G'day yet again,

Dougboywonder: Can I claim I need to get my optical prescription updated? I don't want to claim I just accidentally hit the 'h' along with the 'g' every time I typed your name ... that would only lead to disparaging remarks by players of concertinas with narrow metal keys - about people who prefer the broad bone keys of Anglos! (I do prefer the 6.5mm bone variety ... find 3.5 - 4mm nickel-plated brass keys a real pain ... but, then, I also play button accordion.

Anyway, I might make Ralphie feel upset if I tell him that I bought that 56-key McCann (admittedly, in 1966) in Hobart, Tasmania, for $20. When I got back to the mainland, I paid the only concertina repairer in Australia (at that time) $40 to clean and tune the reads - mainly so he would draw me a tuning diagram! I eventually sold it for $600, about 8 years later when I decided I was really a push-pull player (and, more importantly, that Anglos were the traditional instrument of the music I loved).

I still have friends that play and love the McCann system - particularly concertina repairer / manufacturer Richard Evans in the Blus Mts, west of Sydney. Richard makes Anglo-chromatics ... but plays the McCann!

Regards,

Bob Bolton