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[baz parkes]

Thinking about a microbot purchase with the above...

Question...I'm used to a standard 3rd button start...how difficult will it be to change my old ways or am I "too red in the nose"?

I play a lot of 1 row, so I'm used to different fingerings..

advice, cautionary tales and veiled insults welcome...

[Chris Ryall]

Aged 60 I went 4th button on my 3row 18 months back, got used to it very quickly. My difficulty comes (eg in our session on Friday) in going back to 3rd on the Gaillard!

I also got Theo to Anahata/4th my old Lilly in 2012, intending it for a daughter. It's recently come back (she won't be a melodeonista!) … just had a go, really intuitive, despite being "clubbed". Anahata's 2nd button choices are excellent and chords just fall under your fingers. I chose to keep accidentals on both buttons (1); I think he has one accs, one low notes.

Do it!

[Mike Carney]

Do it!

That's what I have and I recommend it.  Not 60 yet though. 
Mike

[Martin P]

Having learnt to play the box with Ed Rennie, I still think of the G/A button as Button 6 and top G/F as button 12 etc. So playing a 4th button start box now, I still have this mental picture in my head and I just think of the top buttons as Button 0. It helps that playing a 2 1/2 row box means that the G button (on G row) is just physically diagonally above the 1st button of accidentals, so start position is obvious. Actually I now find that my sight reading skills have improved so that I have moved on from "play by numbers" to grown-up proper note names, but old habits die hard.

[Thrupenny Bit]

Got my Tommy changed..... took  few tunes and that was that.
It's not an issue Baz, really, just get on with it!
Q

[Anahata]

I went from 3rd button Pokerwork to my 4th button Oakwood. I don't remember having to go though a long hermit-like phase of adjustment before being safe to use it in public, but it was a long time ago now.

* It will take a very short  time to adjust to everything being 1 button further along, helped by the fact that it's a new box and will feel different anyway. Stretching the right amount for accidentals might be the worst part of that learning process.
* If you are used to 3rd button start, you don't have any previous "low note" habits to unlearn.
* Your first two buttons of the low scale work exactly like the first two buttons of the next octave up, and the next 4 notes of the scale (from D to G) are unchanged anyway, so it's not all that revolutionary. (and as Chris says, it means all the basses/chords work the way you expect)
* The only thing that's "odd" is the G scale starts on the D row, but it lies very comfortably under the hand as your 1st finger is shorter than your second (mine is anyway...) It's worth getting used to using your little finger for the 5th note of the scale.

Things you might miss, but only if your previous box had low notes instead of accidentals.
- low D on pull
- low F# on the D row, if you ever used that...

I might be biased, of course 

[Chris Ryall]

I was referring to right hand chords! Your low B-push, low A-pull particularly welcome. The basses are surely the same?  I'd observe that "Anahata layout" is to some extent optimised for playing in G, but you have a nice pull true A7 chord on the right

[Rob2Hook]

I know it's kind of evading the issue, but a small club box will do the job.  I've never learnt to manage 12 basses, my little hands slide up to the top of the strap so a de-clubbed club layout gives me all the advantages of low notes and accidentals without the complication of the extra basses.  The smaller Hohners (excluding Preciosas and Liliputs) are only a tad bigger than a Pokerwork and built to a higher standard.  They're really nice after a rebuild.  I'm sure Mr Rowbotham could advise.

Rob.

[Prestidigitator]

I have a mix of 3rd and 4th button starts on various boxes; Hohners, Italian and French ones. I don't find any problem in switching between them now, and I don't recall any major upsets in getting used to 4th button, after years of 3rd.

I much prefer 4th button anyway, especially on a straight 2-row, and my only regret is that I still haven't had them all changed to that.

[Bob Ellis]

I swap regularly between my one- and two-row boxes, which all have a third button start, and my three-row boxes, which both have a fourth button start. I have never had any difficulty in doing so, even when I acquired my first box with a fourth button start. A player of your ability won't have any problem either, Baz.

If you want to dispel any doubts, approach somebody at a festival who has a box with a fourth button start and ask to have a practice with it. You would be welcome to try one of mine at Sidmouth or Whitby if you are going to either of those festivals this year.

[Steve C.]

It's a quick learn.

You will miss it when you go back to the "old system" on someone else's box and your low notes aren't there!

[Andy Next Tune]

It's a quick learn.

You will miss it when you go back to the "old system" on someone else's box and your low notes aren't there!

Yep, exactly what I found! (Cured by thinking about the tune choice, before starting to play it!!!)

.... and the increased stretch to the accidentals.

Go for it, Baz!!

[Thrupenny Bit]

As someone with small bands, I don't find making the accidentals one button further away much more of a stretch.
My other box is a Hascy, my main instrument of choice and a full sized keyboard. I seem to be currently learning tunes with accidental runs and stretching gets easier with practice and no problem even with small hands.
It shouldn't be a problem for you Baz.
Q

[EastAnglianTed]

As someone with small bands, I don't find making the accidentals one button further away much more of a stretch.

    Small bands eh? 

[Thrupenny Bit]

so what's a 'b' or an 'h' missed between friends? 
Q

[squeezy]

Definitely agree with all that's written above ... I've found Anahata's the most versatile 4th button start with accidentals layout for most kinds of music - you should definitely go for it - I can't think of any cons.

[baz parkes]

A player of your ability won't have any problem either, Baz.

I thought you were a man of taste and discernment Bob...you're too kind...

looks like I have my answer...thanks all...

[baz parkes]

arrived today...a thing of beauty...played straight away ...didn't really notice the difference, as you all said...cheers all...