Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

There are no plans for cardboard dulcimers.  There are only kits to put together or completed cardboard instruments.  The kits are under $100. 

You can easily make a trapezoid or box dulcimer body roughly 30" long by 5" to 8" wide by 2" deep using tape and Elmers glue. If you want anything fancier, I suggest you buy a cardboard kit.

A length of straight 1x2 pine or poplar or maple from one of the big box stores is your fretboard for only a couple dollars. 

A set of inexpensive tuners is under $20 and fretwire is under $7 from CBGitty or StewMac.

A set of strings under $8 usually from any music shop. 

The spacing for the frets you can get from WFret or the StewMac calculator or a couple other places for free.  

If you'd like any help in the construction process, join us here in the Groups area under Building Dulcimers, and we can easily talk you through a build...

Back in the day I put fret markers on my builds, but not any more. As my brother Ken says, when you make and play only true diatonic fretboards, the spacing pattern tells you everything you really need to know.

Nathina said; "I am not adverse to tuning the galax to traditional but it will be for sale." 

Which is precisely the reason why I would not change it: People looking to buy are going to expect a Galax style instrument to be set up for Galax play. 

IMHO you should be "restoring" an instrument, not making it into something it isn't. 

Most modern players won't look at that dulcimer and say "Ah ha!  A Baritone".  They're going to see a traditional style instrument. 

As far as stains -- why not let the beauty of the wood come through -- use Tung oil or Boiled Linseed Oil or even satin or matte Urethane and skip coloring the wood.

Someone did a nice job.  Are the top & back veneer?   Beautiful painting, but not nearly enough sound hole area.  Commercial violin pegs, but not everyone wants to take the time to carve their own (I don't!).  Maker's label?  

Eleven Years Ago this post was started!!  To all who were here then, and all the new folks since then,  Happy Holiday, which ones you celebrate!

I had the same thought, Ken.  Just has a "kit" feel to it...

As Dusty says, nut/bridge material is up to you, the commercial ones today are usually Delrin(tm) or a harder plastic.  Most of us use a small triangular "jeweler's" file t\o cut string notches in the nut/bridge.  

Anniversary of sorts.  After nearly a year, including the stress of Covid lockdown (and we take it very seriously), I am still 40 pounds lighter than I was in September of 2019.  Thank you WW.  No fancy expensive foods, just watching what, when and how much I eat. 

The first question is -- What is the VSL of this Jeffreys dulcimer?   THAT is a major determinate as to what the gauges should be.

I went to the Strothers String Choice calculator to see what I could see...

If the VSL is about 27" and the owner wanted to tune up to Ggg, then strings around .005 and .015 are good choices.

Hi nik;  

I've not heard of David Cosby as a builder, but it appears that this was his second dulcimer build (#2), back in 1978. 

A series of wide and close up photos may help use better identify things.

It helps prevent confusion if we all use the same terminology when describing instruments, and the terms used for dulcimers are not necessarily the same as those used for other stringed instruments. 

Mountain Dulcimers have a head block, a scroll or flat tuning head, a tail block, two sides (usually), a top, a back, a nut and bridge (but no saddle usually) and a fretboard which may also have a fingerboard on its top. Some have feet on the back. 

A "heavy, square" tail block is not necessarily a Galax style element; many instruments from different regions have large tailbocks of various shapes.  What normally distinguishes the Galax is it's double back, it's wide (7-10") elliptical shape (not teardrop), it's extreme depth (2.5" to 3.5") and usually 3 strings of the same thin gauge tuned normally to ccc or ddd.  Check out Kudzu Patch Dulcimers -- Ben Seymore is the "king" of Galax instruments...

Builder's name doesn't ring any bells.    Galax style dulcimers did/do not normally have feet.  

"zen dulcimer".  Ah.   Grasshopper must learn seal lips when play music!  When I do deep meditation and really relax, my lips, teeth, jaws, etc.  I can have the same issue.  Luckily I meditate that deeply when lying on my back, so the liquid goes in not out.  Try playing dulcimer laying on your back -- strap the instrument to your music stand

I agree with what Dusty said...  unless you're going to make it yours, rather than 'flip' it, I would leave the tuning pegs alone and add simple fine tuner beads behind the nut if you can.  If you don't have it, a couple drops of "Peg Dope" work wonders for making pegs work smoothly -- loosen the peg, put a couple drops where the peg fits into the scroll side, then re-tighten

I see Terry sells string sets in 24/16/12 and 26/16/13.   The 26/16/13 set may help but i wouldn't guarantee it. 

What I suggest is dropping Terry a note and explaining to him what you've explained here.  Rather than centering your strings on D, he may recommend buying strings ideal for the key of C; that way you'd be going up one step to D, and down only one step to B...

Not sure he contracts with anyone to do paintings on his instruments.  Contact him and ask.

The dime sits alongside the 1st fret.  The nickel sets on top of the 7th fret.  The strings should just touch the coins.

What is your normal tuning on the McCafferty?  Key of D -- DAd -- I'm assuming?  If so, going down to the key of C should be easily playable with those strings.  But going down to the key of B may be borderline 'floppy' for those strings and causing issues.

i found West's obit. but no real information.  He passed away in 2016.  Apparently a Mountain View AR native.  The one currently for sale on EBay certainly looks like a good example of 1980s dulcimer design and appears to be good craftsmanship.

Not a word on Henry C Desler, Dessler or Dressler 

Yes that is a legit Folk Roots label. 

Rugg & Jackel made Darn Fine dulcimers!     As Dusty says, Capritaurus and Folk Roots were two different critters however.  The Folk Roots line was more of a production dulcimer than a hand-crafted dulcimer.  Are current Folkcraft better than a Folk Roots?  Depends on your personal interpretation of better.  

Don:  as long as you're not getting any buzzing the action isn't too low and you don't have to worry.  But if you change strings and then get some buzzing it may be because the new strings are a tad larger or less tight.  Buzzes usually happen when you fret.  If you get buzzes from un-fretted strings there is definitely an issue.

If you are getting together with the builder, DO NOT DO ANYTHING until he checks it over.  If you live that close to the builder, don't be doing things yourself.  That's just silly.  Let the builder do any modifications he feels are necessary.

You've got the nickel & dime idea WRONG. 

The strings should just touch a dime setting next to the first fret.

They should also just touch a nickel balanced on top of the 7th fret not the 6th fret.

If open strings are sharp before playing  -- how sharp is sharp?? A few cents?  Half way across the dial?  If the instrument is in tune when you put it away --- and is sharp when you come back to play again -- you have some serious environmental issues going on.  Where are you storing it.  in direct sunlight at any time?  In a cold back room?

Looks good.  I don't think there has been a production trapezoid-shape ever, except for the cardboard dulcimers; they've always been one-offs by individual builders.  Looks good and sounds good, and it's a decent price point.

At $265 it's not a version of a $75 cardboard dulcimer!  Call it an Entry Level instrument.  Good to see though that they're being more frugal  -- using not necessarily uber-attractive pieces of wood for their own builds.  

There are two curved backs of course which can be utilized separately or together.  Curve from fore to aft; and curve from side to side.  Each by itself is easy enough to incorporate into a design.  I've seen dulcimers with 1/8" rise from side to side or head to tail.  Several builders incorporate one of these two techniques to help direct the sound upward (to what degree this is successful I don't believe anyone has subjectively proven).

A 'bowl back' is hard to accomplish unless the builder starts with a thicker plank and "carves" the bowl shape into what will become the inside of the instrument.  This is done the same way a violin top is carved -- with chisels, rasps and sanding.  I don't know anyone who does this for backs-- it is certainly time consuming -- but Ken Bloom does it for the soundboards on his bowed dulcimers, but not, I think on the back.

I like your flute case.  Great use of PVC.  I'll have to make a couple of those for some of my handmade bamboo Mirliton flutes.

Let's see... 7 dulcemores and 1 dulcimer; in two different keys and four tunings.

That other Ken has given you the straight dope.   The "intonation"  as you call it is set by the distance from the inside edge of the nut to the face of the bridge. Just don't use epoxy or "super glue" as they are realllly hard to remove if needed.  Titebond can be released by an appropriate application of heat.

LisavB -- for the record, most of us who build instruments get as excited as you are when we string up a new build and bring it to life for the very first time.  Every dulcimer has its own voice, created by us and brought to life by the player.

No real excuse for a high action on a mountain dulcimer.  Slides and tremelos are easier to do with a properly set action.

No difference in tone.

V notches are much more "acceptable" as string notches!    The string, regardless of gauge, will settle into the bottom of the V and not move back and forth.  The U shaped notches allow small diameter strings to shift back and forth which can cause issues including odd noises.  

For the gauge of strings shown, the V notch is not too deep or too shallow.  A notch does not need to be more that 2x the string diameter deep.    The fact that one string of the couplet will set not as deep as the other, might conceivably cause an issue, but the individual strings of a melody couplet aren't picked individually.

If you have a small triangular file you could deepen the new notch a hair with a couple strokes of the file.  I have a cheap set of half a dozen jewelers files that I got from Ace Hardware for under $10, and the triangle file has made a few hundred perfect notches.

Can't really tell what we're seeing here.  There appear to be a V notch and a couple round bottom slots, but what's the old and what's the new and where's the edge of the fretboard.  Which is which?  Are the round bottom slots the new fixes?

A saw slot is a fix.  But as a luthier I would have asked whether you wanted new slots or a new nut/bridge. 

Does the fix work or are you getting weird tones?  You should have said something to this person at the time, or specified "cut new slots versus replace the nut/bridge,  

Usually under the flathead near the bottom and the same low-location on the tail block.

Congrats on your new friend.  FWIW, who signs a McSpadden dulcimer has nothing to do with who built it.  Maybe back in the 60s when Lynn was just getting started, but every instrument since then is a group construction effort.

Little bit of terminology for you.  When you say you're going to tune dADD, do you mean it has two melody strings?  Or two bass strings? 

These days we almost always describe a tuning from the bass string to the melody.  That is DAA or DAd -- the bass string is D, the middle drone is A.  Also, if you have doubled melody strings, we mostly don't write two letters -- DAdd -- unless the two strings a different notes like DAdA.  Lastly, the capital D is more or less reserved for D4 -- one note higher than middle C.  The lower case d indicates that that string is one octave higher in pitch than the D.  So, we mostly write DAd or perhaps DAdd meaning the bass string is D the middle drone is A five notes higher, and the melody string(s) are d, an octave higher than D.

One person's "jumbo" is another person's average.  Did you actually compare the listed dimensions to the instrument you already have in hand to see how different it was going to be?  Is the new body significantly wider, deeper, longer than the one you have in hand?

Is it common to be only "near"?  "What's "near"?  Your "near" may be my "rounded up". 

Is it common to be "only near" when describing a dulcimer?   Probably.  Depends on the builder/website where you ordered.  Was it a mass market outfit like MusicMakers, or a custom builder?  

Not everyone (hardly anyone) measures and reports dulcimer specifications to the nearest millimeter.   Forget "overall length".  That's a measurement only truly useful for a shipping department and has virtually no significance to the sound quality because tuning heads and tail blocks extend beyond the vibrating body of the instrument.   If an instrument I build is 38-13/16" overall length (a measurement almost no one cares about),   I would not hesitate to say it was 39" long.  

What does matter to the sound quality of an instrument is the interior volume of the body (cubic inches under the hood), but certainly not fractions of an inch or a few cubic inches.  A dulcimer of a given shape which is 1.5" deep and 5.5" wide, will be less "mellow" than the same shape of dulcimer which is 3" deep and 8" wide.   

VSL not being exact?  Often.  We often talk about a 27" VSL because it's a convenient number and trips nicely on the tongue.  Much nicer than saying  "twenty-seven and one quarter inches" every time you talk about VSL.   Many are actually built to 27.25" or even 27.5".  Why? because there are common frets-pacing calculators that are set for 27.25" for example, and a quarter inch difference is not going to affect the sound of your instrument in any way that 99.9% of people have any way of measuring.  There are certainly more substantial differences between 26" and 27", or 27" and 28".  Substantial meaning perhaps 1/10" differences in fret spacing -- but not significantly effecting the sound.

If you feel the seller has lied to you, why not contact him/her directly?

Picks are very subjective and very personal to each player, that's for sure.  I make wood and bamboo 'strummer' picks, and have picks made from ivory-nut palm, various plastics (credit cards, plastic strapping, etc), corset stays, and large bird primary wing quills.

@LisavB -- wood types are strictly subjective.  There are over a hundred variables that can affect the sound of a dulcimer, and wood choice is pretty far down the list -- not even top ten. 

A good luthier can make plastic or cardboard or balsa wood sound really good. A recent Winfield dulcimer champion played a cardboard dulcimer.  

I always recommend that you buy the dulcimer that LOOKS the best -- woods you like the look of -- and coincidentally sounds good as well.  Don't buy a spruce top, or walnut body or cherry/maple instrument because someone tells you it's more mellow or whatever.  Buy what sounds good -- to your ears.  A good luthier will play you various instruments he/she has in stock -- over the phone if you can't shop in person.  All you have to do is ask.  

Looks like some form of Delrin plastic -- essentially the same thing they use today.  Doesn't look like bone.