For concertina players

[patrick]

CORMAC BEGLEY UNVEILS NEW 'LOW-LOW D' CONCERTINA

April 1, 2015



One of Ireland's best and hairiest concertina players Cormac Begley, today unveiled the latest addition to his ever expanding collection: a giant, low-low D concertina.



The gigantic instrument is tuned to two octaves lower than the standard Anglo-concertina allowing for endless variations on drones and chords, something which everyone except concertina players are sick of.



The concertina, created by maker Jurgen Suttner, weighs almost the same as an 8 year old child or a 30 year old midget, due to the immense size of its reeds, something which Cormac said takes a while to get used to:



"It's difficult enough to play alright. The buttons are pretty big because of the reeds so you really have to mash them with the palm of your hand. Luckily I have fairly large hands."



"You get a real upper-body workout playing this thing but it helps to have tried a low A concertina first. The low-low D sounds like I'm milking a bull but still, I'm looking forward to trying this out in a few set 'Na Fir Bolg' sets!"



This is the latest in a troubling trend of large instruments appearing on the Irish music scene following last year's giant spoons massacre in Tullamore (pictured left). However Begley says people shouldn't be worried about this concertina as it will only be used for recording and driving any other concertinas out of sessions.



"It's like driving a JCB! There's no way there'd be space for any other concertinas if I whip this out. They'd be far too intimidated anyway! Although when I showed it to Jack Talty he just shook his head and walked away."

[Deleted]

That's just silly, and Photoshopped poorly.

[Russell Letson]

Quality of Photoshopping doesn't matter much when you're only going to use the picture on one day of the year.

[millring]

I met concert Tina once. Well, I met Tina at a concert which is pretty much the same thing. In fact, I met her at a concert, but we ditched the concert. The singer had a tin ear. So we went across the street to a film festival showing old Valentino films. Me and concert Tina watching Valentino. But the theater was small. Tiny even. Me and concert Tina watching Valentino in a tiny theater to avoid a tin-eared singer.

[Cosmic Wonder]

I have a consertina if anyone is interested

Mike

[Village Idiot]

How much?

[Cosmic Wonder]

I don't know VI. It's a old Wheatstone that could use some TLC. A couple small abrasions in the leather bellows, and a missing pin thingie that you depress to change the note. I'm not sure what it would cost to bring it back to life, and I'm not sure what it is worth. It belonged to my father in laws brother, who is deceased. I ended up with it because I play music, you know how that goes. I think there is a concertina store in NY that does rebuild these, but I'm not sure what it would cost.

Oh, and if my wife knew I was talking about flogging this, she would probably flog me. Cause it's family, you know? Still, I think instruments should be played.

Mike

[Village Idiot]

I completely get the family thing, and if I didn't purchase a ready to play it'd rot away in my house instead of yours. Not rot, but you know what I mean.