Ken Longfield

@Old-Dawg , I went in and downsized these particular photos for you that are on Ken's profile Comment Wall.
I'm sure you will soon figure out what program on your device (laptop, phone?) can downsize images easily for you. Every device i've ever known has an image editing ability in one app or another that will save as a smaller file. Sometimes I find out just by googling it, like "how to downsize images on a Galaxy phone" (or on an iPad, etc etc) 

Sorry about the photos. They came through enlarged for some reason. I'll work on that.

Thanks for the warm welcome, Ken. I am hoping to get some feedback on my dulcimer: value, comments from those that may have one by the same builder, etc. Being new to the site I am not sure if this is where I should be posting a description and photos, but I will give it a try.

Many years ago I contacted John Stoddard about building me a dulcimer. He told me he was no longer building but he would be willing to sell me one of his personal instruments. I bought it. It came in a "well traveled; soft case. The dulcimer was in excellent condition with minor wear. If I remember correctly, he called it his concert model. It has a beautiful, full round sound with excellent sustain. It is 38" long. The bouts are 8 1/4" and 6 3/4". It has gold Gotoh tuners. Attached are some photos I took this morning. Thanks in advance for any responses.

The problem is that there is no loop. The loop end of the string was wound until it was up against the little button. If you look at my photo you may be able to see how the loop end of these strings was wound tight, all the way up to the button. Leaving no wiggle room. 

Thanks for the welcome message!

Nice to be back!

Many thanks to you for the warm welcome, Ken! Port Washington is indeed on LI and I love it there—I didn't know Jean Ritchie lived there for quite some time, very cool. 

Thank you for the welcome Ken.  Surprised you visited El Cajon, glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you for the welcome Ken!

Thanks for the kind welcome. Just starting to navigate my way around.

Cheers...Shane

Thank you Ken, I'm excited to be here and to explore the great information about the mountain dulcimer. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions along the way, and I appreciate the friendly atmosphere. I look forward to learning from everyone. 

Thanks Ken,all worked out well and I have spent the afternoon getting acquainted with my first ever dulcimer. Judging from my experience with guitars, suspect this will not be the last as I already have another in the works at another shop with chromatic frets.  This one is my intro so started with the diatonic with the 6 1/5 fret and have been having a great time with it. Hoping my shipping experience goes better with the next one. I did indeed wait overnight, mostly because it arrived late in the evening.  I am used to that with acclimation on acoustics though, especially as it is very dry and cold here right now. I have humidifiers in my guitar room so he spent the night with them.  I am calling it a "he" as it has howling wolves staring up at two moons for sound holes. One of my favorite books from the Seventies (aging myself here) was "Women who run with the Wolves". I am currently painting a wolf scene as it is my spirit animal, so the design sold me on this one.  Thanks for your response. Jan

Good morning @Ken-Longfield and thank you for the welcome. I'd be happy to connect with all the Indiana dulcimer players but it would be a reach. I am in Garden City, Idaho. Looking forward to learning enough to play for myself and with others. 

Glad to find this group!

Thanks for the welcome (and for mentioning the WV specific group)! 

Thank you for your gracious welcome, Ken! 
It is much appreciated.

Yeah, thanks for the welcome.

Thank you for welcoming me in.  I have started building from scratch.  My time is very limited and I have a bunch of projects on my bench.  I am also trying to learn to play.  I have little musical experience but I also like the challenge.  At some point I think having an in person teacher will be very helpful.

Thanks for the welcome, Ken.  I am a beginner to the mountain dulcimer, although I play guitar, banjo and a little mandolin.  I am trying to be intentional about learning, rather than reading tabs and trying to mimic arrangements I hear.  I’d prefer not to rely on tabs, in fact,  but rather learn the notes so I can play from regular music.  Right now I am working my way through some Brett Ridgeway you tube videos, but if you have other advice, I’d be happy to hear it.  I have been playing in DAD so far. 

Thanks, guess I'll call Just Strings for a little help since the Dulcimer is new to me.

Virtually any lap dulcimer can be strung with the common package sets for either DAA or DAD. Typically plain Steel .012, .012, .014, Nickel Wound .022.

I'm planning to try .014 melody strings one of these days since I ONLY tune to DAA. I don't expect to hear much difference. The .014 strings often break if tuned much above A# or so.