I already play B/C and need even more pain so I’m considering getting a 2.5 row G/D. Please can anyone tell me whether any maker supplies such boxes with the extra notes D, G# and F natural (over a couple of octaves) on the draw? (my idea, perhaps naive, is to be able to play entire scales for keys C, G, D , A major and related minors on the draw). Cheers.
here#s a good place to start http://www.melodeon.net/info.html
My two and a half row GD has all those notes on the draw - if you order a castagnari from a guy called John Garner then you can customise your melodeon to have whatever notes you want! The website for him is:
http://www.melodions-online.co.uk/
Or if you can’t wait that long to get it (as I couldn’t!) then you could just get whatever configuration you get from the shops and then get Theo Gibb to sort it out! His website is:
www.theboxplace.co.uk
I would recommend both of them 🙂
What you’re talking about sounds a lot like the “Club” system developed by Hohner, except that most of theirs were in Bb/Eb. Here is more than you ever wanted to know about the Club system:
http://www.delaguerre.com/delaguerre/pedagogy/club/index.html
You could possibly get away with a smaller half row if you put the Ds in the G row on the draw by flipping the D/E reeds. Which isthe equivalent of what a lot of Dutch musicians do apparently on 2-row boxes.
Theo Gibb, whom Joe mentioned, sells reconditioned Hohner Erika/Club boxes from the 1930s. A lot cheaper than a new Castagnari!
Of course you realize you are developing a common disease - looking for a better diatonic system than the one you have. There is no cure. 🙂
Thanks for the sound advice (no pun intended).
You could be right about the disease Steve, but I’m quite pleased with B/C - I’d be quite happy to stick at that (having played G/D earlier in life) - but colleagues in the band have suggested that some sort of steady bass line from the box would be useful and free up a rhythm player to do a bit of melody work.
I know that other B/C players achieve miracles with the left hand buttons, but I also recognise my own limitations. I only use the basses on my B/C for the one air I play.
It seemed to me that G/D could offer a better range of bass options and that a 2.5 row - if my original premise was correct - would give both steady bass and an ability to play quick stuff with ornaments as well.
Thanks again for the advice.