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newbie question - does this look like a good box to buy?


McBadger

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Hello.

 

I was wondering if this looks like a good instrument for a learner...

 

I am a total newbie to concertinas - I play D/G melodeon but it seems that the world of connie buying and selling is fraught with danger.

 

I want to buy an concertina for english / australian folk singing accompaniment and was wondering if this might be the sort of instrument that was good for me as a beginner and as the price looks reasonable am just wondering if it is ... bearing in mind i will have to pay a truckload in shipping costs...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Gremlin-48-key-Engl...bayphotohosting

 

please let me know if this is not the correct forum for this question.

 

Dave.

Edited by Dave Hughes
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Hello.

 

I was wondering if this looks like a good instrument for a learner...

 

I am a total newbie to concertinas - I play accordion but it seems that the world of connie buying and selling is fraught with danger.

 

I want to buy an accordion for english / australian folk singing accompaniment and was wondering if this might be the sort of instrument that was good for me as a beginner and as the price looks reasonable am just wondering if it is ... bearing in mind i will have to pay a truckload in shipping costs...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Gremlin-48-key-Engl...bayphotohosting

 

please let me know if this is not the correct forum for this question.

 

Dave.

 

It kind of looks like a Stagi. It looks decent enough for a beginner, IMHO. Others may be more verbose on the topic though. :)

 

 

Going from accordion (piano accordion, I assume?) to English would be easier than PA to Anglo, since the bellows direction doesn't matter. At least that's been my experience going from PA to concertina. (I've tried both.) You'd likely be able to sell it for about what you paid for if it doesn't work out for you or when you decide to upgrade. :)

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I'm not far above a learner myself but am partial to the Jackie and Jack from Concertina Connection. They're touted as a very good beginner's instrument and less costly than a Stagi. They come up on this forum and eBay also, or you could check with Wim at Concertina Connection or the Button Box. I don't know if there's an Australlian distributor for them. Price may be lower if you buy and ship from the US.

 

That VAT adds quite a bit, doesn't it? :o

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Thanks for that - sorry - i had accordion where i meant to have concertina in the original post ... I may let this one go and have a try at getting hold of a borrowd english and and anglo first - being a melodion player everyone says go the anglo but being a singer if i can get my head around learning to play the english i think it would be good to be able to hold a nice long note without having to worry about running out of bellows - time will tell.

 

Thank you again.

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Thanks for that - sorry - i had accordion where i meant to have concertina in the original post ... I may let this one go and have a try at getting hold of a borrowd english and and anglo first - being a melodion player everyone says go the anglo but being a singer if i can get my head around learning to play the english i think it would be good to be able to hold a nice long note without having to worry about running out of bellows - time will tell.

 

Thank you again.

 

Dave,

 

If you can borrow to try then do. Only buy when you really know what you want is my advice.

 

John

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being a singer if i can get my head around learning to play the english i think it would be good to be able to hold a nice long note without having to worry about running out of bellows - time will tell.

 

If you hold a long note, sooner or later you're going to run out of bellows on either system, and so you'll have to change bellows direction eventually. Even on an Anglo, you'll find that most of the notes are available in both directions, although you may have to change to a different button - with an English of course the note is on the same button.

 

I use Anglo for both tunes and song accompaniment, and while I sometimes want to hold a long chord I coan't think of any situations where this has been a problem - I can either play the same note or chord in the other direction, or it's time to change anyway. So don't rule out the Anglo for this reason.

 

As a melodeon player you'll have a slight advantage with an Anglo since they work on similar principles. On the other hand, the EC is very well suited to song accompaniment, especially if you want to use a wider range of keys.

 

If you can, try both and see how you get on with them.

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