Forum Activity for @strumelia

Gregg, you could post this festival in our "Festivals/Events section here on FOTMD, since it has various performers/instructors and is a music gathering.  Then it would appear in our site's Events calendar.  You can add a picture for it as well.

Kendra, it'd work better for you if you posted this info and link to the tab etc right in the Comments section of your Lillies video.

That way, your info about the tab and the video will all be in one place, right on the actual video page.  If you start a forum thread in the Forums about your video in the video section, the two will not stay connected and people's comments here about your video will sink out of sight as the forum thread gets older.  That's the trouble with having two different comment areas about one item (the video, where comments are left... and this thread about the video, in a forum that is not part of the video.)

I know you are having some confusions about using this site, so I'm trying to help you. It's best not to start a forum discussion about your own video- each videos has its own comment area where you can post thoughts and info and hold discussions about the video right there, on the video's own page.  It gets quite confusing after a while to have comments on the video page and also comments about the video in a separate forum thread like this one.  Go to your "Lillies" video's page (find your video by going to the main link for Videos at top banner, OR by going to your own profile page and clicking the Videos Tab to see your VIDEOS there) and post your info and tab link there in the video comments instead of starting forum discussions about each of your videos.  That way everyone will find all the comments, discussion, and info on the video right there, on the video's page.  I hope I've explained this without confusing things!

Kendra, please tell me an actual example of 'something you posted' that you cannot see the comments on. I need that.

Kendra it's hard to know exactly what comments you are talking about- can you please post here an URL where there is a comment you cannot read?  or tell me what the comment says so i can find it?  that would enable me to help guide you better. I'm understanding only that you somehow know there has been a comment or message to you, but are not using the correct link that takes to the comment or message so that you can see and respond to it.  I'm not knowing how/where you are being presented with these links or notifications so that I can advise you where you are going wrong.

My best guess right now without getting further clarifications from you:

Is it in an email that you find out about a new comment? This would a site notification, which typically has two or three links in it (to unsubscribe, to go see a comment, to turn off notifications altogether).  If so, please copy/paste the text of what the email says here... that will help me determine whether these 'comments' you are referring to are comments on your videos, private messages, comments on your profile page, etc.  Or, it will help me guess which incorrect link you are clicking on in the notification. Knowing that will help me tell you how you are perhaps going to the wrong place, resulting in your not seeing the items.

Not quite clear on what comments you are referring to, (this thread here is about what to do if you can't see the entire discussion in a group because you;ve not joined it yet) but....if you are referring maybe to email site notifications you get when people have commented on your items, then follow the LINK provided in the notification, which leads you to the comment itself, on your item.

Maybe you are clicking on the wrong link in the notification.  Please look carefully at the notification- the link to follow should be near the top, above the comment.

Kendra, have you tried reading this thread?

It explains how you need to join a group in order to be able to read the complete discussions in the group. It also shows pictures on how to join a group.  Try that.

Hi Sharon, an Admin needs to remove the threads from the For Sale forum.  I have deleted it for you.  Thanks!

How about we drop the debating and get back to simply discussing cbrown's instrument fixing project, which is the subject of this thread?  Thanks.

Hi folks, I'd like to keep this discussion focused more simply on 'introducing ourselves'- so feel free to start new discussions in either the Music Theory Group or the Traditional NoterDrone Group if you would like to continue in depth discussions on modes, ballad resources, etc.

Thank you!

David, your Sheba is very sweet looking! 

We have a kitty named Sheba too!- she's a brown tabby. We usually call her by her silly nickname, Boo Boo. 

Phroe...  I'm thinking you'll eventually have to make a decision whether to continue putting in your time and expense to make this a dulcimer that is enjoyable to play . Sometimes we just have to let an instrument-fixing project go and chalk it up to good learning experience. But only you can decide where that point might be in your personal scale of pros and cons. You might opt to keep this instrument as a good one for hauling around to campouts or trips without having to worry about it like you would with a more expensive dulcimer. Or it may be the instrument that prompted you to make one from scratch. Or it may be the one that caused you to go out and try some dulcimers made by known and respected makers. You have lots of choices as to how to see this and what to do next.  But I think your attitude has been real positive through this experience. 

I buckled down and made a BIG batch of green tomatillo sauce today, and canned it. Always a project to haul out the canning stuff.

I started with approx. 14 lbs of tomatillos (before husking), and finished up with about 16 nice looking pint jars.  It also included 4 onions, 13 cloves garlic, 2 fresh garden red peppers, an entire large bunch of fresh cilantro, 1.5 cups lime juice, and 2 T. ground cumin. About 1 tablespoon each of ground black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes.

My oh my but it tastes divine!

So satisfying to get the messy kitchen all cleaned up and hear the 'pinggg!' sound as each jar top dimple seals down while cooling.    When the snow flies outside, every time we open a jar it'll bring back the taste of Summer.

Tomatoes are gearing down.  We had big tomato & bacon sandwiches on sesame hamburger buns for dinner. I like mine with mayo spread on the buns, Brian likes with guacamole spread.  Won't be more than another week or two for those big slabs of red tomato slices. 

Still getting lots of tomatillos though, so I'll have to make more green sauce this week.  I'll probably can some jars of it since there'll be too much for just keeping in the fridge.  Those plants get mighty big!  Next year I'll have to remember to give them more elbow room on all sides.

I also discovered that tomatillo branches are absolutely gorgeous when cut and arranged in a vase. The sun shines through the light green leaves, and the little tomatillos 'lanterns' hang from the stems, draping gracefully. Beautiful! and they last for almost 2 weeks in a vase looking nice.

Mary i loved your story.  How great that you are forging ahead, enjoying the journey, and not letting anything get in your way this time!

Wayne, a 28" or 28.5" nut-to-bridge scale length is about as long as it gets and still be considered 'standard scale length' range.  So it seems to me this instrument was designed with a scale length in mind that is several inches longer than that.  Whoever laid out this fret board with the nut positioned where it is now had the goal of making this longer dulcimer have a 'standard' length scale. 
If you replaced the current fret board and put the nut where it would 'normally' be expected, this dulcimer would likely have a scale of 31" or so--  really a bit too long to comfortably tune up to the usual dulcimer key of D, and such a long scale would also make for difficult-to-reach finger stretches while making chords.  So, somebody made this dulcimer have a 'normal' scale by the easiest way possible- by having the nut moved up by several inches.

How long is the overall length of this dulcimer?  I assume it did not come with a case?  Might be a little fragile and expensive to ship because of its added length.

About the Merlin, I can't say much because I feel like it's comparing apples to oranges.  Instruments are tools, and much depends on what your own personal goals are for your playing. Choose a tool that will help you get where you want to go.  :)

Someone laid out the scale a little differently by starting the nut higher up the fret board than usual. That shortened the scale overall.. which actually might make it easier to play if you have smaller hands.  As long as the frets are placed so that it plays in tune on all frets, you're good to go!  (use a tuner to fine-check the fret placement, but at first glance it looks to be generally correct)

I'd be interested to know the scale length of this arrangement- what's the length in inches between the black nut and the bridge?  Perhaps the instrument itself is extra long, and the owner decided to shorten the scale to a more standard length, to make it easier to play.

I'd say that if it plays in tune and comfortably, you can enjoy having this dulcimer that didn't cost much! 

Thanks Dusty!  :D

Tatts, I'd like to also mention that in this "How do I.." forum (and thank you for posting your question in the right forum!), there is a thread about how to change your profile/account picture.  That thread may explain further details for you that might be helpful:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i/15152/change-upload-your-avatar-member-profile-picture#r21272

Gorgeous Thomas style walnut dulcimore, John!   The matching possum board is icing on the cake.

Some additional points beyond what Ken L went over:

Victoria, are you trying to post a profile/avatar picture of yourself that replaces the generic one of the tan dulcimer?...one that will show to the left of your posts?
If that's what you're trying to do, then you need to go into your Settings to replace the generic image.   

There are two easy ways to get to your account Settings:

1) go to your Profile page, and click on the GEAR icon at the right top corner to the right of your large name. Once in your Settings, notice that there are two tabs: one for Profile and one for Account.  Go to both those Tabs and follow the directions to upload your picture for your avatar (one pic will show only on your Profile page, and the other will show next to all your posts elsewhere the site. They can both be the same picture if you like).

2) the other quick way to get to your member settings is to hover over your name at the very top of any page here, on the right... the drop down menu will appear and just click on "account settings" - it will take you to the same place in your profile settings where you'll see those two tabs for Profile and Account.

If you see a bunch of weird code- it may be a bug of some sort in the site coding. If it is, I'll need you to tell me exactly what your steps were that make the code pop up, and a screenshot of the odd code you see would be invaluable to me in tracking down the problem and fixing it.  If you're seeing an error message, then I'd need to know exactly what the message says, and what steps you did that produce the message.  If I can't reproduce a bug or get detailed descriptions of how it happens, then it becomes very difficult to track it down and fix it.  Thanks!~

I liked your video too, David... loved your elderly neighbor chuckling there at his own limberJill playing 

Robin, you and mark do such a wonderful duet dance between your two instruments... terrific porch playing!

@ken-longfield , is that an old collar stay pick?... and a hollow reed noter? 

Um, when you are making a note of what each strings was tuned to, be careful: 
I'm thinking that someone inadvertently REVERSED that paper naming the notes for each string.  The notes should be going LOWER, not higher, as the strings get longer. Your slip of paper is currently oriented the opposite way.  --> Try taking the paper out and putting it in the opposite way.  Starting with the shortest string, it would then go: C, B, A, G, etc...

It slides off laterally.  Either towards the head stock or away from it, depending on how it's orientated. Sometimes they are very tight and you need to wiggle it a little while sliding it.

Like I said, swan head armchairs and rocking chairs were made long ago in the Victorian era mostly, but then there were also reproductions of them made later on like in the 1930s-70s.  The repros tend to be more simplified (less refined and less complex carving) as the original era antiques. Your dulcimer's headstock fits that style.  The later repros are now of course vintage 'antiques' themselves.

I just gotta add, about tuning wrenches:

Having used both the T shaped cheaper ones and the L shaped slightly more expensive ones... I urge people to get an L wrench-  you get way more control for fine tuning the zither pins- the fulcrum range is much wider. Truly, it's like twice as easy to fine tune by very small increments, and also the L wrench is much much easier on the hands.  It's almost like the difference in ease between plain wood tunings pegs that are sticky, and simple geared machine pegs.  My advice is to pay the extra couple of bucks and get an L wrench... it'll make your life easier!    ;D

When i saw the pictures of this dulcimer, I immediately thought that the maker used the carved swan head arm from an antique chair for the head stock.  Such carved swan head chair arms were fairly popular both long ago and again in later reproductions of Victorian furniture. I suspect the swan head was recycled from an old discarded chair, the rest of the dulcimer having been built at a later time than when the chair was made.  In my eyes, the smooth stylized mahogany swan head doesn't really seem to match the whole rest of the instrument which is decidedly more rustic. Look at some of these vintage and antique chairs for typical carved swan head arms. One like this one could have easily been cut and adapted as a head stock.  I also think the 'wing' decorative element might have come from recycled furniture, and the fretbord may have been a mahogany piece from furniture as well.  I think whoever made the dulcimer was into using old furniture wood for thier projects.

Ferrator, can you post here a photo or two of the entire instrument?  It's hard to tell anything from just a few closeups, without the 'big picture'.

I've been saving up ripe tomatillos from my garden for the past 10 days, and had a giant bowl of them ready for today.  I made my first green sauce!

After husking and washing the tomatillos, I cut them all in half, then quartered two onions and halved a large red italian pepper (also from my garden) and tossed all with a little olive oil and salt and black pepper.  (I can't eat too hot spicy so I didn't use jalapeno hot type peppers. Mild hot is ok for me though.)
I spread everything out on a big broiling pan in one layer and roasted it in a 425 oven about 20 minutes til everything was soft and a bit of charring of the tops. That was more than enough cooking. Removed some of the liquid with a turkey baster, because there was really way too much liquid. 

Spooned it all into the food processor and buzzed it just enough to to chop up the bigger onion/pepper pieces.  The resulting chunky sauce all filled a 2 quart pyrex pitcher.  I add a tablespoon or two of hot cilantro chutney, stirred that in, and then ladled into canning jars to keep in the refrigerator.  Recipes say it should be good for like 6 or 8 weeks... plenty of time for us to eat it all up!  It is reeeeally yummy!

There are way more green tomatillos still out there that are not ripe yet.  I think the next batch would be accumulated and ready in a couple weeks.  At that time I might make another batch but actually 'can' it with a hot water bath and seals so I can store it on a shelf for longer time, maybe give a few jars as Christmas presents.

These scruffy little pooches are so cute!!

Lois, you could create and name a new photo Gallery and then use the gallery's "+" button to add photos to the gallery.

BUT if your goal is to ask if people know who made your dulcimer, then you'd get a lot more responses if you just ASK that question in a new discussion in our Instruments/luthiers Forum:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discuss-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions
Notice that that forum has quite a few discussions asking who might have made a particular dulcimer.

Many people don't notice descriptions in a gallery or a photo. But a forum discussion, with pictures, WILL get more reads and more replies. A photo or photo gallery is not a great place to try to start a discussion or ask questions. Mostly people will just say "beautiful dulcimer!" when they comment on a photo. Discussion are easiest to conduct in Forums.

I suggest you create your new discussion in the appropriate forum (as I linked above), and then read the following thread for instructions on how to add your photos into your discussion posts :

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i/33874/how-do-i-attach-photos-to-a-post

Thanks for the timely reminder, Robin! 

The answer to this mystery is described here:  https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i/35300/mystery-solved-comment-walls-not-indexed-in-site-searches

Comments in Comment Walls are not indexed within site searches.

Discussion threads in Groups and Forums ARE included in site searches for phrases.

Thanks SaltSprings!  That explains the mystery-  the word phrases Anne was searching this site for weren't actually used in that fotmd discussion... but rather they appear on the other site... the site that was linked to by Greg.  That's why they didn't turn up in any searches of this site.

Anne, I'm not having luck finding those terms either.  I also did a search of Greg's activity feed for those terms and had no luck doing that.  Not sure what else I can do!  Are you positive that it was here on FOTMD that you read that post? I'm thinking that the post was actually a COMMENT on an item like a video maybe, and it's possible that Comments don't show up in search results.

Special thanks to Dusty Turtle and Robin Thompson for contributing/donating to the prizes and expenses of the contest. 

A big Thank You to ALL wonderful members of Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer... for making this site so much FUN and so rewarding to be a part of, for a whole ten years now.    

I especially want to extend a hug to those members who have been here since our first year- how terrific it is that you've been here for so many years of sharing and friendship and support.   :)

===========

To the five contest winners-  please send me a private message with your postal address so I can start the process of making sure you receive your PRIZE(s) in the mail !!!   

Here is the chart by which the winners were calculated.  The LUCKY NUMBER was 407 .

1st Prize....  @larry-goodwin  !!!

2nd Place Prize:  @hugssandi !

3rd Place Prize:  @dulcinina !