Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

I do agree with the note where it says "wormy chestnut".  

Might be easiest to start over with a new Nut and Bridge.

Not currently, but my second dulcimer, back in the Dark Ages, was a six string.  Strumming takes a bit more 'work', but you can also get some subtle "brush strumming" using the pick on the first few strings and the edge of your little finger on the mid- bass drones as the hand rotates for the strum.

In general with doubled melody strings you have to make sure the noter is coming down dead-flat so that both melody strings are fretted equally rather than one fretted hard and the other one not so much.  That leads to buzzy notes.

First things first.  Have you changed all the strings within living memory     If not, try that before anything else.

Nuts do not normally need to be raised.  As Matt sez, sometimes a fret needs to be lowered.

As Susie sez, a trip to Elderly would seem to be in your future.  

If the nut does need to be raised, you have to loosen all the strings and see if it will move under finger pressure.  If not, then you use a small (1/4" wooden dowel as a 'driver', along with a hammer, to tap the bridge sideways.  That's the easy way to pop a 'drop of glue' holding the bridge in place.

Hi @dade;  welcome to FOTMD.   Those Hondo dulcimers were made around 40-50 years ago in Korea and many were imported to the US.  Interesting to hear of one showing up in Italy.  Enjoy it, they are nice simple instruments.

Thanks Paula.  Building a simple box like this isn't "rocket surgery".  It just takes a little time, some patience and a couple simple tools (saw, glue, sandpaper).

Get someone else to take pictures of you, from the front and from the side, spontaneously, so you aren't posing for us.  Then maybe we can see what you're doing.  Lisa's strumming habit posts are spot on.  

Stop trying to hard.  I'll bet you have a 'death grip' on your pick, and are fretting so hard your finger tips are white and hurt like Hades after a few minutes of practice!!  Perhaps a glass of wine will loosen you up a bit.  This is supposed to be fun!! 

Yeah... balloon.  That's a GREAT idea!.

Most wooden pegs have a tiny hole through them to feed the string through and lock it in place.  I should not take 5 minutes to tune all three strings to the proper pitches.   I wouldn't trust metalheads either...  I know Warren talks about chalk, but a bottle of peg drops works just fine on my John Knopf Thomas replica.   You do have to learn to turn and push to lock the peg into position (not just turn), and expect a little slippage and plan for it.  

Dan-goad -- I've used a 20 or 22 plain steel bass string on my Thomas replica for several years, and prefer it to a wound bass.

In all all honesty, I would not change out the tuners.  You will be seriously impacting the re-sale value of the dulcimer.

The best thing to do is learn to live with and use the original tuners.  It really isn't hard.  You can get fine tuners that will allow you to dial in a tuning once you're close with the pegs.  

There really is no sure-fire solution.  There are Pegheds and Knilling/Perfection geared tuners which look like wooden pegs, but there is a better than 50% chance they will not fit the existing holes in your dulcimer.  If you enlarge the holes you'll never be able to use the original tuners again.

If you absolutely can't stand the dulcimer because of its wooden tuning pegs, IMHO you should seriously consider selling the instrument before your consider changing out the pegs to something else.

What brand is that bag of yours?  

Wow!   What an assortment of bags, fabrics, colors and prices!  Who'd a thunk it?  I never even heard of a yoga mat bag until I read Marg's post!

Alison -- being on that side of The Pond, you'll want to get to know Robin Clark, who is a member here. He lives up in Snowdonia, Wales, and has a company called Bird Rock Dulcimers.  Robin is extremely knowledgeable about dulcimers as well as guitars.   He is importing dulcimers made here, some built specifically to his design.  His website is

http://www.dulcimers.co.uk  or you can call him on   +44 (0)1654 712671

They are generically called Rhythm Boxes, and run from $60 up.  Some have an optional foot pedal.  Korg (the same folk who make electronic tuning devices) makes several versions.

Dulcinina -- string tuning "trick" to avoid breaking strings when tuning them:  Never tune a string that isn't humming.  Decide which tuner controls the string you want to tune.  Pluck the string, and while it's vibrating give the tuner a quick quarter turn.  If you do not hear the string change tone, STOP -- you are not turning the right tuner.  Find the right tuning knob and try again.   If the string does change tone, pluck it again and tune it to the note you want.

Trim off the excess string, ladies.   That way you don't have a bird's nest around the pegs.   I usually go through the hole around the post and back through the hole, the pull the string up to get rid of the slack.  Then I use the tuners to get the initial tune.  After that I snip off the excess string, leaving only a half inch or so.  With the bass string I'll go through the hole, around the peg twice then back through the loop as I pull up the slack.  That locks the string in place.  Then tune and trim.

Jennifer -  the problem is that most of the employees at a generic guitar store either don't have a caliper, or don't have a clue how to read a caliper.    Not one of the four shops here in my town has a caliper...

Dusty is right, Nina.  The two things you need to know to determine string gauge is the VSL and the open note you want to tune the string to.

Looks good!  How is the sound?  Post a sample....

Here's a website with useful information that may help:

http://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/hymns-public-domain-and-copyright

I haven't been able to find anything about a hymn called Lynne.   Who was the author, and what what faith was the hymn composed for?  Tha would be a big help.  

Sandi -- ya messed up, girl!  All along you should have been including "music instruction" in your homeschooling curricula.  Then you'd have had plenty of practice time built in to your schedule!  And, you'd have a passel of people to jam with.

Sandi -- go to a bookstore and look at those small LED reading lights which clip onto the book you're reading.  Like Lisa I can't play in the dark, and our new Open Mic location is kinda dark already.  I'm going to get one of those reading lights and see how it will work.

Words are poetry, mostly.  That makes them fairly easy to remember, because verses have internal rhymes.  Tunes are built from phrases.  Start with one, then add a second... a third, etc.  

My major tool is R E P E T I T I O N.    I play by ear.  So.  I listen to a song -- cassette, CD, Youtube, Midi track -- over, and over, and over, and over.  After 40 or 50 repetitions I'm pretty much able to whistle or hum the tune, and I whistle/hum along for another 40 or 50 repetitions.  Then, when I can sing/hum/whistle the tune without any glitches, I'm ready to sit down with my dulcimer, a pen and some paper, and start writing out the tab for the tune on the melody string.  The writing out of the melody tab numbers really fixes the tune in my head.  And after I've played the tune a dozen or so times, it's part of the repertoire in my head.  I write down the tune name and the tab for the first couple measures on my master list, and it's there.

Hmmm that  blood test strip is an interesting idea.  I'll have to give one of mine a try.  My unusual material is a pick I made several years ago from a slice of "vegetable ivory" (sometimes called Tagua nut) from the Ivory Nut  Palm native to the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.  It's a bit smaller in area than a regular pick, and also much stiffer.  And, after years of use, has that wonderful "weathered ivory" look.

Lookin' -- and soundin' -- good Lisa.  You'll get that "pat your head and rub your belly" thing down pat any day now!

In Stafford, England, on the High Street is a black cast iron fenced entrance to a property.  The sign on the gate reads

The cixelsyD Institute.  True fact.

Slate Creek, not Creek Slate  Dusty

D -- a simple wooden box can be made pretty inexpensively with Poplar -- see my "possum box" in Sandi's thread talking about bags and cases.

When you get the instrument, take exact width/length/height measurements, and I'll make you a box for it -- at cost.

Jim -- I've got a strap just like that which I bought in Mexico about 20 years ago.  I don't use any for of dulcimer strap.  But if I did, that's what I would adapt.

Bobby Ratliff does business as Highnoonhunter  He's not been doing much lately as he's been having some health issues.  Are you looking for leatherwork or something else?

I built both of these for others.  The Gusli is for Lady Sally's daughter who has gotten involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism.  She has a Novgarod Russian persona and the Gusli is modeled after one from about 1250, which  was discovered in an archeological dig in that city. 

The Rabel is intended to be finger fretted.  Right now it has very short temporary strings on it that came from a violin, I think.   The instrument is only 24" from tip to tip.   I'm giving it to a woman who lives at the marina, who is a violinist/cellist and folk instrument aficionado (she also plays at dulcimer).  I'm not sure what will happen to the ends when it gets 'real' strings....

Two instruments I built lately.  The one with no sound hole is a pentatonic Gusli, a kind of 14th-15th century Russian Winged Psaltery related to the Kantele, Kannel, Kokle etc.  The one with two strings is a 'proof of concept' built of a Spanish and Latin American Rabel, a 1-3 stringed folk fiddle played upright in the lap.  This one is in the 'wine bottle' style from the area around Toledo, Spain.

Both instruments have carved bodies - the back and sides are a single piece of 2x6 hollowed out, with the soundboard added on top. 

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Kum By Ya, of course.  Will the Circle be Unbroken, Amazing Grace, Simple Gifts, Farther Along, I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, are all good "gathering" songs. 

Here are pix of my poplar Possum Box case.  It's a tight fit inside, purposely, so I wouldn't have to add padding.  Made from 1/4" poplar with a 1/4" square rail that the lid rests on.  The handle strap is buckled on the underside. 

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Helen -- you could always go to Coober Pedy and live in a hole in the ground!  Climate controlled!  Solar powered!  Hack an occasional opal out of the wall to cover expenses!!  Start the Coober Pedy Dulcimer Collective (you could probably get a SA government Art & Culture grant), and you'll be no more eccentric than the rest of the residents!

Only six?  That's not DAD, that's just a "healthy appreciation of the instrument".

After all you need at least nine -- one for each of the traditional Modes (Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Lydian, Phrygian, Locrian) plus one for Bagpipe tuning (Xxx) and one for  Galax setup (double back, deep body, tuned xxx).  Then, if you're really perverse you'll get one of those Chromatic dulcimer-shaped-objects, so that makes ten.  With a little extra thought I'm sure you can find a legitimate reason for at least two more.

So you can see, that hardly even half way to being diagnosed with a major case of DAD.  Good luck!

The Five Constipated Men of the Bible!  I learned it in church camp decades ago, then relearned it from the Sweetwater album Sing No Evil.

My Bag Lady double bag is falling apart after only a dozen years of serious wear and tear.   I needed a carry mechanism to fly with a dulcimer to North Carolina from Florida, stowing the dulcimer in the overhead compartment.  And I love the idea of multi-tasking devices.  A "possum box" seemed like the obvious solution.

The only problem with rubber feet or felt covered feet/risers is that they do deaden the sound somewhat.  Wood-to-wood contact is best whether on a table or the risers of a possum board.  I once used little wooden 'buttons' from a craft shop for feet, stuck on with the thin double sided tape.  Worked perfectly.

Here's my "Possum Box" with my Uncle Ed Thomas replica.  The box is built from 1/4" thick poplar boards from Home Despot, and instead of hinges, the top (seen my my right foot long with straps and a pick bag) is held on with a pair of 1" web straps.  I can use the top itself as a possum board, but I found that the upside down box gives me even more volume.

The Thomas replica has three feet on its bottom, so I don't need any 'riser' strips to free up the back to vibrate.  The next box I build will be for my Virginia Hogfiddle by Bobby Ratliff, which does not have feet.  For that box I'll add two riser strips full width across the outside bottom of the box spaced to properly support the dulcimer.

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