I checked against the Strothers String Calculator (known to be "light") According to that you should have
D = 19w; d= 10, A= 13
But since that is light, I would use D= 22w or 24w, d= 11; and A = 14
The D and d octave couplet may indeed be hitting each other occasionally since that .09 you have is so floppy. Change strings before trying anything else.
Half way between the edge of the fretboard and the edge of the widest part of the widest bout. If there's a soundhole go above or below it. Avoid the place where you strum (most of us do not strum at the strum hollow).
Happy Solstice! Great playing Lisa! Tonight was our weekly Open Mic and I closed the evening with Jackson Brown's The Rebel Jesus!
We get the real "Figgy Pudding" a.k.a. Christmas Pud. Lady Sally's Mum started it this time last year, and it has been "maturing" for the best part of 12 months. This year we're having our English Christmas Dinner on Christmas Day rather than Boxing Day. That day I'll simmer the Pud in its container for 3 hours or so before unmolding and pouring brandy over it to be lit. Mum's version is very dense like a fruit cake, but without the big chunks of fruit, and we serve it with Custard and whipped cream.
Our dinner is traditional roasted beef stabbed with garlic cloves (this year a 6 lb Rib Roast) with roasted potatoes, parsnips and carrots, and green beans. Sally also makes her family's moulded Yorkshire Puddings, made in cast iron open top molds.
Well, an Edsel had all that funny chrome work on the front grill.....
The best article I've seen on chord playing in DAA was written by Merv Rowley (RI.P) several years back Really comprehensive chord charts and much more You can read it here:
http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/files/articles/31/Learning_Chord_Melody_Style.pdf
The soundholes are called "weeping hearts". I made a few dulcimers with those holes...
You can also just string it as a standard dulcimer, and it will have a really deep, mellow tone. The first couple hundred dulcimers I built to my own design had 3" deep bodies and with 28" VSLs, ran 40" or more overall length.
Yah.. I'm 68 and with 40 years of playing have never needed an "additive" either. Just call me gecko-fingers!
It appears that Gorilla Snot is still available, at least on-line. Check your local guitar store.
I agree with John. Looks like a hobbyist. Fiddle (overhanging) edges were/are done by lots of builders. The tuning head pegs don't look like any of the builders you mention.
I'll check those out, Bob!! Thanx a bunch!
Twice I've been bass drummer for pipe bands You learn a lot just hanging around with pipers... I'd love to learn to play, but pipes aren't cheap and I'm on a Social Insecurity budget. I play pennywhistle and the fingerings are similar. I found a guy who has plans to make small pipes using PVC for the drones and a penny whistle for the chanter. I might give that a try, and turn them into cauld wind pipes rather bag blown.
Ah! Now this I can see and hear. Beautiful job -- both on the pipes and assembling the photos... I really love the cauld wind pipes. They're much more 'personal' than the GHB, and as quiet as Shuttle Pipes and other small pipes...
Something is amiss with the recordings They're jammed over to the side, and I can't seem to get them to play. I've played dulcimer with a Small Pipes piper myself; and you're right -- the combination can be magical...
Christmas songs for seniors? Virtually every Christmas song written!! I add a few Anglo-European songs as well -- I Saw Three Ships, Il Est Nee, Wexford Carol, Once In Royal David's City...
When you get that high, angle your pick way up -- almost vertical -- so you're only picking the melody string(s). It's not out of tune, but it certainly is a "discord".
Often above the 7th fret a regular fretted dulcimer will start to sound discordant. What I usually do, as a Noter & Drone player is to strumm less and less of the drones as I go higher up, until at about fret 10 I'm playing pure melody. Then I add drone as I go down the fretboard.
My JI fretted dulcimer does not seem to suffer from discordance as I go up the FB.
The Real story is that builders put tiny soundholes in the fretboard just so that people can ask "Why".....
Mainly the holes in the fretboard are to allow air to be pumped in and out of the box from the hollowed out area under the fretboard
I buy 12 packs of bulk strings from www.juststrings.com for $3.62 per package.
You might be able to just put the tip of the string through the hole in the brass and pull it up like a lasso.
D..D..D..D.... How many times have we told people never take of all the strings at once? 
I'll bet you dusted the fretboard as soon as that last string was off, too -- didn't you? 
Instantly removing almost all hope that there was a mark where the bridge had been.... 
Now yer gonna haft do things the hard way.
One thing that might work would be to call Blue Lion and humbly beg them, on bended knee, 
to tell you how far it is between the inside edge of the nut and the inside edge of the bridge -- in millimeters would be best -- not many measuring sticks are marked in 10th of an inch. Then get out your millimeter stick and measure down the distance twice -- once on each side -- and draw a line between them with a pencil.
Then, just to check how accurately you measured the first time, measure the distance from the inside edge of the nut to the top of the 7th fret. Now go exactly that far from the top edge of the 7th fret towards the virtual bridge. Hopefully the two measurement lines will be really, really close. Set the inside edge of the bridge at the line Blue Lion told you and start stringing -- Bass and outer Melody strings. With your tuner on, play a scale on both strings and check their accuracy against the tuner. If both strings both look and sound good, then add the inner two strings and tighten them.
I believe all Blue Lions have floating bridges.
The problem is that with most geared tuners you have to drill holes for the screws that hold them in place, and that can reduce the value of a collectible instrument.
...then there was that other stuff...
James is right, Paula. Sweetwater markets Seagull guitars and the questionable Merlin "stick instrument". There have been a number of complaints about the Merlin concerning less than accurate fret placement and other playability issues.
Sweetwoods Instruments is Harpmaker Dave Lynch, a member here, who makes a wide variety of hourglass and teardrop dulcimers from his highly praised Student Model to his cherry and maple Performance model, as well as pretty much anything you can dream of as a custom dulcimer.
Possibly. But we'll need clear close up and overall photos., and inside, of the sticker and the area around it. Most Maxwell's have a number associated with them that is not a date, but a model number. One "caution" is that Maxwell dulcimers may not have the frets set for the modern "plays well with everything" intonation. There are numerous reports of Maxwell dulcimers being in Just Intonation or some other system.
Gun case. Archer's bow case. Musical instrument cases - trombone, 4/4 fiddle, etc. Some electric keyboards have hard cases. There are hardsided golf transport cases too. It all depends on how mych you want to spend. If you are, or know a reasonable woodworker, making a simple box case is pretty easy and pretty inexpensive.
Work on letting go of the death grip you have on the noter. Relax your fingers, shake them out after every tune. Change your grip from top to side to bottom.
To repeat -- larger diameter noters; and/or wrap most of the noter in a bit of foam rubber -- what Liza calls a Noter Dog.
Lexie -- try using much larger diameter noters -- ones as big around as your index finger -- say 1/2" or 3/4" in diameter. The larger diameter will take pressure off of trying to squeeze down on a 1/4" diameter chopstick or the handle of a spoon. I always recommend using a noter that's 4" - 6" long as it presses against the palm of the hand, again easing some pressure issues.
Sounds really good Robin. I've started trying to convince my guitarist friend to re-tune to DADGAD and see what we can do together...
Have a real dulcimer luthier look at it. Normally in such cases we don't raise a whole fretboard for a couple of dips; usually its the other way around -- lower a fret or two. Low spots don't cause intermittant "twanging", high spots would
Have you identified the high spots? If it's a fret here and there, they can be lowered, at least to some extent.
Give me a call and we'll get together. That way I can both see and hear what's going on and help you fix it.
If the strings are sitting properly in the nut and bridge notches, look at where you are fretting. You can get a sort of whine if you are not fretting close to the appropriate fret but in the middle of the space.
There's nothing really magic about a MMD. Strings are strings as we say. Since you know the VSL, and know what tuning you want, you can use the Strothers String Gauge Calculator to determine which strings will work.
http://www.strothers.com/string_choice.htm
Since the calculator is notoriously "light" in its recommendations, add 2 to each recommendation -- instead of 12, use 14; instead of 22 use 24 gauge strings. The MMD can certainly take the heavier gauges.
Vlillik -- Velcro (tm) is your friend. You can use several strips for "latches" to close that case, and even use it to hold a strap on as long as the pull is "around a corner".
WTG Mark -- a well deserved win.
