Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

So...  I'm putting together a presentation/performance on the history of Dulcimers and the Child Ballads in Americana, which I'll be presenting at our local Americana Community Music Association.  I've been thinking lately about the "presentation" part for that, as well as the Open Mics I attend, and I'm thinking I want to perform standing up, without slinging the dulcimer around my neck like Robert Force.  I know at least a couple of dulcimer-related woodworkers make custom adjustable stands, for custom prices, but I wanted something workable for under $25.

Then Lady Sally and I went to dinner today, where the waitress brought the food for the table on a giant tray -- which she placed on a folding stand! The light bulb began to dimly glow...  I do this "chef thing"  why hadn't I thought of these before??

A little Internet research, and I discover that you can buy these folding stands, made of metal tubing or wooden bars, which stand 28" to 38" tall, and vary in price from $12 to $50.  For reference, a regular table stands 30" tall, but I want something taller on which I can put my Possum Boxes (the carrying boxes I build from Poplar, which double as Possum Board amplifiers).

 I found a really nice looking wooden stand, 38" tall, for $19.99, plus $8.89 shipping.  If you want to spend more money, you can get cloth covers in various colors to hide the wood/metal.  The picture shows the one I just ordered from www.webstaurantstore.com -- one of the most respected Internet restaurant supply sites.

True dat, Robert!  He probably would end up with ET, since a tuner is usually set for A=440.

Yes, a string and a tuner will work well to set the fret positions.

If you advertise a JI scale dulcimer as "may not play well with others" and an explanation of what JI is, then it should sell readily to folks who appreciate the JI scale but may not be able to build, or who play only for themselves without other instruments around.

If you build Equal Temp, then it will sell to any tom, Dick or Jane who likes the look of your work.

Laurel -- when I google "dulcimer tuning beads", your avatar photo here shows up!!

marg:  between the Bridge and end of the dulcimer, the strings slope downwards. If you have a bead on that string, and push it towards the end, it will slightly tighten the string.

 Tuning Beads_edited.jpg - 22KB

Bob - no one but a custom builder would make a you a pre-slotted JI fretboard, certainly not Folkcraft.  I had DanC make me a JI fretboard with staple frets for my last build.  There's a JI calculator here on FOTMD to create your own JI pattern for any VSL you want.

I play mostly by/for myself, and love the JI dulcimer I built last year.

Fifteen or so years ago, at the Southwest Dulcimer Festival in Dewey, AZ, I had an impromptu "lesson" with Robert Force, Alan Darveaux and Stephen Seifert at some picnic tables under some trees at the Bean Tree Farm.  My first dulcimer festival, and here's wacky old Noter & Drone Ken, picking and grinning with one of the dulcimer gods and two other fabulous players!  

Cripple Creek, to the best of my knowledge, never uses stains on their woods -- almost no one in the dulcimer building world does unless they are making something wacky like a blue or green instrument.

The rule of thumb we use for bridge height is called the Nickel & Dime rule:  Lay a dime next to the first fret, and adjust the bridge height such that the strings should just touch the dime.  When that's just right, set a nickel on top of the 7th fret (not the 6+ fret), and adjust the bridge height again, so the strings just touch the top of the nickel.  You can adjust height by filing the notches deeper, but the preferred method is to remove the bridge, sand the flat bottom on a piece of sandpaper setting on a flat surface, and re-install -- repeat as necessary.

If you don't know what the 6+ fret is, refer to my article I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? here: 

I Just Got A.pdf - 1MB

The Dancing Man always reminds me of Mr. Bojangles.

Dusty's got the string gauges right, that's for certain; or as right as anyone can be without knowing the VSL of your instrument(s).  There is a right way and wrong way to install strings, depending on the kind of tuners.  

As far as bridge materials, many of us use hard woods -- at least as hard as Maple, I prefer even harder woods like Lignum Vitae.  You can buy small (3/4" x 3/4" x 5" pieces of exotic hardwoods which are marketed as "Pen Blanks" on Ebay -- I see a number of very hard wood blanks for under $3 each.  Folkcraft and others have Corian or other hard plastic bridges with the notches already cut.  You can also make bridges from bone -- buy a piece of de-greased bone from a pet shop.  Send me a PM if you'd like more detail.

  Not that I use this that often, but it is my favorite; wish there was a way to use it other places!

Tuner beads DO work, even in a short area (depends on the size of the bead and angle of string slope.  Flat sided beads are best.  You can even carve tapered wedges similar to a reverse capo to fit between the bridge and the place where the string breaks over the end (or meets the pin).

There are only a handful of mentions of Bert Berry dulcimers, here, of ED and on Facebook.   The last interaction I can find is 2013, when member Bill Mosely here, wrote about learning dulcimer building from him.   There is no website, and no Facebook page.

I buy their bulk Guitar (for ball end) or Loop End strings -- 12 in a sleeve IIRC, of a specified gauge and end type (ball or loop)  -- plenty  long

 You'll really like that Pritchard!  FWIW, there is a hotbed of mountain dulcimer in western WA.  Dulcimer godfather Robert Force lives in Port Townsend.  Although as the osprey flies it's close, I know it's not easy to get from Camano Island to Port Townsend -- probably faster by boat than car.  But if you get in touch with him (through his website www.robertforce.com, he can certainly connect you to other players in the area.  

Hi betm -- welcome!  You're right that those of us who write about dulcimer regularly, may not have mentioned the "strumming up the fretboard rather than in the strum hollow" effect very much; it's one of those things that folks mostly discover for themselves as part of learning about their instrument.  I'd guess most people strum up around fret 12-14.  

As you can see from this discussion, there are other techniques for getting a "mellow" sound, by changing the kind of pick.  When you're ready to step up to a wooden dulcimer, one of the factors you want to look at is the volume of the sound box -- more volume equals more mellow.  Two dulcimers with the same top shape and dimensions - the one with the deeper side will sound more mellow.  Just something to watch for.  

I used to like mellow 'baritone-ish sounding dulcimers, but over the years have come to appreciate more the "high-silvery" soundof the narrow/shallow traditional instruments.  Each to his/er own!

Decide what price you want to sell for.  Add 10% to cover those 'fees', and that's the price you sell at.  When selling, you don't really care about the 'outbid' things that some people use, and there's no sense in sitting and watching the last hour -- if it sells Ebay will tell you the details in an email.  Then you wait for the winning bidder to contact you.

Ruth -- a hukilau is a hula and song and a beachside ceremony for group fishing using nets edged with ti leaves which help frighten the fish as the nets are hauled ashore.

Someone has to be the con here!     The voice of reason crying out in the wilderness!

I never recommend any additional frets, not even the 6+ .  I think people should learn to re-tune to a proper tuning to get the so-called  "missing" notes for a particular song .  After all we're only talking one string, in most cases, and everyone should be intimately familiar enough with their instrument to re-tun one string in something less than a minute -- I can, why can't you?   That's my humble opinion, and I'm stickin' with it!

Here and elsewhere!!!

You're not sure of the exact gauge -- ie 22 or 24 or 26?  With either solid steel or wound strings that can be quite a difference.  Depending on the VSL, of course.  Not many of us use solid steel strings above about 14 gauge, although I personally do -- on my traditional setup instruments -- use a 20 or 22 plain steel as it gives a crisper sound than a wound string of the same gauge.  

A wound string will be "softer" than a plain steel string of the same diameter, thus your "moves more towards the side" if you aren't nailing the fingering straight down.  A plain steel string is solid metal -- much firmer than a piece of thin nylon or very thin steel spiral wrapped with even thinner steel or bronze wire.  The consensus is that a wound string is easier to play (takes less energy to move) than a solid steel string of the same gauge -- gauge being the external diameter of the string, wound or not.

We loved "Little Dribbling", especially since my Lady Sally is Brit, and we love the small out-of-the-way places there.  You should see the trip we're planning for September into the Borders of Scotland where her clan and mine hung out 'back in the day'.  We've read all of Bryson's other books as well, and vistited many of those places.

I grew up in Ohio, and the songs I remember from early school are (in nor particular order) things like Twinkle Twinkle, Frere Jacques, Today Is Monday (foods for each day), John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, Happy Birthday, etc.

At home my folks had a bunch of old wax 78s and I learned one of my Mom's favorite tunes Across the Alley From The Alamo

I play this on the melody string in Ddd, Gdd and DAA; either Fingerdancing or Noter & Drone.

One I Love -- Jean Ritchie

All of my friends fell out with me

-5--5--5-----5----3--23---2---1

Because I kept your company

--75-----8--7-----5----345--5

But let them say whatever they will

-7---8---8-----7---5-3-4-----5----5

I love my love with a free good will

1--1---5----5----3--3-23----2----1

Chorus

One I love, two she loves

3---2---1----3---2-----1
Three she's true to me

0-------0-----01--2--1

 I worked out melody line tab for One I love several years back;  let me see if I can find it or write it out again.

A trio of books by Kate Thompson, known as the New Policeman trilogy, about the happenings of a small Irish village and their interactions with the "Faeries" on the other side of The Veil.  Lots of fun and fabulous fiddle tune music at the end of each chapter.

Anxiously awaiting the Anne Grimes book.

That five string should give you a rich mellow tone. Enjoy

That's correct all the strings go over the top of the "tuner shafts".  Bob's diagram if which string goes to which peg is spot on!

Good to know about the Bill Davis fiddle shapes and kits;  I stand corrected!

That's no kit, believe me!  No one I've heard of in 40 years has ever made a kit for the fiddle shape; it's not a simple build.   It's not "vintage", that's for sure, but it might be a dozen years old.  There should be a maker's label visible through (usually) the lower, far side sound hole.  Mike Clemmer is the primary builder of that style, although a few others offer it.  If the seller is only asking $100, snap it up -- tonight!

Glad to hear it!!  I'll send you those savory breakfast muffins if you want!    

Harry "Kusani" Smith and his wife came down from Tennessee to Florida to avoid that cold white stuff, and spent a few days visiting our Poolside Cabana AirBnb rental.  In between their sightseeing excusions we got to spend a few hours of real "dulcimer quality time".  Unfortunately they had to head back North early -- something about a cracked water pipe and flooding in nearly 0° F temperatures!  

It was great to meet Kusani and spend some time together talking dulcimers and playing them  That Burl Maple dulcimer of his is even better looking in person than the pix he posted here.  SO is that wonderful TMB he made from re-purposed materials!  

Here's a picture of the two of us doing a little jamming.  This is my kinda jam -- a couple people making music together, not a herd of folks with music stands and books of tab.

 Best.JPG.jpg - 105KB

You cannot tell the type of wood by the mass of the instrument.  Only a visual examination of the edges of both the side strips and the top & bottom boards can give you a definitive answer.  

Dusty has a great idea;  I'e used the Herco brand Thumb-Flat pick for years.   If you like the softer sound of a bare thumb, try painting your thumb with "Liquid-Skin" or something similar.  Even a bit of Superglue will protect the skin -- just keep your fingers apart until it dries

Do you mean the kind of dulcimer which does not have a full length fretboard, but does have a "free standing bridge" similar to that of a banjo??  If that is the case I don't see how you could put on a wrist rest.

A felt ukulele pick from an acoustic music store will also give you a softer sound -- harder than bare thumb strum, softer than a plastic pick

Find a leather crafting shop that has heavy "belt" leather nearly a quarter inch thick, they may have scraps they might give you.  

Another good soft pick that you can find at music stores are the hard-ish felt picks used by some ukulele players;  I've had one for years.

Did you anchor the off string so it doesn't interfere with the others?  Chances are it "sounds bad" because you aren't accustomed to hearing the new sound.  

Just like when you've been playing in one tuning for some time, and then change -- it just doesn't sound right.  It is right, but it just doesn't sound right.

For a 26.5" VSL and DAd tuning, the Strothers calculator calls for 10 gauge melody string(s), 13 gauge middle drone strings, and a 20w for the bass.  You can easily go one or more gauges higher, as the Strothers' calculator is notedly "light".   Try 11 or 12 for the Melody, 14 for the Middle and 22w or 24w for the bass.

It may be that there is a LOT of soundhole and you're hearing the dulcimer more.  Make a recording and play it back and see what you think.  You can also try muffling the near side sound holes temporarily by taping a piece of cloth or soft foam over them and see what that sounds like.