Hi, I’m looking for an inexpensive concertina, less than 600$ (no, I don’t want to pay more 
) , easy to play, brass reeds.. don’t mind if treble or baritone. For what I’ve read Stagi is not a good choice.. so which one? And most important.. where to buy it on-line?
Thanks in advance!
In that price range, there is only one English you can choose. The Jackie (or the larger brother, the Jack).
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/jackie%20model%20english.htm
269 for the Jackie, 279 for the Jack. Everybody on Concertina.Net (the better place for this question) would say it’s the one to get. Until you get to the midrange models ($1600+) it’s the best you can get your hands on (and a really fine price).
Hope this helps.
I saw that concertina yesterday and I think it do not sound bad for that price.. but I hoped to find something better. Thank you scheky.
Anyone has tried that concertina? It’s supposed that is a better option than Stagi?
And for 600$ is there any anglo concertina that works fine? What about CASTIGLIONE?
The next time someone asks for a wooden whistle with gold ferrules
for under $50, I’m going to send them to this thread!
I have the 30-key English, first model. It’s real drawback is it has no high B. It’s also large, and loud. I understand that the second model does have the high B, but at the expense of one of the accidentals.
It’s a good concertina for a beginner, no doubt about it. And yes, it’s a much better option than a Stagi. Unless you want an Anglo.
Is not the same.. for example, a polymer M&E or Delrin Serry are not like a wooden flute but work fine.. well, I need the same but in concertina 
And if I finally get an anglo is better Stagi than Castiglione ?
Thanks GaryKelly
The Button Box in Massachusetts, USA “fixes” new Stagis before selling them. You might contact them and ask if they know of an EU retailor who does the same. I have no idea how buying in the US to ship to Spain would work in terms of tariffs, VAT etc. I spent the last year doing the same search you are starting. There are very few reliable new instruments in that price range other than Stagi and Jackie.
20 button used Lachenal anglos in good shape sell on e-bay in that price range pretty regularly. The sellers are usually in UK
I have a Jackie (Treble) English (2nd edition) and a Stagi 48-button Tenor English. While the Jackie is good for the price, I had to perform some minor repairs when I first got it (sticky lever arm and one poorly set reed). Bob Tedrow made some improvements on the action of my Stagi, making it a better instrument. However, in my opinion it was easily as good or slightly better than the Jackie before Bob did his work. Moreover, I like the sound of the Stagi better - the Jackie is loud and strident, more like a “real” concertina I guess, but certainly not mellow sounding like my Lachenal.
So what does all this mean? Get a Jackie if that is all you can afford; it is a decent beginner instrument. But if you can find a used Stagi that has had some work done on the action, that might not be a bad choice for a beginner, either.
Rand
I know… what I meant was that an entry-level concertina is so much
more expensive than any good whistle you can buy. I would send
people here for perspective.
I only play Anglo, but I can answer about that at least.
I started on a Button Box tweaked Stagi (30 button). I thought it was terrible. The bellows wasn’t really all that tight and the sound was awful.
After a year or so of playing, I picked up my Morse C/G. It’s everything I ever wanted. Light, good sounding, loud enough for sessions.
I kept my Stagi in case I ever needed a backup. A couple weeks ago, I decided to just see how bad it really is. Well…the bellows are a bit leaky. The sound isn’t that bad really (I was comparing it to a vintage Wheatstone) and the action is surprisingly fast. All in all, I think I could have really grown a few more years on this instrument and it’s a great backup.
The Stagi can be a nasty beastie. The Button Box really does them justice. Remember though, www.concertina.net It’s the Chiff and Fipple of the Concertina World.
And yes folks, the Concertina REALLY put a reality check on what I consider an EXPENSIVE whistle.
Good luck! Let us know what your solution is.
I don’t know if you’re looking for an Anglo or an English. If you’re looking for an anglo, seriously your best bet is to put that money away and save up more. I know you don’t want to spend more than 600, but if you were somehow able to accumulate 600 dollars to buy a musical instrument, you could in theory do it again. If you don’t want to buy a Stagi, you’ll be starting in the 1-2 thousand dollar range.
Concertinas are expensive! You can buy a lot of banjo or a whole lot of whistle with that money. Even accordions are much cheaper, because they require less obsessive precision to put together, and have standard parts built in greater volume.
Caj
.. after read all your post I’m thinking of buying a diatonic accordion, as you say they are cheaper than concertinas, and less fragile.
Thank you.
For the price, look for a Learner (Billy McComisky’s brand) or a Hohner Black Dot. Both are a decent price point and will server you well for quite some time.
My only complaint about them is that they both tend to come tuned very wet (and I prefer swing tuning in a box). Easily remedied.
Either one will run you new for under $500ish and it will be quite some time before you feel the need to upgrade.
I don’t play concertina, but I have a good friend who’s got a Dipper, and I would never ever describe it as “loud and strident”. “Sweet and mellow”, sure.
I thought the strident ones were less expensive concertinas with accordion reeds, and the stridency was considered bad?
Well…if you go that route, take it appart once you get it and put tape over the air holes for one set of reeds. Then you’ll have a one-voice accordion (assuming you started with a 2-voice) which is about as close to a concertina as you can get…nice sound too.
-brett
Sol,
Well, loud is not necessarily bad but by stridency I mean a sort of harshness. Of course, I am referring only to the Jackie, the sound of which has been characterized by some as being closer to a concertina-reeded instrument rather than the accordion-reeded instrument that it is. My Stagi is more mellow and much quieter (which, of course, some would regard as a fault). I have a Lachenal as well and it is as loud as the Jackie but sweet and mellow, like you say.
By the way, how are you coming along on the Weltmeister?
Rand
I’ve heard a Jackie, and I wouldn’t say that at all. They spacing of the buttons is designed to be the same as traditional concertinas, but the sound is VERY accordion-reeded sounding.
Wim Wakker has designed accordion-reeded concertinas with acoustic properties that make them sound more like “real” concertinas. In my opinion, the Jackie does sound more like a real concertina (but with the bit of harshness that I mentioned) than a Stagi. Though blasphemy to concertina buffs, some folks actually prefer the sound of accordion-reeded instruments like the Stagi to that of real concertinas.
Rand
Ah! You’re thinking of the Geuns-Wakker concertinas, an entirely different beast from the Jackie. The Jackie is made in China to Wakker’s specifications, but doesn’t have high-quality modified accordion reeds like the Geuns-Wakker concertinas. I play a Geuns-Wakker concertina, and I’ve played a Jackie, and believe me, they’re very different. The Geuns-Wakker does have a bit of that old concertina sound, I don’t think the Jackie does at all. But that’s “as designed.”
I agree, the accordion sound isn’t worse, just different. I also prefer it in some settings.
Well, I’m still focusing on one-row playing at the moment, so I’m not taking full advantage of it. (Though I’ve experimented a bit, and it seems surprisingly natural to go to the outer row for accidentals.) But it’s very nice to have. Remarkable how much more air-tight it is than the other boxes we have around; things that would be impossible on them spring out very nicely on it.