About our ergonomic improvements:
These features are optional as playing music is personal and these may not be to everyone’s taste. A standard hand rest and air button works fine. However as a player I can recommend our optional ergonomic features to anyone who wishes to improve their playing comfort, especially when playing over long periods of time. These features could potentially also be beneficial to a player suffering from arthritis.
Our optional ergonomic features are as follows:
The air lever (£30 extra):
This design is more suited to the movement of the thumb than the conventional air button, resulting in a more natural and comfortable motion. The human hand is very suited to grabbing things, slowly make your hand into a fist and watch the movement of your thumb. This is a natural movement for the thumb and this is what our air levers are designed to work with. If you are unsure feel free to visit us and try one out.
Custom fit hand rest (£30 extra):
These are beneficial because the sizes of all our hands are different. In the past anglo concertinas were made in factories in rather larger quantities than are made today. The hand rests were made to a “one size fits all” height which was generally rather small (around 18-20mm tall) You can play perfectly well on an instrument like this but most players will have to keep the straps fairly loose so that their hands are not in a cramped position. When playing more demanding music in terms of speed or volume it is helpful to many players for the hand to be held in position by the straps set fairly snug. For this to be possible without cramping the fingers the hand rest has to be the correct height which varies according to the player.
I have developed a hand rest sizing system with various optional sizes and shapes. To have a custom hand rest it is required for you to visit us and try the display concertinas. If you decide when you visit that this feature is not for you then there is no extra charge to your order should you like to make one.
These new hand rests could easily be made to fit any anglo-concertina in existence.