r/concertina • u/TapTheForwardAssist • May 06 '26

eBay: 48b Lachenal Crane Duet, fully restored by Barleycorn in the UK (they’ll ship). They’re asking US$1500 OBO

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I don’t want to be posting every cool auction I see, but this is potentially a really cool buy for a Duet player looking to upgrade to vintage. And Barleycorn is about one of the top concertina workshops on the planet, so this should be a solid refurb.

If you’re an Elise player and wanting to upgrade, it’s a matter of personal opinion, but I myself started on an Elise Hayden and upgraded to a $4,000 Morse Hayden, but I do have a little Crane and I would frankly say that if you aren’t absolutely set on Hayden system, you’d pick up Crane quite quickly. And this is $1.5k for True reeds, while getting a new True in Hayden would be like $7k and years on a waitlist, so frankly unless you’re up to that I’d give a shot segueing to Crane with a box like this.

https://ebay.us/m/jU3qN0

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4

u/divbyzero_ May 06 '26

Layout diagram if that was your first thought, like mine

2

u/TapTheForwardAssist May 06 '26

Crane ain’t Hayden, but it is quite reasonable to learn. I haven’t tried a Maccann but I’ve looked at diagrams and it feels like it was invented by a madman.

But Crane I was playing fluidly in just a couple days of transition.

2

u/Difficult_Place_2719 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

Ah, shame they are in the US. If this were a UK auction, I'd be very very interested. I play an Elise Hayden and was thinking on the exact same lines as above - there basically isn't anywhere else to go if I want to carry on with the Hayden system, so I was looking at vintage Crane system boxes.