Having had the time to digest all of the replies I received I'd like to thank all of the list members for their advice and assistance. Two things are now clear to me - there don't appear to be any NSP players in my immediate area, although it's entirely possible that there are one or two closet players who don't play in public. Certainly my local folk music gurus are unaware of anyone and they would probably know if they had raised their heads at some time in the past. So, the only time I would be likely to play in the company of other NSP players is if we visit the North East, which we do less and less these days. I'm not going to base my decision on the possibility of missing out on one or two sessions every 24 months! Secondly, almost every time I play in a group of musicians they are melodeon players as the instrument is extremely popular in Suffolk and we have some lovely teachers. All the tunes I join in with Autoharp are in D, or G, and the range of the melodeon matches that of the NSP without the addition of a C natural note. My melodeon lady took me through the whole range of music we play at intermediate folk band and every single tune could be played on an NSP D set. Lastly it is also possible to sing accompanied by the pipes and as I am most comfortable within the Soprano range the D pitch pipes will complement my vocal capacity. So thank you again to everyone who took the time to examine my criteria and offer an opinion, it has been extremely useful. I have now ordered a D set from David Burleigh, who has been most helpful and I look forward with considerable anticipation to their arrival.
Alison To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
