Quick question.
Age is catching up with me and the Saltarelle box is getting less copacetic with the elbow and shoulder. Does anyone have any experience with the Vintage Concertina Company/Dublin “Vintage model”. I’m interested in stepping up from an 6 year old upgraded Stagi that has served its purpose very nicely.
I’m located in the United States and have yet to explore shipping issues.
Would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this.
I have had my eye on these concertinas. Looking forward to hearing what people say.
The website has several nice demonstrations. But as I’ve learned the the really good players can make a block of construction lumber sound great.
When my teacher plays my Stagi, it sounds great. It’s not a bad starter instrument, but certainly not a Jeffries.
So It would be nice if people who have the day-to-day experience with the instrument could share their thoughts.
If you are aiming for traditional-type reeds (as I gather this model has; I haven’t tried one), I have one bit of experience. Having bought a number of anglo concertinas from modern makers, it isn’t unusual for them to need adjustment and perhaps a touch-up tuning after a time. I’ve found this is much easier if the maker (or a repair person they have authorized) is on the same continent as you. One I bought was, and easy to get sorted. The other came from across the Atlantic and that made adjustments a challenge (I had to improvise a local solution). Mind you, all the brands I’ve tried are great designs and well-made. It’s just that the concertina is complex mechanism expected to perform very rapidly, uniformly across a wide range, while being jammed into a tiny space. So things do go awry and need adjusting. Those of us with antique concertinas learn to do it ourselves early on.
The accordion-reeded “hybrid” instruments are worth a look - lower cost (though still pricey, only pipes cost more to get into), a number of great makers, typically shorter wait time, easy to sell on for most of what you paid. And to my amusement, more than once they have won blind listening tests involving non-players comparing the sound of one to a traditionally-built instrument. “Which sound do you prefer?”
Welcome to the madness. Come on over to concertina.net and ask if you want three dozen other opinions, we’re very good at it there.
Check out
https://www.buttonbox.com/concertinas-in-stock.html
they have videos where you can listen to their stock
Thanks Phil. Familiar with BB’s instruments. They have tuned/serviced my Saltarelle B/C. Very good people to work with. Several friends play their concertinas so I’m familiar with them