Forum Activity for @ken-hulme

Aspen is 'waaay too soft for a dulcimer; nearly as soft as Balsa!   I made a blanket chest from aspen once -- worst wood choice I ever made!  

Notyhing wrong with cottonwood as a dulcimer wood.  Poplar (particularly Yellow Poplar) in particular was very popular among the traditional dulcemore builders.  Light in weight, works easily, can have great grain structure or poor grain can be painted/stained over... 

If the instrument seems very muted to you, you could -- with some careful and judicious work with a fine toothed jewelers saw -- open up those holes.

Now that you've really got DAd -- Dulcimer Acquisition disease -- when you're ready, we can talk you through making your own dulcimer similar to that teardrop -- from less than $100 worth of materials and simple hand tools.  I've attached a picture of a simple conversion one of my students made using the fretboard from the cardboard dulcimer he started with...

 Body for CB Dulcimer.JPG - 53KB

Nope.  Never heard of him.  Looks like a simple kit build.  Needs more sound hole area to get the best sound from it -- there are complex formulas to calculate the optimum area, but it's roughly 4-5 square inches for most dulcimers... 

Close up photos of construction details and scroll head would be nice.  

Sounds like you're trying to tune UP to the "high" Gdd.  Optimum string for the G, based on 24" VSL would be a 16 or 18 plain, not wound as they can be hard to find. For the high ds you'll want an 11 or 12 gauge.

As Dusty says, the string gauges you are using for the tuning you want may be the issue. 

First the VSL -- What is the distance betwen the nut and bridge (Dusty calls it the "scale length).  This is one of two pieces of information you need to have in order to get the right strings for a given tuning.

Second, the Tuning...  which GDD are you trying to tune to?   There are two common tunings which can be called GDD -- one higher in pitch than the conventional DAA, and one lower in pitch.

Is your bass string G three notes higher in pitch than the bass string D of a 'regular' dulcimer tuned DAA?   
Are the Ds in your GDD tuning the same pitch as the bass string D of a 'regular' dulcimer tuned DAA;  or are they an octave higher like the d in DAd tuning?   

In either case you probably cannot achieve a GDD tuning using "regular" dulcimer strings without either breaking strings or having them be uselessly floppy...

The woods the instrument are made from won't make any discernable difference in the pitch of the sound.  The overall body dimensions (internal cubic inches) do.  How big is the body compared to your other "low tone" instruments?  

I haven't heard of Fellenbaum dulcimers ina quite some time.  My memory of them is that he builds a fairly deep/wide dulcimer for a 26-27" VSL.

Glad to hear things are working out LancashireLass!

Another one gone.... but not forgotten.

To lower the action is simple.  You'll need a hard flat surface and a piece of approx. 100 grit sandpaper,  You will also need a 1p and 10p coin.  I checked the measurements of UK coins and those two will work best.  The 1£ coin is 2.8mm -- 'way too thick!  The 1p coin is 1.5mm thick and the10p coin is1.85mm.  Those are much closer to the thicknesses of a US dime and nickel.

Here's what you do:  
1.  Set the 1p coin next to the first fret.  See the gap between the strings and the coin.
2.  Loosen (but don't remove) the strings and slide the Nut out of it's slot.  It may be slightly stuck and need a sideways tap to get it moving.
3.  Put the sandpaper on your hard surface and sand the bottom of the Nut about 10-15 strokes.
4.  Put the nut back in place and tighten the strings (tight but not up to tune).  Check the gap between the coin and the strings.
5.  Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until each string just touches the coin.

Once that is accomplished, it's time to move down to the 7th fret.  Balance the 10p coin and see the gap between coin and strings.   Follow Steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 above, checking the gap each time between the balanced 10p coin and the strings. 

Finally bring the strings back up to tension and play!

At the 7th fret (not the 6+ fret if you have it) rest a pound coin on top of the frets under the strings.  The strings should not be any higher than the top of the coin.   Here in the States we use a nickel coin, and a dime setting next to the first fret as gauges for decent string height.

Thumbs are all very nice and natural soft sounding and all that.  But.  If you insist on rubbing it on those metal strings, it's going to hurt!

Yes it will take some time to develop a callus.  You may find that a coating of New Skin or Liquid Bandage or a similar product will protect the area.  A dab of Rubber Cement or CA glue (superglue) will also work. 

The simplest solution, IMHO is to use a pick rather than bare thumb; or in addition to the bare thumb while your callus develops. 

If the clicking of a plastic or wooden pick bothers you, look in acoustic music shops or on line for the thick felt or leather pick often used by ukulele players,  A heavy felt pick sounds almost as good as a bare thumb, without the pain...  Leather picks can be easily made from thick belts found at charity shops.

I just heard that Hammered Dulcimer guru Sam Rizzetta passed away on Tuesday, October 26.  No other details at this time...

Very interesting Jim.  Seldom see a tiple, but I love the mandolin-uke sound they deliver.

Would love a picture or three for my files, Wally.  Thanx in advance.

Nice.  A laser-cut Baltic Birch version of a cardboard dulcimer. It's about time!   I think your stained body and blond top look nice together, and I applaud your substitution of string pins for screws.   Screws have been known to cut/break strings.   Since the tuners are on "backward" you may experience some "not staying in tune" as the tuners loosen up from use.   The gear side of tuners should face the body, so string tension pulls the worm into the gear, not the way you have them...

My minor objection is calling the fretboard a "neck".    Necks extend significantly beyond the body, fretboards do not.  The dulcimer has a fretboard not a neck.  

You didn't mention what it is you/he do for a living -- there are LOTS of "work songs" in the folk canon.    If nothing else, you could play him the old Austro-German cavalryman's lament Morgenrot which should be simple to learn.

Morgenrot, (Wilhelm Hauff, Friedrich Silcher) 1824 soldiers songs - YouTube

There is nothing wrong with Auld Lang Syne .  There are actually 3 similar-but-different tunes associated with the song.  I often play two of them together (noter & drone of course) to make a sort of "verse and chorus".  

As a writer my manuscripts are often page numbered "X of Y" because the software does the updating of both numbers automatically as I type. 

However I've never seen or heard of a builder numbering instruments "X of Y".  That implies that he/she was only ever going to build Y number of instruments either in total or of a particular model.  

I agree with Dusty -- position dots are not necessary on the dulcimer because the wide and narrow fret intervals of the diatonic fret layout are their own indicators...

Each builder has his/her own finish preference -- some like rub-on or brush-on urethane, others have a spray booth for varnish, lacquer or urethane.  Many of us prefer the more satin look of an oil finish --  Tung oil, True Oil, and boiled Linseed Oil are favorites. 

Frankly a "machine made" fretboard is as accurate as it gets for fret placement. 

I walked 2 miles yesterday in a local park, with "some discomfort",  as I'm experiencing a heel spur.

John Rawlinson -- your link to John's obit does not work...  But this one does:
John Shaw obituary | Folk music | The Guardian

johnpat -- here's another mental note for you -- never tune a string that isn't 'singing'.   Grab the tuner knob, strongly pluck the string you want to tune -- a quarter turn only.  LISTEN  If the sound doesn't change, Stop!  You've got the wrong tuner.  Try again.  Lots of people break strings because they just keep turning the knob even though the sound doesn't change, and Snap!

You're right that Warren probably built that to be played in DAA or other 1-5-5 tunings.  But not because it's a "Kentucky" dulcimer.  Built in 1990, with a true diatonic fretboard (no 6+ fret), Warren probably set it up to be played in traditional Noter & Drone or Fingerdance style, not the modern Chord-Melody style. The label inside may given you some insight -- it may have been custom built for someone.  

Can't help with the value though... others who know Warren better will help I'm sure.

JohnPat -- Strings are strings are strings.  The only things that matter are the gauge and the end type(ball or loop). 

I agree with John Knopf -- go to www.juststrings.com  They have single dulcimer string for about $1, string sets for $3-4, or you can buy a dozen strings of a given gauge in the gauges you need (which is what I do).  Their JustStrings Bulk Loop End strings are $4 a dozen.  That way you'll have strings to last for quite awhile.

What's the VSL and the tuning on your 5-string?  That .009 string you list for the light side of the doubled bass course seems extremely light to me.  If you're tuned Dd A dd then you don't need a .009 for the d on the bass course, just another .011 like the melody course ds...

Like Dusty, I'm pretty sure that's a "real" FolkRoots Capritaurus, not a re-born Folkcraft.  Howard is easy to chat with...

Folks use bits of Avery labels for temporary fret markers.  There is no standard for marker positions, but as @tukanu says, markers at frets 3, 7 and 10 are common.  Why?  Fret 3 is the start of the Ionian modal scale,  Fret 7 is the end of the Mixolydian modal scale (which starts on the open fret).  Fret 10 is the end of the Ionian modal scale.  

Lots of different VLS, Don -- from 18" to 28".  Play one, put it down, pick up another.  Only takes a minute or so to adjust.

LOVE Green Salsa and Enchilada Sauces.  Nice to grow your own! 

We've finished Mango season on our tree. 

Have been "foraging" at a large local park/arboreteum this spring and summer when I go with a friend to do t'ai-chi, also around the neighborhood.  Malay Apples and Rose Apples from the park, also now the Chocolate Sapote trees are coming into fruit, and I picked enough wild coffee that is drying that I'll be able to grind a few cups worth after roasting.  Plenty of Starfruit around the neighborhood, plus wild lemon and grapefruit.  .  

If you know what the VSL is supposed to be (to the nearest 1/10" or .5mm) set the bridge there to start.  If you don't know what the VSL is supposed to be, then yes, set the bridge at 2x the nut to 7th fret (not 6+ fret) distance to start.   

Use your electronic tuner to test the accuracy of the notes on the melody string side as Skip suggests.  Leaving the melody string side exactly where it's supposed to be (make a tiny mark on the fretboard) then check the accuracy of the bass string side of things.

It's a Possum Board for your dulcimer only if it is a separate piece upon which the dulcimer sits upon.

Resonators on musical instruments are on or part of the top...  the round metal disk on the face of a resonator guitar for example. 

What you have is called a double back.  The double back is just one element of a complete Galax dulcimer design. Galax (pronounced gay-lax) is the name of the town in Virginia where the design originated.

The function of a double back is to allow the inner back to vibrate freely, which produces significantly more sound volume -- a sort of non-electronic speaker as it were...

Welcome to FOTMD, slssls.  Sorry to say I've not heard of Bill Todd as a builder, either.  Nice looking modern dulcimer though.  You may want to check out the booklet I wrote for beginners a few years back, called I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?   It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms, so we all speak the same jargon, plus answers to many beginner questions about tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new/old acquisition.  You can find it here for download:

I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What? (Article) - Forums | fotmd.com

Ah -- you're right, John....  dang these Senior Moments anyway!

The Dulcimer-cello is a product of the other Dulcimer Ken -- Ken Bloom.  Beautiful instruments they are too...

Tod -- your Flat Creek link led me to a McAfee Security Alert Page!!   Best to remove it before someone gets infected...

The Flat Creek Dulcimer shop is all over a bunch of business pages but I can't find a website for the company...  I've not heard of Flat Creek, but then I'm not any where near the Ozarks. 

Lisa Strumelia has a Noter & Drone Blog, and I wrote a booklet years ago called Get Noterized, both of which are accessible from here at FOTMD.  Many of us who primarily play N&D do play by ear, but we also simply use just the melody line from other dulcimer tabs.  There are other sources for hard-core N&D players as well.  It all depends on the kind of music you're interested in.

BTW the more correct designation for your tuning is DdAdd.  The D and the A are in the same octave, but the d's are an octave higher than D.    The octave setup Dd for a 5 string dulcimer is intended to give an added richness to the sound compared to the older DD couplet.

Why do they have a hole in the tuning head?  Why only 3 strings?  Because that is New Harmony owner Rick Goodin's design.

He does not build custom dulcimers to your specifications -- he builds dulcimers to his specifications, and you can choose to buy one or not.  He seems to have plenty of buyers waiting for his next creation.

I just now went to New Harmony's website, and every dulcimer there has the VSL listed. 

He actually only has 3 instruments available at this time -- all the other instruments shown are sold.  He posts sold dulcimers to give you some idea of what to expect from the combination of design and wood choices he chooses to make.

"Dulce melos" is French with Greek/Latin roots, meaning "sweet song".  There was an old key-hammered zither called a dulce-melos or douchmelle in the 15th century.  

IIRC, "dulcimer" came to prominence in the King James Bible translation where it was incorrectly used as a term for a wind instrument. Also found (again mis-used) in the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan -- "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree...

Dan Cox has been the leader in assigning the term dulcimore (I spell it dulcemore just to be contrary) to those Appalachian fretted zithers built originally prior to the Dulcimer Revival -- in particular those instruments detailed in L. Allen Smith's  landmark thesis and book A Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers

IMHO  Makeshift instruments are one thing, and Traditional instruments, particularly dulcimers/mores another thing entirely.

Nothing wrong with makeshift -- "necessity is the mother of invention", after all.  That's how instruments were invented -- plucking rhythms on an archer's bow string is the ancestor of all stringed instruments, hollow logs the ancestor of drums, rocks or sticks clicked together the ancestor of all rhythm instruments.  Makeshift or improvisational music making is a multi-thousand year old tradition in it's own right.

Traditional, in the dulcimer sense, is a specific definable set of characteristics which separate pre-1960 instruments from later ones --  in particular how the dulcimer has changed in the past 50+ years.

The Ozarks have at least one Traditional dulcimore -- the so-called Indian or Ozark Walking Stick or Cane --  which can be more or less described as a narrow teardrop shape with sharp corners at the widest part of the bout rather than curves.  Some describe it as a Coffin shape.  That instrument was invented as a specific design by John Mowhee (or Mawhee) back during the Civil War.  Like other instruments of the era it has the same characteristics as other Traditional dulcimores.

Trouble is this dulcimer is "too common" -- hourglass, scroll head with up-right tuners, f-holes, string pins on the tail block are all VERY common attributes.  Label?  That white bit isn't a label -- it's a stick-on piezo pickup for plugging into an amp. 

Since it includes a bunch of songbooks, the pickup,  and a case, if the price is in your range, just buy it.  If it doesn't sound as nice as you want, you can always re-sell it on Craigslist and get your money back.