5 minutes.

 

------

 

Steve

[LHMark]

My wife would say every time I pick up the concertina, it's a failure. I'm sure the cat would agree.

 

Physically, the worst that's happened to me so far is my improvised neck strap (playing standing up) loosened the strap screw with its tension enough for the screw to come off. Didn't exactly need to call the Button Box to fix that one.

[David Barnert]

I have noticed that onlookers find my opening and repairing an english-construction concertina every bit as entertaining and fascinating as my playing it.

[Brian Peters]

Onstage at Whitby Folk Festival, performing with Gordon Tyrrall on guitar, we were just setting off into the encore when the lever for the air button broke. Try playing an anglo with no air pressure.

 

An even worse fate befell my melodeon when I attempted to launch into the opening number of what was fortunately a relatively small house concert in California and found, again, no pressure. Turned out a dozen or so reeds were clanking around loose in the bottom of the bellows. That was the last time I allowed airport baggage handlers a sniff of any squeezebox.

 

I did pick up the anglo the wrong way round once at a gig. Easily rectified, but rather embarrassing.

Brian

[michael sam wild]

Morris - a Life with Balls Ups!!

 

Fortunately all I've had is sticking reeds on the Anglo and a screwdriver and a few mates who know what they're doing! Cheers Bill!

 

In the 90s I was in Hungary in a very hot summer at a festival with Sheffield City Morris. All the beeswax on my melodeon reedblocks got so soft that the reed plates fell off the wood.

 

I just bellowed the tune and made up daft words and the lads joined in. The locals loved it

 

Finding the right places for the reeds later on was a nightmare but it led me to a calm place - 'Zen and the art of melodeon maintenance!' - and some funny bum notes in certain tunes where I put the reeds in wrong. Nightmare discords but again the Les Dawson effect was so funny it was worth it. ( Les Dawson was a lugubrious British comedian who deliberately played music badly on the piano, a hard act!

 

 

Running repairs is an interesting story, what has proved most useful and unusual apart from nappy pins and sellotape?

Edited March 5, 2009 by michael sam wild

[Jim Besser]

Onstage at Whitby Folk Festival, performing with Gordon Tyrrall on guitar, we were just setting off into the encore when the lever for the air button broke. Try playing an anglo with no air pressure.

 

Same thing here (but a less eminent venue). In the middle of playing for a dance group before an enthusiastic audience, the rivet on the air button lever popped. Suddenly...the only sound was air wooshing thru the instrument and my cussing. Fortunately, I had a spare box in the car.

[hjcjones]

Only the occasional broken spring or stuck reed - more inconvenient than embarrassing.

 

My most embarrassing musical mishap wasn't concertina-related: I was half-way to a gig in South Wales when I realised I'd left my dulcimer hammers at home. So I bought a pair of toothbrushes (red and green, of course) and played with those.

Edited March 5, 2009 by hjcjones

[Stephen Chambers]

I think my own "most embarassing concertina failure" was my own rather than the instrument's - it was when I was a student in Manchester, and turned up at a folk club with my concertina, but without the key needed to open the da#ned case...

 

(It was one of the old hexagonal mahogany boxes, with the handle on the lid.)

[Daniel Hersh]

I had an air button failure too, while leading a workshop at the Summer Solstice Festival in LA a couple of decades back. Luckily there was a player in the workshop who lent me a concertina for the duration of the workshop and a dealer who lent me one for the rest of the festival.

 

Onstage at Whitby Folk Festival, performing with Gordon Tyrrall on guitar, we were just setting off into the encore when the lever for the air button broke. Try playing an anglo with no air pressure.

Same thing here (but a less eminent venue). In the middle of playing for a dance group before an enthusiastic audience, the rivet on the air button lever popped. Suddenly...the only sound was air wooshing thru the instrument and my cussing. Fortunately, I had a spare box in the car.

[Fergus_fiddler]

My wife would say every time I pick up the concertina, it's a failure. I'm sure the cat would agree.

 

Interesting subject. In fact, when I want the cat go out of the computer chair, I've only to pick up the concertina - not even playing! -.

 

It always works

 

Cheers,

 

Fer

[Robin Madge]

I had a spring break during a Morris tour and managed to make a running repair using a safety pin and a pair of pliers, and I only missed playing for one dance.

Come to think of it that safety pin is still in there!

 

Robin Madge

[Timbecile]

My first show ever playing a concertina was a few months ago....in one of our songs, there's a fairly prominent concertina "solo". I run to the front of the stage, do my best "look at me" pose, and right as I'm pulling air into the concertina to play "POP!" the left hand strap breaks. (damn cheap chinese handstraps!) I had to struggle through the solo trying to finger and pull on the strap block at the same time....sounded terrible I'm sure, but at least I looked good!

 

the next day I ran out and mangled a pair of belts and rigged up new hand straps....which will take a large explosion to break. (good thing too, as we had another show a few days later!)

[Michael Ducky Raley]

I did visit an eccletic music shop in Seattle , picked up a $700 dollar Stagi off the shelf to look at it

 

I did a walk up the scale to get the tone C-D-E-F-G-HONK (b flattish?)

try that again C-D-E-F-G-EEK!

 

me: "this concertina is unplayable!"

clerk: "well, You get what you pay for"

Edited March 7, 2009 by Michael Ducky Raley