Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Wood putty will crumble after only a short time. Buy a 1/4" or larger dowel at a Big Box Store. Drill a matching hole over the old hole. Cut a length of dowel, slather with Titebond (never Elmers white glue) and follow David's instructions for trimming and smoothing. Many older dulcimers used one or more 1/4" wooden dowels for string pins, nothing more.

For String Pins, most of us use a brass or steel brad or small headless nail. Others use a length of welding rod, coat hanger or small screw.

Violin Pegs are Tuning pegs, used instead of geared tuners. Violin End Buttons hold the Tail Gut of the Tailpiece onto the tail end of the violin -- under completely different stresses than dulcimer String Pins; more akin to a dulcimer strap button.

My goodness, no! Bud & Donna, and Bud junior and his Lady have always been very easy to work with and have built really good instruments. Was the instrument you bought a "true" Cripple Creek or a Cripple Creek kit that someone slapped together?

Chuck - once you try it, I think you'll love the Possum Board effect. If you want to play quieter, there are many ways to soften your sound and only a few to amplify it. Don't use "rubber", even in strips, on a possum board to hold the dulcimer above the surface; it will substantially reduce the effect. To hold the dulcimer in place there are number of turnbuckle, bungee, and rubber band ideas that will work better than rubber underneath that will not dampen the effect of the suspension.

A strap is a strap is a strap. You could always use a length of clothesline!

Bring it on Randy!

Yeah... I want to see primary source information... the recordings labels and how they were ID'd, a photo of Bony with a dulcemore rather than a revolver, an official list of items found after the final shootout... something substantive.

Welcome Mike! This is certainly the place for building type questions.

What brand or who made the instrument? Contact the builder and ask what finish is already there. Ron uses a satin lacquer finish, easy enough to buy and apply.

I can never remember whether it's lacquer you can apply over shellac or the other way around. And as Dan said, if there is any kind of oil finish you can add either the same or a different oil finish right on top. Otherwise you'll need to strip and/or sand off the existing finish and re-apply.

Rob said it right - just behind, without touching the fret.

Jessica - are you having this problem on a Stick? Or on a Dulcimer like the one in your avatar photo? If it's on a dulcimer, you may not have a wide enough stance with your legs, and the dulcimer is sagging a tiny bit as you push down at the first fret. When you're sitting you want a wide knee position, with your left knee under the first fret. Not knees together with the dulcimer teeter-totter-ing atop them.

Rich -- Since it's a "sometimes" thing, chances are your problem is "pilot error" rather than anything wrong with the instrument. Probably related to the way your left hand has to twist to get to that first fret on the melody string. Stick necks are much narrower than guitar/mando/uke necks and that requires your hand to bend differently. You could test this by laying the stick flat on a table and fretting while you can see what you're doing.

johnp is right too. The stick instrument, or as I call them American Citterns, isn't a dulcimer. By definition a dulcimer has no neck beyond the body. The folks here who play sticks may not look in General dulcimer discussions. If it's specific to sticks, you might want to post a question to the Stick Group.

Really nice collection of German folk music Peter. Keep up the good work!

How about a tab for Morgen Rot? Then we can add it to the discussion on American Civil War songs. It was sung on the Yankee/Northern side of the ACW, although I understand that it is much older than that (Thirty Years War?).

Wouldn't use a strap if you paid me. I use a wide leg seated stance, with the 1st fret over my left knee and the little finger of my right hand to move the tail end into my waist as needed.

Raul - I know what you mean about bluegrass nazis!. I once had a huge argument with the organizers of a bluegrass festival who advertised an Open Instrument competition and then wouldn't let me play dulcimer because it wasn't a "Blue grass Instrument". I argued that their music wasn't bluegrass because it wasn't being played in "the Bluegrass" region of Kentucky (this was in Arizona) and that in three days I hadn't heard anyone play a negro spiritual, white spiritual or transplanted Scots-Irish ballad (the roots of bluegrass). They finally let me compete, and I came in second out of 20 or so guitars, mandos and banjos...

Definately not a commercial instrument, although the builder was probably an experienced woodworker. it doesn't look like a first attempt. Older, probably, since it does not have a 6+ fret -- may date back to the 1960s or 70s. Whoever built it made the tuning peg holes too big, and too much of the shaft extends through the far side.

As Carrie said, look though the soundholes for any writing or a label.

Just 15 minutes ago I unpacked the Sow model that Bobby Ratliff made for me, and I just had to force myself to make an initial report.

If you love traditional Noter & Drone style playing and sound, you REALLY want one of these! Shallow sides, narrow teardrop bout, mine is made from Holly wood, Butternut and Walnut. Light weight but solid feeling. His special finish is fabulous. Pictures were posted by Bobby last week.

This thing SINGS! Huge volume and high silvery soundfor such a small body. The narrow fretboard takes a minute or two to get accustomed to, but Bobby's string arangement makes it simple. There's the single Melody string, a wide-ish gap, and then what looks likea typical Melody couplet... but on the far side.The coupletis made up of the middle drone and the unwound bass string. Bobby set mine up for Gdd or Ggg tunings. Nice significantly large staple frets with a full width 3rd fret to facilitate tuning to 1-5-5. The full inch high fretboard makes keeping the instrument on your lap a snap with an occasionalin-flick of your right hand.

Ya done good, my friend. Many thanks!

Playing video will come soon, but don't hold your breath.

Strings will break going up or down. It's possible a slight kink developed somehow.

Not to be picky, but are you sure the string was vibrating when you turned the tuner knob? I've seen so many people break a string because they thought the tuner they were turning was the right one (NOT) and/or the direction they were going was the right one (NOT).

I recommend tuning only a string that is vibrating so that as you turn the knob a quarter turn you hear the tone change (regardless of what an electronic tuner might say). If the tone doesn't change, STOP as you're turning the wrong knob...

Answer to your basic question is that a .012 string will work for your VSL and what you want to do. Like Robin I make those changes all the time and seldom break a string (although it does happen).

You can do whatever you'd like. I would like to answer YES, use 12 gauge strings, because for most VSLs above 24", .012 strings will work just fine, ut a whole bunch of people will come along and tell you something else anyway.

The most correct answer depends on the VSL of your instrument and the note you want to tune a given string to. So measure your VSL (the distance between the inside of the Nut and the inside of the Bridge). Then plug tha number in the String calculator at www.strothers.com . You must use the lower case d, not D to specify the melody string octave higher D. The Strothers' calculator is notoriously "light" in its recommendations, but certainly gives you usable answers.

No problem Mal; that's why we're here -- to help each other flounder around The "scale length" measurement Paul is saying to make is also called the VSL (for Vibrating String Length). It always helps to know what that is for each of your instruments, because it will help you get the strings you want/need.

Mal - you need to have appropriate gauge strings for the VSL and the notes you want to tune the strings to. A given set of strings will only go so high before they break or so low before they flop. That 12 gauge string tuned up to G4 might be on the edge of breaking, depending on your VSL.

Use a String Calculator such as the one here: http://www.strothers.com/string_choice.htm You plug in the VSL and the note you want to tune a particular string to -- A, a, D, d, C, c etc. and high calculate.

In general though, I think dulcimer and other steel strung instruments are under higher tension than nylon/gut uke strings. As the creator says " The calculations are based on a string tension of 13.8 pounds-force and a string density value of 0.283 pounds-mass per cubic inch. Not many of us are using nylon or cat gut so the density for steel is OK.

Dusty has given you The Right Stuff, Rachel. The dulcimer was never intended to be a chord playing instrument, but people do play that way. If you feel you must play chords, there are two sort of basic techniques used -- Accompaniment Chords, and Chord-Melody.

Accompaniment Chords are usually only one chord per measure of the song, with you singing the melody around that chord. This is like the guitarist who can only play 3 chords but claims that he can knows 500 songs!

Chord-Melody is where one chord is played for each note of the melody. This is a very common modern way to play the dulcimer.

In the traditional ways to play - Noter & Drone or Melody-Drone -- you play the melody on the Melody string(s) closest to you while the others just humm along. That too is a chord (3 notes sounded together), that some of us call a Drone Chord where two notes (the drones) stay the same in each chord.

As a beginner it is often simplest to start picking out melodies on the Melody string and adding Drone Chords as you get more confident with the melody.

Tell us which S&G song you're trying to learn, and we can probably help you better. Not every tuning has every note you may need for a particular song, and you may need to re-tune. Scarborough Fair, for example is best played in a Dorian or Aeolian modal tuning not the Mixolydian modal tuning you are using ( which does not have all the notes needed for that song).

Sor Robert - what are you waiting for? Get building!

Paul - that's why I think scroll head makers should open up the bottom of the scroll. Hate that needlenose plier stuff! Mine that have open bottoms are as fast and easy to change strings on as any flathead.

Frankly these days, folks would hardly notice 'only' a $25 price increase. and only if they've been looking at a particular instrument for quite some time.

No reason you can't use guitar machines (not those 'on a stick' though) with scroll heads. Folks do it all the time.

Or offer the Knilling/Perfection "looks like a violin peg but has gears inside" tuners and charge the extra $50 cost of the tuners.

The Cardboard dulcimers are perfect for youngsters. cost between $5-75. Your 8 year old can decorate it, even help to 'make' it by folding things together. They play perfectly well - it's the fretboard that matters, and the fretboards are true sounding.

Especially for Renn Faire things, I'd keep it simple, one strum per note -- no fancy back and forth strums, bum ditties, filling in the blank spaces with extra strums -- those sorts of things. IIRC early instrument frets were relatively fragile, especially frets tied on or made of wood and glued on; so I suspect that playing was, relatively speaking, calm.

Here's a link to a discussion on ED, where you'll find a link to Mark Gilston's version, which you should be able to play just on the melody string with drones, tuned DAd. Yes it has a few 3 finger chords, but ignore those and just play the melody line notes at those places.

http://everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?t=25813

Here's a link to Gary Gallier's version, also in DAd, again mostly melody line:

http://dulcimercentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/the-road-to-lisdoonvarna-key.pdf

Dan said "I met with one of the members of a local dulcimer society, he began with telling me all the things I have to have. My noter and quill was not mentioned. No way I can play chords with first string staple frets....I imagine I too am destined to always being a beginner."

Dan, I know exactly how you feel. For more years than I want to count, every time I met a dulcimer player or group that was the same reaction I received --- you can't do that, you have to play this way, we only play DAd, et cetera ad nauseum .

There is still far too much of that sort of prejudice going on in the dulcimer world today. Unfortunately most of those folks don't read FOTMD or ED, either, to see how the wider world works.

After being insulted, put down and shunned by people and groups like that, I wasn't about to cower in the corner and shut my trap. That's just not me Is it any wonder that I have become such a vocal champion of "playing your way" as well as preserving the more traditional styles -- in particular Noter & Drone. My mission, as such, is to prove to those blatantly wrong self-righteous folks that the dulcimer does not have to be, and never was intended to be, played only DAd tuning and chords and fingerpicking and all that other modern nonsense.

The good thing that's happened over the past few years, and in particular here at FOTMD, is what I've taken to calling the Second Dulcimer Revival -- a.k.a. Dulcimer Revival Part Deux, the Return of Traditional Playing

Dan, you're welcome to share my semi-official moniker: Uncontrite Modal Folker.

So what I'm hearing here is that more people are objecting to my use of the word Expert rather than something else... And not objecting so much to the actual definitions??

Helen - I think if you break things down too far the distinctions begin to blur too much. What distinguishes Beginner from Advanced Beginner? Knowing what VSL stand for? Being able to play two tunes but not three? See what I mean?

Ex = former

Spurt = a drip under pressure

OK... Novice, Intermediate, Advanced then...

Lisa: I know that you know at least 6 tunes from memory! And, except for maybe not up to leaping tall buildings, you surely do meet Expert, not just Intermediate.

I see what you mean, Dusty. But an expert blues or classical guitarist doesn't normally start out studying strictly blues or classical guitar, either. They get a firm foundation in general guitar playing before they start specializing in blues or whatever. I guess my point is that most dulcimer players do not get a firm foundation in the totality that is the dulcimer. And more's the pity...

My definition of a 'professional' dulcimer player is one who makes significant or primary income from teaching, performing, making & selling CDs/DVDs, etc. When I said an expert 'regularly plays solo in public', I didn't mean to imply stage performances, but rather a level of comfort playing in front of others (besides your immediate family and pets). I mean being comfortable enough with one's skills to play for strangers - not in a jam setting, but in a park, at a nursing home, farmer's market, etc. - and not be scared witless.

In various times and places (noticeably when reading festival class descriptions) we have all pondered the meaning of the words Beginner, Intermediate and Expert. In the interest of developing and promoting a Fabianist discussion of the topic, I thought I would post here my own descriptions of those playing distinctions.

Beginner

Someone who cannot tune and re-tune their dulcimer in less than five minutes. Someone who has never changed a string, does not know what kinds and gauges of strings are on their dulcimer, and does not know how to determine what kinds and gauges are necessary. Someone who does not understand common dulcimer terminology. Someone who has begun learning one style of left-hand and right-hand play in one tuning. Someone who cannot play at least three tunes completely through from memory.

Intermediate

Completely at home changing both keys and tunings (DAd to CGG for example) in less than five minutes, and understands the nomenclature of tunings (1-5-8 vs Dorian vs DAC). Can change strings quickly and correctly, and has changed all the strings on their instrument at least twice. Understands and uses common dulcimer terminology. Can demonstrate at least two styles of left-hand and right-hand play, and play at least one tune completely through in each style. Can read tab or SMN, or learn by ear, and plays at least 6 tunes completely through from memory using at least one style of play.

Expert

Someone who has experienced all three major styles of left-hand play, at least two styles of right-hand play, and regularly uses elements of those in his/her personal style and repertoire. Changes and re-tunes naturally. Regularly (at least 6 times a year) performs solo in public. Can play at least twelve tunes completely through from memory using at least two styles of play. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.

Let the fur fly!

Welcome!!

I'm a self-taught traditional noter & drone player. When I started nearly 40 years ago there was only Jean Ritchie's Dulcimer Book , and a few cassettes and records (!!) to listen to. Today you've got a zillion YouTube videos and teaching CDs, some of them by folks here an other well known players and quite good, others not so much.

Lois Hornbostel is a trained teacher, unlike 95% of the other dulcimer teachers out there, and her Classroom Dulcimer book is extremely well written and developed, and I can't recommend it highly enough if you want a good teach-yourself book. www.loishornbostel.com

In the meantime you might want to read the article I wrote here called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms and answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, modes, care and feeding of your new best Friend. It's here:

http://mountaindulcimer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-just-got-a-dulcimer-now-what

No capo here, either, Babs. It's not hard to re-tune quickly.

Thanx for the explanation, john p.

My guitarist friend keeps saying I'm in the key of G when I'm tuned Ddd or DAd. I think there may be two "keynotes" here.

I learned "keynote" as a word in reference to the instrument, not the scale being played on that instrument. "That dulcimer is in the key of D" (and as Bonnie Carol taught decades ago, with dulcimers that refers to the note to which the bass string is tuned); not "I'm playing this song in the key of G".

The traditional Modal Tunings all have the bass string as the Keynote:
Ionian........DAA
Locrian.......DAB
Aeolian.......DAC
Mixolydian...DAD
Lydian........DAE
Phrygian.....DAF
Dorian........DAG

Bagpipe Tuning.... Ddd and Galax Tuning........ddd, also have the bass string as the Keynote.

There is some Circle of Fifths apparently sound Musical Theory reason why the so-called Reverse tunings (like Reverse Ionian...DGd) can have the keynote on another string. Someoine will surely come along and confuse me again with the reasoning, I'm sure.

Reverse Ionian is the most common middle string keynote tuning, but there are a couple others. But I personally don't use those tunings and have never bothered to absorb the theory.

Not my first dulcimer, but an interesting story nonetheless. About 3 years ago, just after I retired, I thought to go into the Peace Corps. Mercenary reason, not humanitarian - I could bank my monthly Social Insecurity payments for 2+ years while living at the government's expense and get a $5000 buy out at the end of the tour. That would give me a big nest-egg to purchase a newer retirement boat to liveaboard when I returned. The PC wanted me to go to Africa and teach forestry (my degrees). I planned to take my 'worldly goods' in two footlockers, but all my dulcimers were too long to fit therein. Harpmaker said he could make me a slightly customized version of his Student Model that would fit in one of the cases -- no extended tuning head, autoharp tuning pins and a taller fretboard for noter & drone play. So I said, "Why not", and commissioned him to build it.

Long story short: just after Harpmaker sends me the new dulcimer, and a month after meeting a wonderful lady, the Peace Corps tells me they won't take me without a bunch of periodontal dental work I couldn't afford at the time.

So... I never did go to Africa, and thus avoided the Arab Spring uprisings which seriously impacted the area to which I would have been sent. The dulcimer still sounds wonderful, and Lady Sally and I have been together for about 2-1/2 years now. Oh... and I finally have been able to get half the periodontal work done that they wanted me to have -- for a mere $3000! By the time I'm 80 I'll have perfect teeth (or a complete set of falsies) paid for.

Blue Lion! I met Janita at Mount Dora last weekend. Unless you are moving your dulcimer from -50F to +120F daily, you shouldn't have to re-level your frets either. If it sounds good, leave well enough alone.

I don't want to say anything really negative about your "luthier", but IMHO he's looking to make easy money off you for something that doesn't need doing. If I had a Blue Lion, no one but Janita or Robert would touch it -- I simply wouldn't let some local "luthier" touch it. You've got the creme de la creme of dulcimers, don't let some 'shade tree mechanic' mes with it.

It depends on the quality of the frets used in the initial construction. You hardly ever hear of a complete fret job; just the occasional single fret replacement. I have a vintage dulcimer which is over 50 years old and it doesn't need a fret job. If there are grooves in the frets where the strings run, you might consider it. IMHO it sounds like your luthier is trying to drum up some extra business...

I think most Corry-handed folks play right handed. That way their dominant hand is doing the delicate work of fingering/notering while their less skilled hand is doing the 'grunt work' of strumming out a rhythm. I suppose if they want to learn finger- or flat-pick style, then reversing the strings would be the better choice.

What part of the country? What time period? They aren't listed on any of the builder's rosters that I know of. How many instruments did they build? Were they labeled inside? The more info we have the more we might be able to help.

Good post Dana. This topic surfaces about once a year. Watch closely and you can see that, of course, Fess really isn't playing the dulcimer, and the notes he's fretting aren't the right ones for the song.

No dumb questions, Dan. Just ones we haven't answered yet!

Yes there are fretless dulcimers. Most of them have marked frets though. Some with thin bits of wood inlay. Do a Search here. IIIRC, Randy Adams is a player of a fretless dulcimer.

Gosh Wayne, i'll have to find a scanner so I can convert them from paper to electrons. I didn't take many photos and those were "pre-digital". Here are two really small pix of instruments I made though...

This one I called Fruit & Nuts; made from fruitwoods and nut woods. Mango top, Oak sides, Cherry fretboard, Lychee Nut nut and bridge, Kamani wood tuning head, Walnut soundhole inlay, I forget what else. With a 27" VSL, about 5" wide and 3" deep I built it as a "transitional dulcimer - half way between a zither and a mountain dulcimer. The shape and rough dimensions are taken from an 18th century zither in a museum collection in Germany. Instead of nearside half frets, I added a central raised fretboard - the hallmark of a dulcimer rather than its European ancestors.

Here's a really crummy pix of a replica Langeleik - Norwegian dulcimer ancestor - that I made for the Norwegian Prez of a company I worked for up in Venice, FL before I retired. Notice the wooden frets set into the near edge and the other unfretted drones. The box is bottomless as was common with Langeleik as they were usually played on a table.