Any idea of what this concertina can be ?

[Konzertina-123]

Maybe some Jedcertina... It is for sale in France :

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ACCORDEON-ANCIEN-BANDON...1QQcmdZViewItem

[malcolm clapp]

Maybe some Jedcertina... It is for sale in France :

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ACCORDEON-ANCIEN-BANDON...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Pretty much, but with an air button that can only be reached by a gynacologist

 

MC

[Daniel Hersh]

I suppose that this is technically a Rust system concertina, since it a appears to be German-made and "Jedcertina" was a Lachenal/J.E. Dallas trademark. But the principle is the same. There's a good discussion about this whole family of instruments on this thread.

 

Daniel

 

Maybe some Jedcertina... It is for sale in France :

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/ACCORDEON-ANCIEN-BANDON...1QQcmdZViewItem

Edited March 15, 2009 by Daniel Hersh

[Marien]

Pretty much, but with an air button that can only be reached by a gynacologist

 

MC

 

If it is made for a gynacologist, this most certainly is a black G-spot concertina.

[Anglo-Irishman]

This thread is of special interest to me because my name crops up in it so often!

"Nomen est omen," said the Romans, and as it happens I also play the other instrument that J.E. Dallas of London was noted for - the banjo. And there are fascinating parallels between the concertina and the banjo.

 

Both are radically different from other instruments of their class (aerophones/chordophones), and both have a distinctive timbre. And both have remained beyond the pale of classical music, although both have attracted virtuoso performers and serious amateurs.

 

The archetypal banjo - which emerged from the formative period in the 19th century - is the 5-string, with its short 5th string. This has remained the instrument of the classic fingerstyle player, the blue-grasser and the American old-timer. But in early jazz, with no electric guitars available, the loud banjo was used for strumming chord accompaniments. The short string is awkward here, so the 4-string plectrum banjo - still in the classic banjo tuning - emerged. Now, everyone wanted a good, loud instrument to play in dance bands, but few wanted to learn a new fingering system, so a whole tribe of hybrids emerged: the tenor banjo (tuned like a viola), the banjo-mandolin (tuned and strung in double courses like a mandolin), the banjolin (tuned like a violin), the banjulele (tuned like a ukulele), and the guitar-banjo (strung and tuned like a guitar). All these had the hoop and vellum head of the banjo - producing the banjo sound and volume - but fingerings that were familiar to other string-players.

 

If you think about it, the Anglo-German concertina is the transfer of the simple German fingering system to the superior-sounding English concertina. The main duet systems are ways of bringing the familiar "bass-left-treble-right" concept to the same chromatic concertina. And, for me, the Rust or JEDcertina systems are analog to the guitar-banjo, in that they apply a fingering system that is familiar from a more widespread instrument to one that has certain practical and acoustical advantages.

 

I can believe that the Rust system is not very practical on a concertina, because of its wide spread. But it's still more playable for a pianist than a "real" English or Anglo concertina. Guitar stringing on a banjo is not optimal either, but it is playable by a guitarist, which the classic 5-string is not.

 

In a way, it's a compliment to the concertina and banjo that players of other instruments wanted to cash in on their popularity - but, interestingly, the vast majority of concertinas and banjos today are in their unique, native configurations, which are optimal with regard to their respective strengths and resrictions. (The tenor banjo is the only hybrid that has managed to establish a niche for itself.)

 

Cheers,

John E. Dallas (no relation!)