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[playandteach]

I completely fail to understand why anyone would ever want to dance and play in the rain!  Is it some sort of peculiar southern English sense of humour?

A few years ago - when I was in mountaineering shape - I was chatting to a French guide before going up Mont Blanc. Two British climbers died the day before in adverse weather, and the guide said that British mountaineers were amongst the most skilled in the world, but once they had an itinerary they were loath to change it no matter the weather.

[george garside]

in my morris days I always worked on the basis that if the dancers were prepared to dance in the rain it was up to me to provide the music. Hence the battered pokerwork 'grot box' plus cycling cape plus shop doorways, friendly brolly holders etc etc

george

[IanD]

Or.....
Bad weather morris dance *in* the pub!
I have had so much fun dancing inside, where somehow lunacy takes over..... memorable dances with Smiffs  in the Zetland Arms at Warwick FF is legendary - still fondly remembered with a smile.

Then such lovely boxes ( and dancers ) don't need protection!
Q

I remember that too -- so little space I had to play sitting on the bar... :-)

[IanD]

I was in Hobgoblin on Saturday and amongst other boxes, I tried out a new Lilly.

It felt and sounded absolutely wonderful but the thing I noticed straightaway was that the bass seemed to drown out the treble.  Now I know that this is a single reed instrument so that's likely to be the case I suppose but I was wondering if I was missing a trick with this.  I guess a company such as Castagnari must have designed such an instrument not to have an imbalance like this but it seemed to be so.

I'm in the market for a lightweight quality box and this is wonderfully light and felt fantastic to play and even at £1695, I must admit I was tempted.

My other question is - has anyone out there ever used one of these for morris?  I know it's probably not the ideal box for such a purpose but if you have, does it hold its own or get drowned out?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Les

Lillys do work OK for Morris if not hammered but they don't have the carrying power of a DBB (or a Hohner); the bass end is higher-pitched than normal (which is maybe why you think it sounds loud compared to the treble end) and personally I don't find the sound that well-balanced. If you do push them hard to try and get maximum volume outdoors it's easy (because of the small size) to generate a lot of air pressure which can make the reeds drop in pitch (out of tune) and also lead to reed breakages.