I'm lucky then - recently acquired a Crane (made by Jeffries) with no bloodshed or other loss of life. (loss of money, certainly...)

I've heard that the Crane system is more logical than McCann, but more people play McCann system simply because there are more of them about and they're cheaper.

Anyway, the other night I met someone called Paul McCann who plays a Crane system duet concertina - how perverted is that? Very fine playing too - has inspired me to get mine out and start learning to play it. I don't think we've quite decided whether it's mine or Mary's - with me playing Anglo and her playing English we're at an approximately equal disadvantage, maybe biased in her favour as the Crane is a logical development of the English system, with the natural notes in the middle three rows and the sharps and flats in the outer rows.

(I-spy duet concertina hint: McCann: 6 rows, Crane: 5 rows.)

BTW, earlier someone said:
"there are some which are fully chromatic in that when you press a button it is one note when you squeeze in & a different one when you draw out"
That's not what fully chromatic means. Only anglos are different notes push and pull. The word used sometimes for the push-pull system is "diatonic" which refers to the push-pull sequence playing a scale in only one key. Fully chromatic means means all the sharps and flats as well as naturals so in theory you can play in any key. In practice a 30 key Anglo is chromatic - it has two rows in C and G (or G/D or whatever) and a third row with most all the notes missing from the other two rows, both accidentals and reversals (e.g. G on pull when it's only on push on C and G rows) Mybe not fully chromatic because there are gaps at the top and bottom of the range.

Anahata