Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

   Plucked Psaltery                                                  Bowed Psaltery                         Bowed Dulcimer

That's why we're here, Clogger.

Psalteries -- both the classic Plucked Psaltery and the modern Bowed Psaltery are good choices for other stringed instruments.  A Plucked Psaltery is like a simplified Autoharp without nearly as many strings and without the chord bar in the middle.  The Bowed Psaltery is very simple, not at all like the Bowed dulcimer (which is more or less a cello).

Hi Clogger!  Welcome to FOTMD!  Thos string gauges sound just fine -- as long as you can get adequate sound from them.  What the VSL (Vibrating String Length - distance from nut to bridge) on your dulcimer?  If your dulcimer does not have a 6+ fret, you might want to experiment with the Bagpipe tunings --  Ddd, Ccc, etc.  as they allow dulcimers without a 6+ fret to easily shift among various Modes for palying a variety of tunes in sessions.

You'll want to go to Groups in the upper bar, and join the UK and European Mountain Dulcimers Group.  There you'll find Robin Clark, John Henry and a lot of others from your side of the Pond nattering away about all sorts of nonsense!

That crack looks simple to repair.  Bob;s right, the rear two tuners need to be swapped as they are on backwards.  I don't think there was another Nut.  I think the builder used the edge of the tuning head as the nominal nut.  If I had a hundred bucks I's ure bid on it.  That's a good price for what appears to be a very nicely built dulcimer.

Can you post the link to the offering?  We can tell you more if we can see the damage.  Is it an open crack, or just a split?  Open cracks would need filling with a sawdust/glue mixture; a split can be flexed open to put glue on the edges then released so the edges touch while the glue dries).   How big is the nearby soundhole (for accessing the underside of the fretboard).

Generally simple splits can be readily fixed with Titebond glue (accept no substitute!) and some painter's tape.  An open crack will need filling, which isn't hard either.

My recommendation for a clip-on tuner?  Don't bother.  As you say, they keep breaking.  Besides, you don't need to retune every song anyway, so why bother.  Tune the dulcimer.  Put the tuner away.  Play.

Yes, a standard autoharp tuning wrench should work with those pins, although some earlier pins had smaller heads.  And yes, a psaltry bow should work, although a longer bow might give more sustain to notes.

Thanks DT.  I've got well over a year's worth of good eating there.

I have thought about candied walnuts, and they would counter the bitterness, it's true.  And using a good amount of a contest sponsor's products is always a good thing.  That first go 'round I was using as much stuff as I could from what I had on hand, rather than buying all new ingredients.  All I needed to buy was the mandarin.  I guess some candied walnuts won't break the bank

Lady Sally wants to lose some weight (like most of us), and she's asked me to create 400 calorie or less, healthy, filling dinners for her, and then post them on my weekly food blog.  New posts every Monday:  http://foodingaround-kiltedcook.blogspot.com   This week there were three good choices.

Lexie -- it can't be Noter & Drone style if you don't use a noter -- a separate stick, not your finger or thumb.  Playing with finger/thumb fretting the melody string, but not playing chords, is usually called Fingerdancing or Melody-Drone style.

Nice shot.  We get some White Pelicans here too, but not this far inland (15 miles upriver).  They're out on the ponds and bays of Pine Island.

Marg -  yes I built and sold/gave away pretty close to 300 dulcimers over the years.  I don't have any pix of my dulcimers here at the boat (too many other things to take pix of).  I'll post some later. 

We have spoonbills over at the Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel island, not here on the Caloosahatchee.  But we do have eagles, ospreys, night herons, GB herons, and two species of egrets, plus ibis, brown pelican and assorted gulls/terns that hang around the marina where I live.

Just don't get caught with an eagle feather.  Technically it's illeagle (yep -- sick bird) to own real eagle feathers.

Peacock quills sure are pretty, but they aren't particularly strong, and may not last long as a plectrum.  Let us know how they work.

I have two traditional dulcimers, and two "modern".

The Traditionals have narrow, thin bodies for that 'high silvery' sound I love:

a John Knopf Uncle Ed Thomas replica.  3 strings, wooden pegs, footed for playing on a possum board

a Bobby Ratliff Virginia Hogfiddle. 3 strings, autoharp tunning pegs

The two Moderns are:

Harpmaker Student, slighly customized -- higher fretboard for N&D playing, special short head with autoharp tuning pins, and 3 strings

Til Holloway -- made by my dulcimer building mentor.  Doubled melody strings, 6+ fret.  I have this one in memory of Til.

Would I sell any of them?  I dunno -- make me an outrageous offer!

You DO know that the federal government passed a ruling last year that says airlines must allow you to take your instrument onboard as long as it fits in the overhead.  I've spoken to several guitar traveling passengers in the last few months and even they are saying they're experiencing no problems -- their instruments are being stood in the corner of the flight attendant area. 

Older tuner knobs like those were sometimes made from poor grades of bakelite and other early plastics, and often fall apart if stressed.  That happened to the on I owned, as well, and I was actually going to mention this to you and suggest searching for replacement knobs.  Rob is right.  Offer them less than the asking price to take it of their hands.  All they can say is no.  You can often get replacement knobs from Luthiers Merchantile or Stew Mac or similar places for a couple bucks each. 

I surfed and saw recent prices from about $50 to about $150.  Bottom line is that used dulcimers are worth what someone is willing to pay for them. 

I play Noter & Drone and didn't really notice the action being overly high.  This was 7 or 8 years ago, when I was out in the Pacific.

As far as other things to check.  Unless you've got perfect pitch I would just play the DAd and DAA scales and see how they sound to your ear.  The fretboard should be good in that respect, Hondo were good 'true' instruments, not like some of the First Act and other eastern European trash dulcimers that showed up here a decade ago.  Play a couple tunes.  Do they sound right?  No it does not sound like your dulcimer.  No two instruments do sound alike.  But do the notes in a tune sound 'right'.  Do the scales sound true, not sour. 

If the price is under $150, I think you're over-thinking the whole 'get a new dulcimer' process.  If there are no obvious cracks or major dings, and the scale sounds true, just buy it.  Frets can be leveled, actions adjusted, other tweaks made once you've got it home. 

Personally I wouldn't worry at this point about fret level, but yes, you use a steel straight edge/rule about 6" long and stand the edge along the frets and see if the straight edge rocks or not.  If you sight down the fretboard, dulcimer fretboards are often in a very gently curve with the middle around teh 7th fret being slightly shallower than the ends, but that's OK as long as the notes sound true.

Lots of dulcimers (even expensive ones) get bought on a whim, and shoved in a closet for a decade or more; unfortunately.  I've seen it with $50 cardboard dulcimers and several hundred dollar Warren May and Homer Ledford instruments.  Many players baby their instruments and so there aren't any 'honorable scars'. 

I suspect your unsureness is simply lack of experience.  Did you agonize like this over your first dulcimer?

Stain has nothing to do with ply versus 'good quality wood'.  Stains were used on the finest Stadivarius violins and the cheapest cigarbox instruments.  It's a way to color wood that allows the grain to show through, unlike paint.  Stain does not imply "lower end" or less quality. Neither does ply versus 'good quality wood' wood.  Frankly, ordinary ply from 30-50 years ago is better quality than most of the high end ply we see today.   And ply is not necessarily lower quality.  McSpadden uses ply.  So does Folkcraft.  So do many of the custom builders you read about here.

We can't tell you what string gauges are appropriate until you tell us two things:  The VSL and the tuning(s) you intend to use.

Yep.  Another Korean Hondo comes to light.  Not a bad dulcimer at all.  I had one as a loaner dulcimer fo a couple years, then sold it.  Not top of the line, but not bad.  The tension on those tuners is adjusted by the little screw in the end of the knob.  I think Rob's right about the hole shapes.  That's definately NOT the case for it!

Wout -- with a 24" VSL, 12 gauge melody strings will work for both DAA and DAd tunings.

Haven't a clue.  Red stain, or paint?  I would assume that if the case matched the shapes (especially if it closely matches the shape) that it was handmade.   Therer are thousnads of builder out there who made one or two or a dozen dulcimers but no more.   We really need a picture or six here -- too many questions that pictures will answer.  waste of time to type Qs that pix will answer.

Travis --  use the String Gauge Calculator at www.strothers.com.  Plug in the VSL and select the desired note for a given string and it will tell you an appropriate gauge string to use.

Dinah -- those are good suggestions if you play Chord Melody Style, but not everyone does.

An open scroll certainly makes changing strings a lot less hassle; true also of an open flathead.

John   knopff named my Thomas   replica   but otherwise no names.  I did name a jackhammer   once    ...  jack ! 

I was going to show you a picture of the interior of my sailboat, but I was afraid you all would get claustrophobic!

Doesn't work worth a darn on my Ebony, Lignum Vitae or Snakewood noters     But then they're naturally 'compressed'.

If you don't have a bench vice as Sam suggests, agood source for very HARD wood for noters is the listings for Pen Blanks on Ebay.  The blanks are about 3/4" square and 5" long.  It's a good way to get small bits of some really exotic and beautiful woods without paying a fortune for a whole plank.

Bro. Mark.  I think the consensis is that the dulcimer was made in Korea.  Not that one of your Order couldn't have been building dulcimers in the 70s, but I would expect a more complete "Made by Brother James of the Order of St. Francis" kind of label.  Or at least a sketch of Friar Tuck playing a dulcimer!   "Franciscan" here could be a backhanded reference to San Franciso, "flowers in your hair", that sort of counterculture thing. 

Skip -- a possum board won't work with a strummer (aka stick dulcimer). 

Mr Phil -- You could try memorizing a number of tunes...    Or, if your tab is on 3x5 cards, you could rig a mount on the strummer's neck, like a backwards capo sorta, to hold a standard music instrument lyre.  The elastic would go under the strings and the bar in back would hold the lyre.

BINGO!  Never even considered clicking on the number.... thought it was just a counter!   Need to put this in your "Tips on Navigating FOTMD" file

Hi Lisa;

From the Home Page, click on Forums.  Select a Forum with lots of posts.  Select a Discussion with more than (I think) 25 posts.  When the Discussion opens the oldest posts will be first and at the bottom of the page is a Page Selector.  When you select Page 2 you see the most recent post(s).

Same thing happens if you start at the Forums Master Page and you select Discussions or Newest Posts.  When a Discussion with more than about 24 or 25 entries opens, you are seeing the very first entry, not the most recent...

"Coyote" John Blosser calls Ionian Mode "The Mode of the Gods".  He plays in it almost exclusively.

You think that's funny?  Murray (the Manatee) wants to take the vocal solo and the instrumental break on Old Man(atee) River!

Sally's dog and cats pretty much ignore my playing.  On the other hand, my pet Manatee and I are working up a duet set of water songs.

Robert -- Lisa gave you the simplest answer -- we re-tune. If the notes are not available on the melody string you are not in the right mode. In your case DAd would not be the correct mode.  Here's a link to a YouTube vid where dholeton plays Precious Memories in Ionian Mode (he uses Eb Bb Bb -- half a step up from DAA.  There is also contact info for the player and other information in the comments below the tune.

BY slowing down the video you should be able to pick out the frets he is using, and write your own tab from that.

Gotta agree, Stephen...  Even without the somewhat sexist connotation, the site name/first page title just doesn't jump out and grab ya!

IIWM, I'd just use  

Dulcibros, Dulcimers, Little Dulcimers & Galax Style Dulcimers

for tht first page title...

I think I'd treat it as a Bowed Dulcimer -- play it with a bow, upright in your lap like a cello.  Ken Bloom is the "Godfather" of the modern Bowed Dulcimer... www.boweddulcimer.com

I'm writing this using my Nook Tab4 in Portrait Mode.  

In Landscape Mode the virtual keyboard hides the text area and I can't see what I'm writing.  Other than that, no problems zooming in or out or resizing.

My GoTo dulcimer for Open Mic nights is my Bobby Ratliff  Hogfiddle tuned Bagpipe B -- Bbb, which suits my voice better than C or D.  It's fitted with a stick-on pick up.

My GoTo for un-amplified playing is my John Knopf Thomas replica with its new 1/2" thick balsawood Possum Board.  The dulcimer has 3 feet so the possum board is just a flat plank, and the balsa is super light!