Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Well, poop!  That helps -- and it doesn't.  Is there a maker's or brand name inside the sound hole or anywhere?  I've only been able to find one "lap harp" in that zither/psaltery shape, but without song cards.

Back to square one.  Do you have an electronic tuner so you can determine what notes the various strings are tuned to?  

I can "teach" you how to play; it's really very simple.  Each string is one note of a scale and there are two scales on the instrument -- from the longest string to shortest they should be:   do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do', re', mi', fa', sol', la', ti', do'.  Just like that scale we learned in school, or the song from The Sound of Music "Do, a deer, a female deer; re a drop of golden sun..." etc.  

We number those strings/notes from 1 to 15 starting with the longest string.    Where the electronic tuner comes in is that we want those notes to be accurate, and start with some real world note like a C or G or D.   But if you don't have a tuner you can probably just jump right in and see what happens...

Take a simple song like Frere Jacques.  You know the tune.  So do I, and zillions of other folks.  For several reasons, it's a good song to use to start teaching yourself how to play this instrument.  It is simple and repetitive.

The tab numbers for Frere Jacques start with the 3rd string from the left and are

Fre-re Jac-que
3-4...5-3

Fre-re Jac-que
3-4...5-3

Dor-mez Vous
5-6...7

Dor-mez Vous
5-6...7

Son-nez les mar-tine-s
7-8...7...6-5-3
Son-nez les mar-tine-s
7-8...7...6-5-3

Ding-ding-dong
3-0-3
Ding-ding-dong
3-0-3

IMHO, unless you've got really sensitive, perfect pitch type ears, I doubt you'll hear much if any difference between Delrin and horn, bone or wood for the nut & bridge.  There really is no "ultimate nut and bridge material", it's personal preference.  I personally dislike bone/horn because it stinks when you're working it.  Metal vs a softer material does make a sound difference.  I like various hard woods or pieces of thick-walled bamboo for nuts & bridges.

Wood choice is also very personal.  You'll get people who will tell you 'this wood sounds better than that' yada, yada.  There are hundreds of factors which go into the 'sound' of a dulcimer, and wood is fairly far down the list, actually.  A decent luthier can tweak any woods to make an instrument that sounds the way you want.  

When you're ready to jump into building, join the Dulcimer Building Group here, read a bunch of out posts, and ask your questions.  We've talked a number of new builders through their first or fifth build.  

Do you mean like the instrument in the picture?  That is a Nepenenoyka -- a simple psaltery, not a harp. And they aren't at all easy to play when resting on your lap, either.   Thousands of these have flooded the market from several 'Stans -- former Soviet states like Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, etc.  

FYI, harps do not have strings which go across the surface of the soundbox; harp strings come out of the sound box and go to a tuning bar.

I've never seen tab for Nepenenoyka.  There are "slide under the strings" tune charts which show when to hit which string; but that's about it. 

 Nepenenoika.jpg - 52KB

We've been doing broccoli sprouts in a quart jar.  

Beautiful work, as always, John.  Is that from the instrument we saw -- and you measured -- two years ago in Lexington?

No reason you couldn't use guitar bridge pins; but they do take up more space than simple metal pins.  Make room for 4 pins though.  Two strings on a pen is no better than 4 on a peg.  Single pegs are not good.  Multiple smaller pegs tend to look too crowded though .  There are other tailpiece solutions but not ones that would readily retro-fit to a McSpad and look aesthetically pleasing.

There just isn't any real selection of sexy metal pins out there to choose from for making string pins.  I just use small finishing nails; others use escutcheon pins, or dedicated string anchor pins like those from Folkcraft, StewMac and other 'parts' places.  That's about it.

Dusty -- your last paragraph sounds like the plot for the Brit TV series Fortitude which we watched on Amazon (and it's still there if you need something to binge watch).

I don't think the State groups here have ever had much activity; I've followed a couple of them.  Periodically someone will post a general Thread asking if anyone is from XX or YY, and that seems to work as well as any way to find others.  

Whew!   I'm just a member here.  But with 54 Groups already, I thought dang near every subject was covered.  What Group are your interested in creating Don B?  

IIRC Lisa, the Site Owner, has to create a Group.  She, or one of the Admins will be along shortly to give you details, I'm sure.

I'm retired, but Lady Sally still works as a Clinical Pharmacist for our local VA.  Other than that we don't do a lot of going out.  As Hurricane Preppers (i.e we live in Florida) we always have a far amount of canned goods; and we get most of our veg from a local farmer's co-op (order on-line and either go to a pickup location or they also deliver).  

Lots of projects to work on in my "copious free time" as Tom Leherer once said.

Heard of it in passing, on one of the Farcebook pages and thought it was a joke at first.  But someone thought it sounded neat.   Sounds just a bit too cumbersome for the ordinary player -- something you'd want on a stand rather than your lap I suspect.   I'd certainly listen to a recording, to hear these, but I would never personally build one.

Lisa -- your salmon & egg tacos with salsa verde sound.  I make my own salsa verde too.  My trick is to include a whole lime -- skin, pith, seeds, everything; and juice of a lemon.  It all gets pureed anyway...  Then following my Mexican chef friends, I "fry' the sauce is a large blisteringly hot skillet, stirring madly for about 10 minutes to marry flavors and tighten up the consistency.  

I make soup weekly -- often based on one of the winter squashes -- Acorn, Butternut, Spaghetti; but also eggplant, or red bell peppers.  Posole of course. And the famous Florida speciality Chez Suzanne's Creamy Romaine soup.  In the hot season I make chilled soups like white and red gaspachos, Ajo Blanco (almonds and garlic), chilled lettuce soups and several ceviches.

For decades many of us have used the phrase "There is no right way, or wrong way to play the dulcimer; there is just what works for you."  A statement attributed to Ohio dulcimer player Missy Strothers, one half of the "Tom & Missy Strothers", who also gave us the Strothers String Choice Calculator and the Strothers Diatonic and Chromatic Chord Wizards. 

Unfortunately there are still quite a few "dulcimer police" teachers and players who try to enforce the idea that their way is The One True Way -- be it small hands vs large hands, Chord Melody/DAd playing as a style, or specific aspects of playing like how to finger chords, whether or not to use the edge or ball of fingers,  or anything else which they categorically state "...you must...

I haven't used them, but a couple of my guitar player friends use them for marking certain chords in unusual tunings.

Dusty is spot on about the string pop sound!

Yes anyone who can use a screwdriver can change tuners -- especially a set on a bar.  You just need to make sure the new set has the round gear oriented towards the body of the dulcimer, not on the outward side.  This helps the tuners work properly; otherwise they can slip and not stay in tune.

You will need a very thin-bladed screwdriver though, so you don't strip the heads of those teenie screws.  

I would just replace the tuners.  You can get a pair of cheap 4x4 mandolin tuners (4 tuners on a plate) for $15-$25 on Ebay.  Make sure you use the 'stick' which has the round gears on the body side, like the ones you show in the photo.  

Finish -- I would use a rub-on urethane (no rattle-can)

Strings winding neatly -- I always go through the hole, around the peg, and back through the hole as I pull the string on.  Then I  take a quarter turn or so of the knob to bring the string up in tension.  After I get to the note I need, I trim the ends of the strings close to the tuner shaft.  No sense in winding around the tuner shafts multiple times.  No matter where a string breaks, you'll never be able to shorten it and re-use it!

Glad Jim was able to put your mind at ease.  

As Bob says -- it "ain't broke" so don't try to fix it.    Especially since you don't know what Cyano Acrylate "superglue" is --  you'd be apt to glue your fingers together !  You need to ask McSpadden what they use for "varnish" -- it could be any number of things like polyurethane, varnish, shellac, various oils.  

As Bob says too, those truly do not look like cracks, they look like grain going around a knot.  Since you say there's no light coming through cracks, gluing would not help.  Those marks could have been there since the beginning, and you're just noticing them.  I don't even see any evidence of the "varnish" cracking there.

It NOT as if McSpadden, or anyone who builds dulcimers goes deliberately out of their way to hide imperfections, as your luthier suggests!  That said, darn few of us builders can afford to just cut the back off and scrap the instrument or replace it.  If there had been real cracks, McSpadden would not have sold it.  Or they would have fixed the cracks and then sold it as a defect instrument.  

Word of advice -- do not take your instrument to any old luthier for work unless absolutely necessary.  Always talk to someone who is a dulcimer builder/luthier.   Dulcimer are NOT guitars, they are not built the same way, they don't make sound the same way as guitars. mandolins and such like; and they are not 'set up' like those other instruments either.  

Not much McSpadden can do:  replace the instrument is about it.  If they put  new back on it will probably wipe out the "unbelievable tone".   

They could dribble some very thin CA "superglue" into the cracks; let that dry, and then cover with additional "varnish".  But you can do that at home just as easily and just as well.  That's what I would do.  

Not particularly indicative of an on-going problem.  Vagaries of heat and cold and humidity, and differing expansion and contraction rates of wood and metal can occasionally cause a fret to be pushed up slightly out of its slot.  A fret that is too high can cause all sorts of strange noises that are not "sweet music". 

Long ago I was living high and dry in Mile High Colorado.  I built a dulcimer for a customer who lived in sea level Alabama.  When the instrument left Colorado the frets were perfectly level.  By the time it arrived in Alabama two of the frets were raised.  Ship it back to me and the frets were level again.  Rinse and repeat.  The customer had to have the frets leveled down there at sea level; then it played perfectly for as long as it was owned. 

Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.  

Also, some people press down on the strings/frets very hard and the strings will wear notches in the surface of frets made of inferior metal. 

That's why sometimes frets have to be leveled or "dressed".  

ANY dulcimer that sits for more than a few days in the wrong environment can get frets popping up.  Especially if coming from a very dry climate to a very damp one.  I remember building a dulcimer for a lady in Alabama, when I was living in Colorado.  Action was perfect hen I shipped.  By the time she got three or four frets had raised as the change in humidity forced the frets up...

Action height will also affect whether frets need to be adjusted too.  Lower actions are more sensitive as it were to slight differences in fret height.  Luthiers can be more or less sensitive to whether frets need adjusting than customers as well.

It's all part of the "game" really.  The game of setting up a dulcimer to the way you like it, not the way it was necessarily presented to you.  Just like changing strings, you really should learn to do simple things like setting the action height yourself... all it takes is sand paper, a nickel, a dime, and time.  

There are quite a few "bowed dulcimers", played upright between the knees.  Ken Bloom of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina is the major builder and promoter of bowed dulcimer.  It  is a very old traditional style of playing. 

I have dimensions and photographs of a bowed zither/dulcimer originally made in 1865, in a museum in Pennsylvania, and will be building a replica in the near future with the blessing of the museum curator and staff (I already built another instrument from their collection by the same builder).

Check out any of Aubrey Atwater's youtube vids.  I've seen her fiddle and clog and sing -- an "all in one" performer.

Well, you can't really hold the dulcimer in an "autoharp hug", but you can play it "upright" like a guitar; either seated or standing.  Google any of the videos of Robert Force; especially his teaching vids forthe songs Did You? and Wellyn as well as any of his performance videos. He and his late partner Al D'Ossche sort of invented the "guitar style" fifty years ago.

Aussie, eh!@  That explains "vaulted"   What state are you in?  You lot don't have maple but you have some fabulous woods for lutherie down there.  Do you know of the builder Richard Troughear?  How about a player named Anne Bowman?  

Any reasonably hard wood 6-12mm thick will do for a possum board.  The board can be rectangular or sawn to the shape and size of your instrument.  

Here's a simple possum board with one of my dulcimers on it.  The plank is 1/4" maple (but you can use whatever wood you choose), and the "stand offs" are pieces of 1/2" x 3/4" pine.  

 Possum Board 2.JPG - 68KB

OK -- here's a photo of my sono-tube cardboard dulcimer case with the jig for my Holly Leaf dulcimer next to it, for scale.  Just a tub, two 1/2" plywood disks for top & bottom, some duct tape and a piece of nylon strapping for a handle. This carries 2 dulcimers, one of which is 39" from end-to-end.  I roll them up together in small-bubble bubble-wrap until I get a squeeze fit, then tape on the ends.  Have used this technique to ship dulcimers all over the place@

Pardon the messy workshop/garage...

 Sonotube case.JPG - 153KB

Yep -- what Matt said.  You could put in a soundpost (and some of the pre-Revival era builders did) but it wouldn't do any good if you play it in your lap because any added vibration on the back is muted by your lap.  

The easiest way to get more un-amplified sound is a Possum Board.  Basically it's a thin plank the length of your dulcimer, with a couple 1/4" square dowels glued across it near the head and tail end of where the dulcimer will sit.  If you ask over in the Dulcimer Making Group, we'll be happy to help you put one together from a board that you can get at Home Despot or Lowe's.  

BTW -- most of us don't call that a "vaulted" fretboard; we refer to it as an Arched fretboard.

It's 11 PM and time to hit the sack.  I'll see about getting a pic of my tubular case in the AM.  

It's not TSA you have to worry about, it's the particular airline.  Last year, flying from Florida to Kentucky for the Berea Traditional Dulcemore Gathering, Allegiant made me check my handmade case because they said "it didn't look like a musical instrument case", and there was no recourse but to put it in the belly of the beast.  On the way home on American, they let me have the same case in the cabin where the crew keep their goodies.  

BTW, the case was a 40" length of 8" diameter, 1/2" thick hard cardboard "sonotube" used as a form for casting concrete pilings.

I got my banjo playing buddy a new tuner for Christmas --  Acme Wirecutters!!~!

Don -- once you're a Group member, you don't "sign on" to that group.  You'll find the Groups you are a member of listed under your name when you hover over it with the cursor.

The so called Pennsylvania scheitholt isn't really a scheitholt.  It was called by its builders and players a zitter or zither.  The term scheitholt is/was limited to a very small region of the Tyrolean Alps -- a smaller part of the country than the area in America where a dulcimer is called an Indian Walking Stick.  Why Michael Praetorious identified the scheitholt as such in his 1618 book De Organographia we will never know.  But most American dulcimer players who see tha sketch automatically assume that that instrument is the ancestor of the dulcimer.  

Hobbyhorse is right -- his instrument is an Epinette, one of several varieties of epinette.  The distinction has nothing to do with who drew up the plans.  There are structural differences between an epinette and a scheitholt and a fretted zither.  

@Appalachiandreamer -- We've talked quite a few new builders through their first dulcimer in that Group.  We can get you going with designs, materials, hand-holding help... whatever you want/need.

I see you're from North Carolina.   You might be interested too see  that I build a pretty rare North Carolina dulcimer style called a Holly Leaf shape.  The original was built in Burnsville, NC around the time of the "recent unpleasantness" -- 1860s.  It's a traditional dulcemore  -- that is it's not suited for playing modern three-finger chord-melody style, but rather for traditional noter & drone style playing.  

 My Burnsville.JPG - 95KB

IIRC there are plastic ones, which should sound less metallic and more finger-y.  

Another Aussie to invite is Richard Dunn, in Gold Coast.  At 86 he's recently built a large box dulcimer.  He's a member here  

@john-dunn

I'll PM you here his email address.

Great Carla!  Be sure to contact Anne Bowman and Richard Troughear!

Doesn't sound complicated enough for O'Carolan, but it definitely has common Celtic runs and flourishes

Don't know it, but I want to!

Some folks use an adjustable height ironing board.  Others use a keyboard instrument stand.  I prefer a folding Waiters Tray Table -- cost about $25 at a restaurant supply store.  They come in various sizes; take your dulcimer and try out different heights.

I worked in Frankfort, Kentucky for about 6 months, back in 2000.  Met Homer at one of the craft fairs and got chatting and playing together.  Awhile later I went down to Winchester to hear him and The Cabin Creek Band play.  At the intermission he came over and invited me to sit in with them and play a little.  One of the great moments of my dulcimer-life.