Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Look inside the rear soundholes; there may be a maker's label visible.  Beautiful instrument, as Dusty says it is build for more traditional playing since it has no 6+ fret and traditional wooden pegs.  I've attached three articles I wrote for new players. 

The first is called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all speak the same lingo), plus answers to many beginner questions about the tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new acquisition.

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/dulcimer-resourcestabs-books-websites-dvds/17129/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

This one is an introduction to playing Noter & Drone -- one of two or three traditional ways to play (the others are Fingerdancing and the rare bowing)

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/dulcimer-resourcestabs-books-websites-dvds/15049/get-noterized

The other attached file is all about the older Modal style of tunings (not the modern DAd, although it's mentioned) and how they relate to the diatonic (non-chromatic) fretboard of the traditional dulcimer.  

As Dusty also says (he steals all my good lines)  Ask questions, and if we don't know the answer we'll make something up!  

Enjoy your dulcimer journey!

Uncontrite Modal Folker.pdf - 92KB

Most piano keys were never solid ebony or ivory, but rather maple or another hard wood with thin ebony or ivory overlays, and later phenolic and other early "plastic" overlays.  

A woodworker would need some special equipment to salvage the wood from a piano.  I built several dulcimers when I lived on Kwajalein, from WWII era solid mahogany desks and other military officer furnishings that I recycled.  A deep-throat bandsaw with the special jigs to re-saw thick wood into thin planks for starters, and a wide-mouthed plane as well as a wide-mouthed surface sander.  Otherwise the waste is horrendous.

Banish Misfortune is in the Everything Dulcimer Tab collection:

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/files/tab/banish_misfortune.pdf

Hopefully we will somehow be able to save Everything Dulcimer before it goes away June 1st!

Personally, I'd play it for a year before investing even the small amount in a new nut and bridge and installation.  Learn what it sounds like and plays like "as is" before doing any tweaking.  Most "shops" won't know squat about repair/replacing dulcimer nuts and bridges anyway.  If you must, buy a bone nut/bridge and D.I.Y.

I agree with Matt -- please start another discussion topic about "other tuning"...

Some wound strings (phosphor bronze, flat wound, etc.) may be easier on your fingers if you are finger picking, but the unwound strings are like unwound guitar strings.  What you might want to think about Ann, are thin leather thimbles which would protect your nails but still allow you sensitive feel of the strings.  

Jim, I've been using the Nickel & Dime action set for nearly 40 years, and so have lots and lots of other people.  You aren't fretting or strumming while the coins are in place, simply using them as a gauge for the height of the action.

If you have "fret peaks" higher than a dime at the first fret, then the first fret probably needs to be re-set.

BOTH of you really need to show up for the second-First Berea Traditional Dulcimer Gathering, that several of us here are hosting  May 16-19, 2019 (yes, that's next year)  The ONLY dulcimer event dedicated to traditional instruments and traditional playing styles.  

See the articles about  Hindman in Exile and the Event listing here by David Bennett, KenWL and myself.

Is there any provenance for this dulcimer?  A maker's label or name inside?  What IS that dark blob around the off-side upper soundhole???  If it is old -- pre-1970 -- you might want to think carefully about restoration.

1.  That crack isn't going anywhere.  I would carefully fill it with superglue after putting painters tape close around.  That will stabilize it just fine.

2.  As mentioned check the location of the Bridge if it is a floating bridge (not set in a tight-fitting slot).  The crest of the Bridge should be the same distance away from the 7th fret as the 7th fret is from the Nut.  That being correct, then

3.  Lower the action down to what we call the Nickel & Dime position.  Set a dime alongside the 1st fret and lower the nut until the strings just touch it.  Set a nickel on top of the 7th fret and lower the bridge until the strings just touch the coin.

4.  Finish -- Many of the J.E. "Uncle Ed" Thomas replicas are painted black, and look quite nice (I own and play one).  The thought is that he did exactly what you indicate -- painted the instrument to hide bland wood.  I've also recently seen several old traditional dulcimers that appear to have been stained or painted a reddish-black that is quite attractive.  

It may not be the frets causing the buzzing; could be a combination of the wrong string size(s) and an action set too low.

Glad you're happy with your new acquisition.  FWIW, changing just the VSL on a given size box will never affect the volume.

@notsothoreau -- tuning trick to keep from "popping" a string...  Never try to tune a string unless it's "singing".  Pick a string to tune and get hold of the tuner you think is 'right'.  Strum the string and give the tuner a quarter turn.  If the string does not change pitch up or down, STOP.  You're got the wrong tuning knob.  Try again.

Invest $15 or $20 for an electronic tuner which shows you which octave the notes are in.  We tune dulcimers to D3 A3 d4

An ordinary set of strings will easily tune to DAA or DAd (the d is an octave higher than the D).  That same set can go up to EBB/EBe and maybe as far as FCC/FCf, but the bass string will probably break trying to get to GDD/GDg.  On the low side it can go down to CGG/CGc easily, and maybe BFF/BFb before the strings are too floppy.

Gorilla Glue company recommends razor blade/scraper for removing blobs from wood; but that won't help in a nut slot...   Citrus juice is suggested for removing from hands.  Try sponging OJ or grapefruit juice on it several times...

Nigel -- Trad Music UK is a great resource.  However, your link does not take us there; it takes us to a copy of this page...  There are 2 "diamond Question Marks which precede the link for some reason that may be causing the problem...

I agree with John -- make a new nut & bridge and space the string as you choose.  Keep the old nut & bridge and put them back if you decide to sell.

That "beautiful", "warmer" sound is coming from the large interior volume of the guitar body.  Any dulcimer with roughly equivalent cubic inches will sound just as nice -- a Tennessee Music Box for example, or a Galax style dulcimer. 

Interesting idea, but there are real "dulcimer solutions" rather than partially converting something that isn't a dulcimer.  Last weekend the "Hindman in Exile" bunch visited the John Jacob Niles Center For American Music on the UK campus in Lexington, KY where we got to see and hold and measure some of the most unique dulcimers ever built including the one in the picture shaped like a cello.   

 Niles with hourglass.jpg - 7KB

Noticed that.  Great idea Lisa!

Richard -- bring yer sponge -- that way you can soak up lots and lots.  This should be a great gathering!

Love that Hot Brown; also Burgoo.  We'll find someplace to take over!

Just sent y'all an email.  I'll be there!  Just booked an AirBnb room in Berea for $30 a night -- hard to beat that!

I see posts from there every once in awhile... maybe every couple weeks.  Certainly not much traffic at all.

Andre; you do realize that, except for farmrusts' post last month, the rest of this conversation is 5 years old, right?  AFIK we haven't heard from Mike Anderson or Robert Terdeman since then...

CANCELLED!!!!  I'm sorry, but that's really tacky to cancel an event two weeks before it's supposed to take place!  Now I'm out $400 because I'm betting the airline won't refund my airfare; and the rental car agency my deposit.  Theoretically we'll get our Festival money back... provided they haven't spent it on something already.

Not just disappointed; I'm really peeved!  I've seen several Festivals fail over the years, but they just didn't schedule any others.

Doesn't ring any bells here, either.  What part of the country does it come from?  First time I've see an 8 string.  I've fantasized abut making a 3 course 9 string dulcimer...

You did look in the soundholes for a maker's label or writing on the back, right?

The instruments themselves are in the Tennessee State Museum.  Vanderbuilt Univ. has The David Schnaufer Collection of his research and instrument database:

  "Initially conceived by David Schnaufer, the database was designed as a "sound museum," exhibiting playable song clips played on historic handmade dulcimers alongside his research and documentation (gathered with Sandy Conaster) of historical dulcimers including photos, dimensions, dates where known, and other provenance information."

Great idea, Robin;  wishing you much success!

Great John; lookin' forward to meeting you!

I've been playing Noter & Drone for some 40 years.  I don't know who you've been talking to or where they got their information but what they seem to have been saying is completely at odds with all other knowledge about Modes and tunings that I've ever encountered -- and I read a LOT!!

You can play N&D in ANY, repeat ANY,  tuning and it is a "traditional" way to play.  You can play Fingerdance style in ANY tuning at it is also a "traditional" way to play.  Playing Chord-Melody style is not "traditional" it is a late 20th century (post 1950) invention.

DAA and other 1-5-5 tunings have ALWAYS been called Ionian Modal Tunings (well at least since the 1500s)

DAd and other 1-5-8 tunings have ALWAYS been called Mixolydian Modal Tunings (same disclaimer)

Both Ionian and Mixolydian are MAJOR scales, not minor scales.  However the Mixolydian scale's 7th note (the solfege note  we call "ti") is flattened from what that note would normally be (if that 7th note is supposed to be F# for example, it becomes an F).  This is what happens if you tune to DAd, for example, and play the Mixolydian scale -- which begins at the Open fret -- and have no 6+ fret on your dulcimer.   VERY few melodies which Europo-Americans have created in the last thousand years use a scale where the 7th note of that scale is flatted from its natural note.  A huge number of dulcimer tunes which are tabbed in DAd are not, in fact, Mixolydian/DAd tunes -- they do not have that 'flatted 7th note in them.

Players from the late 1800s through the 1960s often (but not always) tuned "Octave" or what we now call Galax tunings, NOT Ionian or Mixolydian tunings.  Octave tunings are things like Ddd or Ccc, Galax tunings are usually ddd or ccc.

"Traditional dulcimer sound" comes not from the tuning, but from the shallow/narrow bodies of 'traditional' dulcimers which have much less interior volume that a conventional modern dulcimer.  Modern dulcimers with a 27" VSL are roughly 2.25" deep x 7-8" wide x 31" long (minus the head);  a traditional dulcimer with the same VSL is roughly 1.25" deep, 6-7" wide and 28" long.  When tuned to the same tuning,  the lesser volume traditional instrument tends to give a more "high silvery" sound; where the modern dulcimer tends to produce a deeper more "mellow", sound.

Yeah -- I got the email from them too.  Hopefully things will be dried out when we get there.  I've sent a donation...

Yeah -- I never had an FOTMD Button, but will scribble it on my (mandatory at these sorts of things) Name Tag.

Those two are our best Appalachian Ambassadors!  Highly respected on both sides of The Pond.  I hope to meet them some day.

Neal & Sally Hellman have this:  Richard Farina Dulcimer Book :  http://richardandmimi.com/dulcimerbook.html

I understand it can be downloaded for free (with Neal's permission) here:

   http://www.4shared.com/document/dlP-NY7 ... ER_BO.html

Five strings is not an uncommon arrangement; several builders make them.

Talk to Robin Clark at Birdrock Dulcimers there in Snowdonia.  He's building some instruments, and has a couple models made here in the US specifically for his shop.

We'll look forward to meeting you there.

Nothing "wrong" with homemade as long as the fret spacing is accurate.  That could be an attempt to "bookmatch" planks on the back; but we normally do that with the splice down the center of the instrument, not off to the side.  It may be worth sending a question to the buyer, if there's time and the price is reasonable.

No label inside the rear soundholes?  That's a real "generic" design; nothing really to distinguish it.  Is that a crack on the back, or a joint between two pieces?  

Szeged!  There's a spice factory there called Pride of Szeged!  They make really superior hot and smoked Paprikas, and a Fish Rub and Chicken Rub blend that I use all the time.  You may be able to find them at your local megamart!  Make a big pan of Paprikash (chicken and dumplings with lots of paprika) and play your citera while it cooks.

The pins appear to have a square head -- should not be hard to find a clock-key to match.

It would be nice to have a real closeup of those tuning pegs, but I'm betting that they are autoharp pins, for which you can buy a clock-key as a tuning key.  When you get it, measure at the top of the pins, across the flats, and I can help you find an appropriate clock-key.  They usually run a whopping $4-$6.

At is happens, we're having a great Citera discussion on ED, here: 

http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=33962

Search the 'Net on "Hungarian citera" there is a wealth of info.