4. Buying Advice

In theory, before buying a concertina you would consider what you want it for and decide which type you need from the list above. For instance here are a few guidelines you may hear on the uses to which you might put the various types of concertina:-

Unfortunately life is never that simple. The English is widely used for song accompaniment. Alistair Anderson has shown how successful the English can be for dance music and band work. I, like quite a few other people use the anglo for song accompaniment. The anglo is the concertina of choice for many Irish musicians, who get round its inherent "bouncyness" by dexterous cross-fingering between the rows. At the end of the day all you can do is try the various systems as far as possible and see which suits you best. If you can, talk to other players about why they chose their instruments and listen to what they play.

When buying a concertina you have two choices: buy new or buy used. If you buy used then TAKE SOMEONE WITH YOU WHO KNOWS CONCERTINAS. I cannot stress that too strongly. You will likely be buying an instrument that is 60 or more years old. There is nothing wrong with that per se - many of the finest instruments around are of that age or older (we have a beautiful baritone that is 100 years old), but an old concertina may have faults not immediately apparent that will be expensive to fix. In particular check that it is in concert pitch and not "old" pitch if you intend to play with other musicians. Retuning a concertina is a specialist job, and expensive to boot.

If you are seriously considering a particular concertina don't be afraid to ask the dealer to take the ends off and let you look inside. After all, you may find anything up to and including woodworm. It is only fair to state that some dealers disagree with people doing this!

Old concertinas come with steel reeds most commonly, or brass reeds. Brass reeds have greater sweetness of tone than steel reeds, and brass reeded instruments tend to be cheaper, but if played forcefully (e.g. in band or outdoor work) they can go out of tune more quickly.

The "best" name in second-hand English concertinas is undoubtedly Wheatstone. (Be aware though that instruments made after they were taken over by Boosey & Hawkes in the 1950s are generally regarded as being of poorer quality than before). Other good makers include Jones, Crabb and also Lachenal, who made instruments ranging from the cheap-and-cheerful to the excellent. Their Edeophone range (distinctive for having 12 sides and rolling off tables if you aren't careful) matched the very best Wheatstone Aeolas.

The leading name in anglos was Jeffries. Again Lachenal also made a wide range of instruments. It is quite common for players to start with a mid-range Lachenal, graduating when time, expertise (and money!) allow to a Jeffries. Crabb also made many fine instruments, as did Wheatstone with their Linota range.

With concertinas, you get what you pay for. There are few bargains around, but you have the consolation that if you have an instrument of reasonable quality or better it will hold its value and you will have no trouble selling it if you decide it is not for you.

Up until recently the market for English and anglo concertinas was fairly similar, with Wheatstone Englishes and Jeffries anglos, for instance, fetching similar prices. Unfortunately for some reason the prices of good anglos, especially 30-button C/Gs as used in Irish music - and in particular anything bearing the magic imprint of Jeffries - has gone through the roof! I have heard of people offering to pay over UKP4000 for a Jeffries sight unseen! This is plain silly in my opinion, and biases the market heavily against the new or poorer player. Fortunately there are now makers who are producing new anglos based on accordion reeds but still very playable at a more reasonable price (see below).

For a first class treble Wheatstone English in excellent condition expect to pay from UKP1500, US$3500, more for Aeolas. A mid-range Lachenal may cost you UKP800, US$1500. Duets and the larger sizes of English and anglo tend to be cheaper. It is a quite reasonable strategy to buy a cheaper concertina that needs some work and then get it renovated.

If you are offered a modern mass-produced instrument such as a Stagi (formerly Bastari) second hand check it very carefully. The method of construction owes much more to accordions than concertinas and as such they tend to degenerate with time in a way that true concertinas do not. (Note that I am not disparaging accordions here. Concertinas are small and the interior is cramped compared to accordions, and each has its appropriate construction techniques).

I used to say that buying new means either buying a mass-produced concertina from Stagi and others, or commissioning a hand-made concertina from the likes of Steve Dickinson or C & R Dipper. For anglo players, there is a further option in the shape of Frank Edgeley, Harold Herrington, The Button Box, Homewood, A.C Norman and Marcus Music.

In the UK Bastari/Stagi apparently rarely sold their better instruments in the past, and mass-produced concertinas in general are sometimes quite hard work to play with a fairly coarse tone. I have been told that Stagi have a significantly better name in the States. Hohner concertinas are, I believe, badge-engineered Stagis. If funds allow you may prefer a mid-range second-hand instrument. Note that (especially in the UK) you can rarely resell a mass-produced instrument once you have outgrown it. However it may be the only option open to you if funds are low or you have no access to second-hand instruments - and you could always give it away and spread the addiction when you upgrade. (Pete McClelland of Hobgoblin (see section 9, Shops and Dealers)) has since emailed me to say that they are "very keen to buy secondhand Bastaris, Stagis, Gremlins & Hohners", which may help UK players).

Buying a hand-made instrument from the quality makers (Dipper, Dickinson, Suttner and others) means being prepared to wait years and pay well in excess of UKP1500. For that, though, you will receive a concertina that is made precisely to your requirements and probably among the finest concertinas ever made.

Frank Edgeley, Harold Herrington, Bob Tedrow (Homewood Music) and The Button Box in the US, and A. C. Norman and Marcus Music in the UK have over the last few years started making 30-button anglos using Italian accordion reeds, but otherwise following normal concertina construction techniques fairly closely (e.g. mounting the reeds in a reed pan for a more authentic sound than, say Stagis achieve). This has enabled them to produce very playable instruments at a reasonable price (of the order of UKP1000, US1600). I think these new instruments are ideal for beginners, and for more experienced players too, in that they will look good and last well and not hold them back the way mass-produced instruments can. The latest news on this front is that the Button Box and now (August 2004) Marcus have started making making 37-button English concertinas, including baritones, using the same methods. This is much to be welcomed.

A new development from Concertina Connection (formerly of the Netherlands, now of the US and one of the new makers of accordion-reeded concertinas) is MIDI concertinas, both anglo and English systems built from scratch. Like buses, you wait for ages for a MIDI concertina and two come at once! The second is Roy Whiteley of Accordion Magic, who does conversions of existing concertinas. See section 8 for contact details for both.

Picture of a Herrington Anglo Concertina

Click here for a picture (40k) and description of my new square G/D anglo from Harold Herrington