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Author Topic: A different kind of MAD  (Read 3022 times)

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Pete Dunk

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A different kind of MAD
« on: June 22, 2015, 12:02:57 AM »

Oh it's really easy to become beguiled by musical instruments, I'm obsessed with concertinas and melodeons and have collections of both, odd really as I played guitar for 40 years, bought two I really liked, one far more expensive than the other and stuck with them ever since.

It's not just instruments though, I have Music Aquisition Disorder too. I collect music books and scour the internet in search of rare(ish), out of print material that's now considered to be folk but was simply the popular music of the day in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Modern folk publications figure heavily in my collection too.

Tell me I'm not alone!
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Broadland Boy

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2015, 12:33:56 AM »

Sorry Pete,

Saw you had a PC crash elsewhere and think you may have misposted by accident, this is Melodeon Net, nothing to do with music here  ;)

In truth MAD is but a small facet of MAD, or Must Ave Disease, Ebay, Gumtree, Theo and others of that ilk are the pushers feeding this global habit, people who like things in sets or all variants are the fodder. I can't play my pokerwork of decades ago, I can't play any of the others that have trotted in subsequently (under cover of darkness else SWMBO sees them before they have been anchored to the floor) Ironically, the Hohner Club III that Theo slipped onto the grand clearance pages, oh so innocently and invitingly, which I was eventually intending to organ harvest for a home made box project, herself took an instant liking to the case so now I'm forbidden from doing a Frankenstein job  >:( >:(

I suspect its genetic Pete, there's no arguing with that one, "Sorry dear, I had a rare epileptic type fit, my finger slipped and I accidentally bid for it" holds neither water nor sympathy even the first time whereas "Couldn't help it I'm genetically disposed to buy / swap / drag home out of a skip yet another example of a wonderful somethingorother" has that degree of gravitas AND science about it.

You are letting the side down to an extent though, instead of stacking each new manuscript or book onto a lofty stack, gradually composting through the bottom foot or so, you are actually using them, nay worse you are transcribing and making them available to others through the wonders of ABC & PDF thus reducing their resale value..............
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Richard A
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Malcolm Clapp

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2015, 01:52:23 AM »


Tell me I'm not alone!


You are not alone.  (Feel better now?)

Searching through boxes of sheet music for Ezra Read, Felix Burns etc. at garage sales and clearances is what Saturday mornings are made for. I used to play some of this stuff, but in recent years it has just been a quick hum through the melody, then onto the pile. No reason to continue collecting the stuff, but I suppose it has just become an inexpensive and harmless habit.

I'm also a sucker for secondhand books, non-fiction of all sorts. Picked up a mint condition 1950s copy of "Goat Husbandry in New Zealand" the other day; an enthralling read... Has to be almost worth the 10c I paid for it!!!! Book Acquisition Disorder? Me BAD?    :-[ :-[ :-[

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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2015, 06:35:25 AM »

Pete, join the club.
When I moved from London to Swanage I set up a book bindery in what used to be the garage.
15years later it's impossible to work in, full of gramophones, a complete radio shack a tower drill fretsaw a load of Melodeons ,a steam boat. Oh dear where do I stop?
 No, you're certainly not alone :o
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Pete Dunk

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2015, 12:30:54 AM »

You are letting the side down to an extent though, instead of stacking each new manuscript or book onto a lofty stack, gradually composting through the bottom foot or so, you are actually using them, nay worse you are transcribing and making them available to others through the wonders of ABC & PDF thus reducing their resale value..............

Oi! Very little of my physical music collection has been transcibed I'll have you know! I can think of only one book - Chappell's One Hundred Scotch Melodies, the scans of which were so admired by an eminent American musical schollar and concertina historian that I posted him the original book as soon as I'd finished the transcription. He was so overcome by receiving a cheaply printed mass produced early twentieth book, that had lost its cover and was held together by Sellotape so old and dried out that it was crumbling and falling off,  that he thought he would never see with his own eyes much less own a copy of, that made me realise that there's a whole other world of intense out there that I never want to visit!  :|glug
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Squeezing on the Isle of Oxney, UK
Primo (Serenellini) D/G
Isis D/G
Hohner B/E, G/C, C/F, Bb/Eb G/C/F
Liliputs D/G (G scale), C/F, Bb/Eb, Albrecht Custom D/G (G scale)

rees

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2015, 01:30:43 AM »

Discipline you see, that's what is required.
We have none of this here, no great collections of festering antiquity nagging at our freedom, well, apart from the melodeons, obviously, but I do try to keep the numbers down to less than fifty. I suppose there are a few motor-bikes and several campervans and chickens but not much in the studio only five guitars, a couple of basses, things with different recording formats, some drum kits, the usual amps, pedals and stuff but really nothing. Books I suppose, yes we do collect those plus old cassettes and vinyl but my partner has terminal librarianism and has just bought another van so is special needs. We have a lean-to at the back with a plastic roof and a fluorescent strip light, we call it the conservatory, it's full of old kitchen cupboards, discarded camping gear and various cans of dodgy paint. It is where we sit in the late western sunshine and contemplate our Welsh existence.
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Rees Wesson (accordion builder and mechanic)
Gungrog, Welshpool, Wales, UK
www.melodeons.com

Broadland Boy

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2015, 01:37:41 AM »

Its always nice to encounter others who share those kind of values isn't it Pete and I accept the wrist slap for maligning your reputation  ;D

I hadn't realised our 'diamond geezer' had a steamboat, no wonder he gets his bellows soggy - those Chanson plastic bellows are fitted for a purpose Nick, and can be used as a bilge pump if needed  ;) My steam dinghy project got shelved when Kim saw it and indicated it would be a cold day in hell before she'd get into it - unfortunately after I'd had the prop cast  :( it hangs in an accusing manner but the boiler did become mobile - if you want to see what you can build from MAD accumulated bits have a look at the remains of my old website on the wayback machine at http://web.archive.org/web/20101214161611/http://oldenginehouse.users.btopenworld.com/locomotion.htm for a laugh  :|glug
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Richard A
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2015, 07:01:01 AM »

The Dodman is fantastic Richard. Alas my steamboat is only 4ft. Long
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Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

brazilian.BOX

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2015, 02:18:00 PM »

Yeah, this debate is very interesting. Melodeons (the noise boxes as I use to refer myself to my instruments  ;D) the noise boxes tend to make you addicted or obsessed. It's interesting to observe. For example... let's think about in one very nice electric guitar... any fender stratocaster 0km per some 2.000 dollars. Those Gibson Semi-hollows also, I love the tone of those models. Those semi-hollows with that distortion clunch... simply awesome those guitars. But some gibsons like these would cost more than 3.000 dollars for example.

Other example: recently I've been enjoying a lot the idea to buy one bass guitar. One model that made me really enchanted here in the photo ... with design rembering the 60's... One Rickenbacker 4003 this color amazing is named "jetglo" by them. So, one bass like this zero km costs some 3.000 dollars.

And what about melodeons?!  :D
With 200 euros, if you have luck in the websites selling used instruments you will find an amazing melodeon. My Hohner Club III BS for example, one of my favorites, It was less than 200 euros, and it came for me in an impressive like brand new condition. And this instrument was produced in the 40's or 50's for sure  :o

This is one very particular aspect about melodeons that made us so excited and obsessed with them sometimes!
You want to have more melodeons, and more and more, because most of them will cost for you around 100 dollars each one, and you will have lots of fun with the new model you conquered after be searching repeatedly and waiting sometimes for it appear for you available in one Ebay for example.

It gets in a kind of sport for you be always following the market and the offers that appear and realizing that you could by this and this and that.
Or like some friends here, they buy one new model, be with it during 1 year and after they sell it to take another different model.

So, that's the main "magic" about the melodeon and our obsession with it!   8)
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baz parkes

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2015, 05:35:28 PM »

Discipline you see, that's what is required.
We have none of this here, no great collections of festering antiquity nagging at our freedom, well, apart from the melodeons, obviously, but I do try to keep the numbers down to less than fifty. I suppose there are a few motor-bikes and several campervans and chickens but not much in the studio only five guitars, a couple of basses, things with different recording formats, some drum kits, the usual amps, pedals and stuff but really nothing. Books I suppose, yes we do collect those plus old cassettes and vinyl but my partner has terminal librarianism and has just bought another van so is special needs. We have a lean-to at the back with a plastic roof and a fluorescent strip light, we call it the conservatory, it's full of old kitchen cupboards, discarded camping gear and various cans of dodgy paint. It is where we sit in the late western sunshine and contemplate our Welsh existence.

ah...but have you the requisite half bag of cement that's gone off?.. :|glug
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rees

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2015, 10:58:52 PM »

Discipline you see, that's what is required.
We have none of this here, no great collections of festering antiquity nagging at our freedom, well, apart from the melodeons, obviously, but I do try to keep the numbers down to less than fifty. I suppose there are a few motor-bikes and several campervans and chickens but not much in the studio only five guitars, a couple of basses, things with different recording formats, some drum kits, the usual amps, pedals and stuff but really nothing. Books I suppose, yes we do collect those plus old cassettes and vinyl but my partner has terminal librarianism and has just bought another van so is special needs. We have a lean-to at the back with a plastic roof and a fluorescent strip light, we call it the conservatory, it's full of old kitchen cupboards, discarded camping gear and various cans of dodgy paint. It is where we sit in the late western sunshine and contemplate our Welsh existence.

ah...but have you the requisite half bag of cement that's gone off?.. :|glug

That is uncannily accurate, Baz.  :o  I was resting my feet on it just this afternoon.
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Rees Wesson (accordion builder and mechanic)
Gungrog, Welshpool, Wales, UK
www.melodeons.com

Broadland Boy

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2015, 12:09:23 AM »

ah...but have you the requisite half bag of cement that's gone off?.. :|glug
Quote
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That is uncannily accurate, Baz.  :o  I was resting my feet on it just this afternoon.

Well you never know when you might need one, why do some people refuse to understand such essentials??
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Richard A
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2015, 07:10:48 AM »

I've a great collection of door keys. To find out what they do, just through them away... You'll soon find out.  >:E
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Has anyone heard of the song. “ Broken Alarm-clock Blues” ? It starts   “I woke up this Afternoon”

ACE

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Re: A different kind of MAD
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2015, 08:11:10 AM »

I still do not understand the madness that comes over me when I see an instrument or a tune/songbook for sale. Do I really need it? No. Have I already got one? don't know. Can I afford it? no. Alright, will you accept an offer? I will find a use for it.

Various shelves of books, some instructing me on an instrument I think I can already play. Things you hit to make a 'musical' noise, although the last time I played the drums somebody asked me 'have you finished building that shed yet'. Two banjos! anyone would think my mother is my auntie. Then there is the melodeons, one voice, two voice, three voice I kid myself they are all needed for different jobs, but really the two voice would do it all. Better not even start on the constant screamers.
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