Forum Activity for @strumelia

With a 26" scale, you could 'try' out a .028 wound bass string tuning it to low D.  But I definitely wouldn't try thicker than that or it might snap.  Your 26 gauge current bass string is already within the high range for thickness.  Give it a try- the worst that can happen is it would break the string. Make sure you have spare .026 and/or .024 wound bass strings to put on if the .026 breaks.   ;)

Because the .026 is already on the heavy side, you could actually test out a thinner bass string- like a .024 or even a .022 wound.  It sounds counter intuitive but remember the buzz started after changing strings. If you have spare strings it doesn't hurt to try this stuff out... strings are cheap.

p.s. did you buff the nut slot with the waxed floss as well?

If the buzz still occurred with the string sitting on top of the bridge without being in the slot, that suggests the string action being too low is not the culprit.

and what notes are you tuning to?

Yes that might help. Try the next larger gauge just for that string.  A heavier string and a lighter string, both tuned to the same note: the heavier one will feel tighter and be at higher tension. Dont go too very thick or the string might be at too high a tension and break.  Just like for example from a .022 to a .024 wound.

There's also a very remote possibility that it's actually a different string causing the issue, but that the sound manifests itself through the bass string vibrations. In that case, changing all strings might help.

What's your VSL/scale length from nut to bridge, and what gauge strings do you have on now, and what notes are you tuning to?

That's great that you're maybe improving things a little.  Be careful to keep the flossing gentle- you don't want to deepen or damage the slots by 'sawing'. Do both the nut and the bridge slot, since the vibration can originate from either end yet still wind up buzzing at the first couple of frets near the peghead end.

More thoughts... you say the buzz was more pronounced when you had 'flatwound' guitar strings on, and the buzz was less so when you switched to regular wound strings.  To me this may suggest that the buzz occurs when the string is not well seated in either the nut slot or the bridge slot.  If you have a slot that is shaped with a "v" shape nut file, and the string is heavy and is round, then it leaves a very tiny space gap at the bottom trench of the V.  This often causes buzzes. It's a little like putting a round peg into a square hole... you get gaps.

Talk to your husband about this.  I have sometimes solved this 'slot gap' string seating buzz problem by doubling or tripling some waxed dental floss and gently but firmly running an 8 inch length of that that back and forth in both the nut slot and the bridge slot.  (don't saw it too hard, you don't want to file down the slot) That can buff and smooth any microscopic burred edges in the slot and helps the wound string seat more snugly without actually filing the slot.  Obviously you loosen the string first and pull it over to the side while doing this.  It's an easy quick trick to try that won't cause harm to anything, and may make a difference.  The fact that a flatwound string buzzes more than the round wound string makes me suggest this.

Have you looked at this blog post I wrote about finger position when fretting?  Hand/finger position can often cause buzzes and other weird sounds.  I've seen this issue many times in players...

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2012/07/lazy-fingers.html

Have you had your husband play on the string while you listen for the buzz?  If it only happens when you are playing, that points towards something you are doing. Maybe there's nothing actually 'wrong' with this dulcimer but it is just a bit more sensitive to your personal playing methods/habits in some way.

ALSO: does the buzz happen on the OPEN bass string?  Does it happen only on certain notes fretted, and not when you play the string open?

As a test, try tuning just that bass string up by one step- if it is in D tune it to E.... and see if the buzzing stops. If it stops, then you'll know that the bass string is too light a gauge- switch it to the next thicker gauge and that will make sure it won't be tickling the frets when vibrating.

If the test does NOT eliminate the buzz, then the problem is not likely with the string, but could be with the nut/bridge slots, or the frets, or your fingering techniques.  Since Jim Woods has checked out the instrument thoroughly, and also since he cannot hear the buzz happen for him, then perhaps your physical playing technique as the most likely suspect. 
Can you hear the buzz if you get your husband to play the dulcimer or strum it?

I'm sure the two Kens can tell us the exact year that Bruce created ED. I joined there after it had been online for maybe two years.
Jason's SweetMusicDigest listserve was (to the best of my knowledge) the first dedicated online 'discussion group' for dulcimers. That was before people could easily put up online forum software websites like ED. But remember that SweetMusic was a listserve- an email mailing list...it did not have a website where the discussions were threaded and browse-able, like what we are all used to today.

Ed was started more than ten years before FOTMD. Fotmd was started in July 2009, making it almost 11 years old now.

Yes, there is still an 'official' ED facebook page which was created by the folks involved with running the old ED site, when ED was still running.  That FB page is still quite active:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/165673533442748/

I 'think' Ron Zuckerman started that ED FB page- Ron had volunteered and helped Bruce a lot with the tech/admin duties of maintaining the ED main website during its last couple of years. I think Ron then relinquished the ownership of the ED facebook page to others as of last year. They run it now, but I don't know their names.

Feel free to correct me if I have any of this wrong.
There are many other dulcimer 'groups'/pages on Facebook as well these days.

Read my post below about who Jason was.

Greg:

Jason was the guy who started the SweetMusic Index, which was the early and long running  email NEWSGROUP/LISTSERVE for dulcimers. Not to be confused with Bruce Ford's EverythingDulcimer. Jason was not around on his SweetMusic newsgroup very often, and it sort of hummed along by itself until listserves mostly faded from use.

Bruce was quite busy with his military service career, and after many years of running ED he wanted a break. It was Stephen Seifert and Dan Landrum who took over from Bruce on ED for a year or two. But then Dan and Stephen wanted to move on to start Dulcimer School, and Bruce resumed managing the ED forum again for another few years. Bruce finally got too busy in other life activity, and decided to close it down.

Definitely it's no competition. But because they assumed Bruce Ford's original site name, comparisons to his site are just unavoidable. ED was special, and beloved by many.  

It takes dedicated effort to keep spammers and unpleasant offenders off a public site. Bruce did a great job running ED for so many years. When he closed down ED, he did in fact explain publicly why he chose not to turn the site over to someone else. I can respect that. 

Just to be clear... the old ED has not 'returned'.  It's a completely new site run by someone who doesn't identify themselves. They bought the domain name when it went up for grabs online, and they decided to use the same name of Bruce Ford's original site. They mimicked the structure of the old site's forum topics, and copied over the original site's tab collection as well.
It's a whole new and different site, using the same name Bruce Ford created. It is not the original EverythingDulcimer come back again.

Folks, please stay on Nate's thread topic and don't take over the thread to introduce other subjects. I have removed a few off topic posts.
Does anyone have more to add to actually answer Nate's questions?  If you have other things to discuss then please start a new thread specific to that subject in the appropriate location. And please be clear and specific about your discussion subject if you start a new thread. Thanks.

Question posed by the original poster:

Just a reminder to all members that we have an excellent and friendly Chatroom right here on FOTMD.

Where does one find the Chat?  On mobile phones and tablets, go to your left hand mobile drop-down MENU, and scroll down for "Chat" near the bottom of the menu.
On non-mobile (regular) computers and laptops, look for the Chat icon button at bottom right of your screen ... it looks like this: Once you click the button, the chat window will open and you'll see more 'arrow buttons' along the left side of the window where you can minimize, widen, pop-out, or hide the chat window again.

Remember, you won't always find members actively sitting in the chat room when you visit.  But members do check in daily and they're always happy to greet newcomers to the chatroom!  Keep checking in and you'll bump into other live chatting members before long.

Often there are early morning members chatting over coffee and sharing their bird feeder photos, and sometimes there are folks chatting in the evening as well.  If you don't find anyone live there at the particular moment you visit, be sure to leave a "hello!" chat message before you leave and minimize the window ...and check back later to see if someone else responded to your chat message when they popped in too.

Our own friendly FOTMD moderator Jim Fawcett is often to be found checking in with our Chat area.  Jim's been a moderator and a new member Greeter here on FOTMD for 8 or 9 years now. Give him a high five when you're there! 

Hi Ted, just type in a key word or key phrase into the Search field - click the white 'magnifying glass' icon at the very top right corner of any page. That will search the entire contents of the site.

There are also similar search fields available in various sections of the site, such as our Video section, or Photo section. Those will search only within that section.  For example, type in "cat" in the photo section and you'll get various photos with the word cat in the title or description.

An 'archive' is a collection of older material that is stored in a separate location from the current material, perhaps stored by date. In that sense, there is no 'archive' here on FOTMD because all our content from ten years is all kept in the same place here- you just have to use the search feature to find the specific things you are interested in, or else just browse older discussions and older pages from the Video or Audio sections. It's all there for the browsing.

Hope that helps.

Cindy that's great that you are able to support and help your mother this way.

My uncle was 95 when he passed away this past December, and all the way until his last year or two, he and my aunt took a one or two mile walk every day.  A great way to stay active for older folks especially!  They always called it their 'hike' even after it had slowed way down as they got older.   :)

Brian and I once stayed in Burnsville for a couple days.

Ken what's the VSL on that little stick?  Do you have a clip of it being played?  It looks small like an epinette?  How do you like to keep it tuned?

@ken-hulme that's a very purty walking stick!

Tell us what your current favorite song or tune is right now, and why it's your current favorite.

also... Tell us what your current favorite instrument to play right now is, and why.

Let's hear it, friends! 

This is super cool.
I think it would be additionally fun to make a little folded paper origami boat to float in the 'canal' while playing it.

Dusty I guess if/when we get those old fashioned in-person things back again, we'll appreciate and savor them so much more. FWIW, I think your 10 foot distance with masks was smart behavior.

On another note, I tried a different chocolate chip cookie recipe out today, since my last attempt came out disappointingly mediocre, and were a bit of work.  Strangely, this new recipe was way easier to make (no chilling of dough) and the results were incredibly good:
https://www.thewholesomedish.com/the-best-easy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
I should mention that I changed a couple things: -->unfortunately I had no vanilla (it's coming in two weeks) so i left that out. -->I first browned the butter as opposed to simply melting it (giving it a subtle caramel flavor), ...and -->I reduced the choc chips to 1.5 cups instead of two cups, since I wanted to conserve our precious chocolate and i don't care for cookies that are practically solid chips anyway.  Oh, and --> I used Ghiardelli Dark chocolate chips, which is an amazing chip. 

Man, these cookies are out of this world good!  (or as my mother used to say "OTW!"...lol)  You can taste the caramel-y browned butter flavor.  It yielded a generous 38 cookies of 3" diameter.  I'm glad i reduced the chips, because they came out perfect with plentiful melty chips.
Brian said this was called "stress baking".  Ok, whatever.    He also said they were the best cookies ever.  He almost went ballistic when he saw the price of chocolate chips nowadays- we had to order them on Amaz, since baking supplies are a little scarce right now. But now he has 'seen the light' for having the ingredients for cookies. My stress baking alleviated some stress for both of us.

Finding places to exercise outside.
My husband and I used to drive to our county fairgrounds to do fitness walks for the first few weeks of covid isolation.  It's open to the public and much like a pleasant park when the fair is not on, with asphalt paths everywhere.  It was a great place to walk and not get close to people! In pre-virus times we used to sit and eat ice cream cones there.

Unfortunately, it's now become crowded, with everyone in town now having 'discovered' it for exercise and for getting out of the house and socializing. Very hard to stay far from others. No matter what time or day we go there, the paths and even the grassy areas are sprinkled everywhere with little kids on bikes, dog walkers, moms with strollers, joggers, roller bladers, and walkers. People tend to just whiz right by you at close range. It amazes us to also see groups of moms with babies, standing like 4 feet from each other yakking away, no masks, while their kids are all randomly running around them and playing together, touching. These are not just one family. Yikes, I want to stay well away from them!  The fairgrounds became too stressful for us to walk there.

Anyway, we tried walking on a lovely country dirt road yesterday just out of town, but again people were jogging, biking, dog walking, and even standing around in the middle of the road talking and socializing. Meandering all over the road so it was hard to avoid them when you pass by.  :(

So we are going for fitness walks now at the high school.  We look over the situation when we get there and choose one of four large outdoor loops we could walk without bumping into groups of people:  looping around the softball field (in the grass), around the circumference of the football field, around the huge parking lot, or going around the running track. Making several loops around any of these gives us our 2 mile goal.  I wear my pedometer so I can keep track of our distance no matter where we walk.  So far so good, there's always at least one of these four choices that has nobody there at all.  :)

Funny how we have to plan such elaborate strategies now just to go for a walk and feel safe.  But we have various choices... I really feel for people in the cities who have few choices. How do they manage to exercise safely now that all the gyms are closed?

It's always a struggle to force myself out of the house to go for a brisk fitness walk somewhere. Usually i get my exercise from going to contra dances, but no dances while the virus is on.
I did manage a 2 mile walk a couple days ago, and another 1 mile walk today. I get creeped out when I have to pass by someone on the road (I try to hold my breath!) but it's not too much risk since we are about ten feet apart and outdoors.  But still...

Anyway, I know it's important to get exercise and leave the house occasionally.  So I force myself.

It's still been mostly cold and wet here in NY, so the various seeds I planted in the garden for lettuce, radish, carrots, and scallions are only just now little half-inch tall baby plants.  BUT... with warm weather in the 50s coming real soon on a regular basis, these babies should start shooting up much faster them.  So I'm glad I planted the seeds a bit early. They did not freeze and die.

Yesterday I planted a second batch of various lettuces, radish, scallion, and carrots.  The trick is to plant only a small amount of each, and then do another batch in two weeks, and a third yet another two weeks after that.  That way they won't all mature at the same time. Some types of lettuce do well planted all through Summer, others can't take the heat.

Meanwhile, I pick up an order of produce, milk, eggs, and bread from the contact-free store once every two weeks.  And I am growing a constant supply of alfalfa sprouts in the kitchen. Enjoying making yogurt.
Baking choc chip cookies occasionally as a treat. They came out 'ok' but I rationed the precious chips to like 4 or 5 per cookie. Even so, my mediocre choc chip cookies tasted sublime!  At our house we consider small doses of dark chocolate to be essential for both our medicinal and psychiatric well being. For the past year or so I've been using a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder in my coffee cup instead of 2 tsp sugar like I used to for many years.  That must surely be good for me.

I had to order a big bag of dark choc chips online as we are running low. Baking staples are now more expensive than they used to be, for sure. Brian was shocked by the online price, but then he realized how important it was to us to have some dark chocolate here for cookie making and snacking... and how dreary it would be to not have chocolate to perk us up.

There's a lot to be said for those generic lovely blank cards, Dusty. This sounds terrible, but the last time i bought a sympathy card, I bought like four of them so I could avoid the ordeal of picking one out the next few times someone I know passes away.
As we get older, more people we know pass away and this was true in general, long before Covid19 times.  Having some pretty cards with blank inside just makes sense.  I have some with Japanese paintings of birds and branches.

Jan that's very sad about your friend. I assume you've been phoning or writing/emailing to her? Very dismal, but it's good she has someone like you who touches base with her.

Our banks and pharmacies are closed, but you can use their drive-throughs. You can make an appt or order if you need something or service in particular, but you can't just walk in anymore. Maybe I can make a potato stamp card to send to my friends if I need to!  And then eat the potato of course, because no wasting.   ;)

I am glad your covid test came back negative Jan!

Feeling so grateful to the two little stores in my town that are offering contact-free curbside pickup of groceries.  Feeling sooo grateful to have been able to go pick up some fresh milk, apples, eggs, and produce today without having had to navigate a crowded supermarket.

One of the 1/2 gallons of milk i got today is earmarked for me to make it into yogurt tomorrow. I've enjoyed learning that new skill and I love the resulting yogurt I've made so far. It really helps my digestion when i eat a little yogurt every day. My fave is to chop some apple into a 1/2 cup of yogurt, and throw on a handful of granola and nuts, maybe a couple of chopped dates or raisins... and then drizzle honey on it before eating. To me that's a Heavenly meal. 

Yesterday I made some chocolate chip cookies from scratch, which I haven't done in years.  I lacked the vanilla, used the last of my brown sugar, and had to ration the choc chips down to three per cookie   but they came out well enough and taste good- satisfying our sweet cravings.  We figured out that if we each eat only three cookies per day, they'll last us three whole days. Oh boy!

I had a funny thought today, inspired by how giddy i was when I got home with fresh apples and such.  I'm imagining a Christmas 2020 where it'll be like a throwback to the 1880s again- with little children being thrilled to find an orange or tangerine in their Christmas stockings.    Not bloody likely, but the thought made me laugh.

I like that in my small town, people seem to be checking on each other more.  I'm 65, but I've phoned my next door neighbor a couple of times now- she's a widow who's 80. I've been in touch via text with my neighbors across the street (two public school teachers now teaching online). Then just this morning the owner of one of the cafes in town (around aged 50) emailed me asking if my husband and I are ok. It warmed my heart. 

Ariane's new Spring 2020 Calendar has been added as a new Event here on fotmd:

https://fotmd.com/ariane/event/240/musical-spring-calendar-2020

I'll lock this discussion now so as to encourage folks to continue comments on the event page itself. Thanks!    :)

But... super short bangs are so ... French!  

You should feel guilty Dusty... that sounds a bit over the top uber deluxe! 

...are you sure it wasn't alfalfa sprouts?

We all love you Terry, we think you're perfect just as you are!

Steve, I think we are all tending to appreciate our neighbors more during this virus thing.
I had a new neighbor buy one of the houses adjacent to ours at the beginning of Winter, but it being winter I never saw her or had a chance to even say hello and introduce myself.  Today was beautiful weather and i finally saw her outside putting her garbage out, so I went to the edge of my property corner and we talked for about 20 minutes catty-corner across the embankment that separates our houses, and got to know each other a little from twenty feet away. It was nice. She lives there alone with her dog so I'm sure she was happy to meet a friendly neighbor.

I wanted to spend some time out in the sun, so I pruned our blueberry bushes some more, nipping off some dead and crossed branches.  And I planted some more lettuce and radish seeds.  Last week's seed is now sprouting up. I love to look for the seedlings poking up.. it's hard to know which i like better: planting the seed and watching for the baby sprouts, or harvesting and eating the results.
I took the little window box outside of Brian's office window that I usually plant with flowers in the Spring, but this time I instead planted it with a seed mix of baby mesclun salad greens. 

About 5 weeks ago when all this virus crisis started, I had a half tank of gas and figured I'd fill it up when it went down to a quarter tank. Over the past five weeks I've used it to go to pick up food in town twice, gone for medicine once, and driven to a good place to go walking about eight times now. But it still shows a half tank. Must be magic gas. 

Terry thank you for your kind words!    I did enjoy writing those blog posts.

For the benefit of those wondering, here are links to the two posts on my dulcimer Blog that Terry mentioned:

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-ever-happened-to-singing.html

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-have-no-musical-talent-at-all.html

Am seeing some seedlings coming up in the garden now- of lettuce, carrots, bunching onions, and radishes... these are things that sprout and grow well in the cold Spring weather. They can be direct-seeded in the garden in early Spring, before the date of the last frost.  Exciting to see the tiny baby seedlings pushing up through the dirt!  Now if only the squirrels and birds will leave them alone.

Meanwhile, I've had to get creative concerning the warm weather veggies like peppers and tomatoes.  Most people either just buy started plants (like I usually do) or start ahead of time from seed in their basement under grow lights.
I realized a few weeks ago that it might be impossible to buy started plants next month at the garden store, what with the Covid-19 shortages and everybody suddenly starting "victory gardens" in their yards.  So I had ordered some seed early enough to get some before online sources run out of seed.

I didn't have the typical seed starting equipment or little seedling pots, and I imagined the local garden shop would be already out of all that anyway. So I cut in half a plastic milk jug and a cardboard milk carton, and also had a tupperware shallow container. I filled them with dirt from the garden and planted the seeds of tomato, red and orange sweet peppers, and purple tomatillos.

I had an electric pet warming pad that gives very low heat (as in 85F), like the kind you can put under reptile tanks. I stole it from our cats' bed... LOL.  I sandwiched the heating pad between hand towels in the large wooden tray, and put the planted containers on top and covered loosely with plastic wrap.  Put it in the bright window of the guest room... the only room closed off from the cats, who would likely tear all this up if they were allowed access.  ;) I think I'll get a little table lamp and put that near it as well. (update: borrowed a 60w shop lamp from Brian and set it up overhead as well.)

I think they take 10 days to 2 weeks to germinate, so I'll need to monitor it all to not be either too wet or too dry.

Anyway, here's my crazy setup- I hope I did not waste my precious seed!:

Hi Bob!  I really enjoyed that video, and you explain things very nicely!

Your instrument sounds just great and looks like huge fun to play. 

Hey I have a helpful tip for you concerning tremolo... I learned this back in my mandolin and and Puerto Rican cuatro playing days.  I see you are moving your hand and your whole forearm when doing tremolo, as though you are trying to strum fast- that just makes it hard on your arm and makes it hard to become fast and delicate. Instead, keep your arm completely still and move ONLY your hand while tremolo-ing.  You'll be rotating your hand at the wrist, best described as hiding a little cheat card in your palm and taking a quick peek at it... but doing this in rapid succession.  Try practicing the tremolo on a single string only,  ...trying to keep your hand relaxed and not moving your arm at all.  It takes some days of practice to 'get' this, but once you do get it you'll find your tremolo to be much easier and more sweet sounding, like a kitten purr.  Most mandolin players will play or strum across multiple strings but then when they get to their sweet tremolo at the end of a phrase they'll often just do it on the string that played that last melody note on, while letting the other strings continue to ring from the last chord but not tremolo on those other strings at the same time. Tremolo is more like a delicate 'tickling' of a string or maybe two strings in an interval sound, rather than fast whole-arm strumming across all strings.  I hope this may be helpful in some way.

Keep up the good work Bob!    Such a pretty instrument and has a sweet sound.  I think the eea tuning is like a different version of the dulcimer's daa..  simply reversed because you play it upright against your body and with your hand wrapped around the neck instead of down on the lap like a dulcimer.