Here's the link to an article/pamphlet I wrote years ago called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all speak the same jargon (often different from guitar), plus answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new instrument.
Ken Hulme's "I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?" Article - Strumelia | fotmd.com
What Banjimer said! Just tune it and play. If you need encouragement or help, just give us a hollar and we can help. A number of us here have been playing Noter & Drone style for decades...
I love Jeff Menzies instruments! If I were going to play banjo it would be one of his...
I believe, but could be wrong, that the material a banjo pot is made of makes little measurable difference in the sound produced.
Granted, a Leggo(tm) rim or PVC pot will probably sound different than a wooden or gourd pot. But I doubt you'd get any measurable difference between say Walnut, Birch, laminated exotic woods, or bamboo. After all, the primary sound producer is the vibrating head. I can understand big differences in sound between a skin head of various origins and a "plastic" skin.
Another great build, John! Bravo!
Is it "wise" to replace the McSpad friction tuners with Whittner pegs? Probably. There are other "planetary tuners which look more traditional -- Perfection and Knilling. Geared pegs will not affect how the instrument sounds.
One thing to know is that the McSpadden tuning shaft holes are parallel, not tapered, and the Whittner pegs are tapered. For proper fit and function you should reame the holes with a standard 1:30 tapered instrument reamer.
The Whittner website WITTNER® - Finetune-Pegs, Made in Germany (wittner-gmbh.de) gives you the necessary tech specs for each of their models. At a glance it appears that their models for 4/4 and 3/4 violins are the size you'll want. Similar information is available for Perfection and Knilling planetary tuners of course.
Rather than clicking a button, Don, why not take a few extra seconds to tell a poster what it is you like about their post. That's one thing that frustrated the heck out of me on Facebook -- likes. Tell me what you like!!
I did see that photo of a Geoffrey Johnson at Hughes Dulcimer Co, circa 1974. I'd need to do some more digging to see if it's the same person though.
Sorry -- never heard of Geoffrey R Johnson as a builder. BUT. I did some surfing... and it appears that Mr Johnson is (or was) from the Fort Worth, TX area. There's a YouTube vid of him at a Fort Worth Main Street Arts Fair in 2009. I also discovered several other of his dulcimers for sale...
Same here, John. It looks like it can't decide whether it's an hourglass or what. I've seen a lot of those elements -- the extended tail block (although never one that extended) , same with the fretboard extending a little beyond the body and the through-body string holders. The tuners appear to be brass, and have come from some other instrument.
That's not a terribly long "overall" length, which is something we mostly don't worry about. What is the VSL? That's the important number.
I don't think those tuning shafts are extra long, but the sidewalls of the tuning head are very thick, and the slot between the sides seems very narrow -- so the ends of the shafts extend into the opposite side walls.
Definitely not a kit, IMHO, this appears to be someone's personal interpretation of what a dulcimer should be.
A dose of rosin should certainly last more than 8 measures, even on a Mountain Dulcimer! Could be you're not dosing with enough rosin; or pressing down too hard are wearing it off too quick.
Hammered Dulcimers are going to be nearly impossible to bow.
Bows used on Bowed Psalteries certainly last for more than one song!
"Exact" is such a hard word! As Dan sez, back in the day there was no standard spelling for dulcimer/dulcimore/dulcemore, and there were numerous regional names for the instrument as well.
Today many of us use the dulcimore/dulcemore spelling to distinguish instruments made in a more traditional, less modern way. Our "bible" as it were is L. Allen Smith's landmark book Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers. Hundreds of traditional designs to replicate or emulate.
Here are a few characteristics which a number of us use to distinguish between a modern and traditional "dulcimer".
Ah, now we can see! Thanks Lisa. Nice workmanship on this elliptical. John's right, not a Tignor, but perhaps "in that vein". Multi-piece tuning head similar to the ones I make, and it does look like Oak. Tuniing pegs appear to imitate commercial violin/viola pegs. No idea who/what HRC designates; most builders sign their whole name. Is there other writing in the other sound holes?
Sorry -- your images are so large they are more or less not usable. Probably best to Attach the files than embed them in the text message.
YOU ARE SERIOUSLY OVER-THINKING THIS WHOLE THING!
"-coating the inside of the dulcimer in something water protectant: an idea I had earlier that seemed to not be useful in general, but maybe in this context would help it hold up."
No, NO, NO! I live much closer to the ocean than your sister, and coating the inside will NOT work. If it did I would be doing it. For two years I lived less than 100 yards from the ocean on an island in the Pacific near the equator, one of the saltiest environments on the planet! If coating the inside would have worked I would have done it. IT DOES NOTHING!
-gluing in frets with a strong glue: in general I know that stronger glues tend to make maintenance and repair much more difficult, but if I want to build it to last, maybe I should glue them in with something heavy duty to reduce the chances of them shifting?
It is worth noting that I have traveled down there with dulcimers I have built and always had to pummel some raised frets every time I got there, so this is a primary concern for me.
You should not need to glue frets in if your slots are the proper width (not too wide), cut to the proper depth (not too shallow), and you have hammered/pressed them in properly. However, if you feel you must glue, use one of the slow setting Super Glues, as my friend John Knopf recommends will do the job.
Gel Packs -- WILL NOT WORK. Not the way you think. You'd need ten pounds of silica gel and it will only last a few days.
The fact is that the Dulcimer needs to adjust to the environment where it will live. If it can't because you sealed it up inside and out, one scratch will cause it to warp horribly. If the dulcimer can't adapt to local conditions because you artificially adjust it's local humidity with gel packs, it will warp the instant you let the humidity change.
Sorry Bill, I mis-wrote that tuning below... A Bass Dulcimer 1-3-5 tuning is designated D'A'D or C'G'C.
Notice the ' marks on the first D and A. This tells us that those notes are a full octave lower than the common DAd.
In fact, on a bass dulcimer the melody string D is the same as the bass string D on a regular dulcimer. If you look on the Strothers Calculator that I posted below, you will find that for your very short VSL Bass Dulcimer you will need the following strings:
D' = .035
A' = .027
D = .020
You won't be able to put those strings on a regular dulcimer nut and bridge -- the slots will be too narrow. If you're trying to make a bass dulcimer out of a regular dulcimer, you will need to open up the string slots on the nut and bridge, with a small triangular file, so the strings can sit properly. Not particularly deeper, but wider.
Most bass dulcimers that I have seen over the years have had much longer VSLs -- 28", 29" even 30".
As always Bill, we can't help with string gauges unless you also tell us what the VSL of your dulcimer is. Once you have that and the base tuning you want -- DAd (not DAD) -- you can use the Strothers String Choice Calculator and plug in the numbers yourself:
Tom & Missy Strothers | String Choice
Aeolian or Wind Harp. You set it across the width of the sill of an open window, and close the sash down almost on top of it, to funnel the breeze over the strings.
I hope he's got big floaties for his wagon and oxen -- the Gulf of Mexico due East of Texas is kinda rough this time of year!
Registration is closed. We have 34 attendees! A good time will be had by all -- espcially watching Dan with his bells on!!
I don't know why, but last week Berea College requested that Gathering attendees either be vaccinated or have a negative Covid-19 test 72 hours before arrival. We're sorry if this inconveniences some people and we understand if you choose not to attend because of the College's request. But our goal is to keep everyone safe.
Your Spanish dictionary is newer than mine, John!
"Dulce" is Latin and Spanish for sweet and "melos" is Greek for tune -- "melodìa" in Spanish. If I were going to make up a Spanish word for dulcimer I think it would be dulce-melodia . Zither is "cìtara" -- a guitar with no neck and a small body.
You could always get a tattoo of a dulcimer and say "See this..."!!!
I live in SW Florida "right next to" the Gulf of Mexico. I fact I lived on a boat here for 10 years. I also used to live on an island on the equator in the far Pacific where the air is reallllllly salty. Never had any issues from that. Of all the dulcimers I've built I only ever had issues with frets raising because I lived where it was dry and the recipient lived where it was damp.
To put it simply, you cannot, just cannot build a wooden instrument and seal it completely against humidity. A normally made dulcimer will not rot/degrade due to ambient environmental conditions. However, hurricanes. typhoons and floods are not "ambient environmental conditions".
The tunes we know for Slane/Be Thou My Vision/Banks Of The Bann; The Riddle Song/12th of Never; Twinkle,Twinkle/Baa Baa Black Sheep/Alphabet Song/A Vous Dirai-je Maman; and Aura Lee/Love Me Tender come to mind; but none with more iterations than Rosin The Beau
With those large diameter string pins.... if you can't find loop-end strings, you can make a loop by running the open end of the string through the ball-end and pulling it up tight.
Lodging and Activities will be in the Anna Smith Hall.
See attached map. The other location to note is the Alumni Building where we take our meals.
The limitations are in the player, not the scale. There are tens of thousands of diatonic songs, There are thousands of more songs which have an accidental note of two which can be ignored, graced over, or otherwise accommodated. In a long history of playing I have never found a single-key song i couldn't play.
Nate -- we've mentioned this before -- dulcimers are NOT guitars. String gauges and tensions are different. FWIW, 26"-26.5" is a little on the short side for dulcimer VSLs. Use the Strothers String Choice calculator; know that it runs light in gauge, and you can go up a size or two. Don't worry/think about string tensions.
As Dusty says, one you figure out which gauges work for you, just buy singles from a local music shop, rather than sets. However, since most of my instruments have the same few VSLs, I tend to buy in bulk from www.juststrings.com; packs of a dozen strings of a given gauge .09, .010, .012 in my case. If I'm building an instrument with special requirements, I pick up singles locally. Another thing you can do is buy 10-12 ft small coils of music wire of your commonly used gauges, and make your own strings -- it's not particularly hard.
Since your apartment building is so prone to Porch Pirates, perhaps you should get an "accommodation" address. I have one a local 'pack & ship' store nearby
Registration Deadline For The Berea Traditional Dulcimore Gathering is May 15th!
No "at the gate" Registrations allowed.
"Thanks to all who shared here. I thought we'd get a little more interest in the thread, but if you don't feel comfortable sharing that's fine."
I suspect some newer players, with just one or two dulcimers, might be intimidated by those of us who have "accumulated" more...
Complete details, including costs, housing, and the schedule of activities are now listed under Events at the top of the FOTMD page.
Looking forward to seeing interested folks in a wonderful setting once again!
Ten, plus one in process:
Jacob Gross fretted zither -- replica of one in the Mercer Museum
Large Burnsville NC holly leaf
Small Burnsville NC holly leaf
Til Holloway hourglass -- out on loan
Harry Wicker KY hourglass
Ozark Walking Stick coffin shape
Korean Honda hourglass -- out on loan
John Knopf JE Thomas replica hourglass
Bobby Ratliff Hogfiddle elliptical
Bobby Ratliff Cumberland Travel model elliptical -- in transit from Virginia
In process:
Buckeye Pattern Ohio pre-revival two-bout
Plus three Anglo-Saxon Lyres, a Bowed Psaltery and 4 Mirlitons
We don't use pots much for plants except some orchids out by the pool and to start things like papaya seedlings and rooting pineapple tops. We've got bromeliads growing all over the yard. Air plants on the trunks and branches of almost everything. Night Blooming Cereus climbing the trunks of the laurel oak and mahogany tree in the front yard and mango tree alongside the house. The neighbor across the street has a 20 ft tall Schefflera that blooms once or twice a year. Most places Geraniums are annuals... here they're perrenials!
March started like a lamb... going out like a Lion. The good thing is we've both been doubled jabbed. Lots of other not so good stuff happening though...
I've been double jabbed, and still only unmask outdoors and not around crowds outdoors at a park or farmer's market.
We both got our second jabs more than two weeks ago. Both through the VA. Sally was 'first wave' as a health care worker, I was 3rd wave as a partially compromised veteran over 70. Feeling much better about things in general. But we will not stop mask wearing for probably another year. We already had lots of quantitative evidence that traveling -- flying in particular -- while masked reduces contracted illness, and for the past 10 years have always flown and entrained that way.
This subject comes up every few months. You can Search here for other responses to the question.
Here's my take: Nylon strings seldom work well on a conventional dulcimer, as the instruments are build too heavily to respond well to the more subtle vibrations of nylon strings. Bridge intonation position is a factor of string length relative to diameter, not string composition. You can leave it where it is or ignore it entirely. Action height may need to be raised as nylon strings will not be as taut. Nut/Bridge slots may not be suitable -- too small for the larger diameters of nylon strings. Do nothing until you actually put nylon strings on the instrument and try them for awhile.
Good job with the photo this time Crazie! I really like your unusual sound hole shapes. The ducks are particularly innovative. And being the occasional "knife assembler" I like that shape a lot too. I am currently hilting a custom seax blade forged for me with maple burl and walnut.
Derek -- this essay I wrote years ago may help: I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?
https://fotmd.com/comment/download/comment_file/151539/I%20Just%20Got%20A%20Dulcimer%202016.pdf
