Forum Activity for @dusty

Folks, I've recently learned that Randy Wilkinson is living in Arizona and will send a pdf of his books for a nominal fee.  If anyone wants his email, please send me a personal message.

Just one correction, Strumelia: the coffee place was not hip until you arrived.  Wherever you go to grab your morning joe is the hip coffee place.

I find the current interest in vinyl curious.  Personally, I miss listening to an album (scratches and all) while slowly reading the liner notes.  With Spotify you can't even figure out the musicians who play on a given track.  But why young hipsters would prefer to buy big bulky albums rather than click a button on Spotify is beyond me.

Happily, I live in a place that has a lot of small cafes.  Some of them are enjoyable places to hang out. Each one has a slightly different vibe.  Some are genuinely social spaces, with lively conversation, local artists' work on the walls, poetry readings, open mic nights, and the like.  Others are quieter, clearly conducive to students and others getting some work done.  But I also share Ken's predicament of only wanting plain drip coffee.  The baristas are all disappointed when I don't order a lavender latte with almond milk or something like that.

Hi John.  I think there are a few different issues with tuners.  One is the accuracy of the gizmo inside.  My guess is that all of the common tuners are more accurate than our ears are.  However, a second issue is how information is presented to you. One tuner, for example, might have 5 lights in between a C# and a D.  But another tuner might have 10 lights in between those tones.  So mathematically, the one with 10 lights will be able to display the tone twice as accurately.  That means what your Snark considers "in tune" might be twice the range of another tuner, making it less accurate functionally.

If you poke around the internet, you will generally be told that the most accurate tuners are the strobe tuners.  Second are those needle tuners (which is probably what your app is).  The best small strobe tuners are made by Peterson.  The original was the Peterson Strobo Clip, but that is pretty big. I actually have one for sale in the For Sale Forum .  Then Peterson came out with a smaller version, the Strobo Clip HD .  The smaller one is slightly less accurate but is much easier to read.  I also have one of those.

But I personally think the best tuner out there in terms of accuracy and display is TC Electronic's UniTune Clip On .  It is not as flexible as the Snark, but its display is much more accurate.  It's hard to describe why that's the case, but basically there are two sets of lights to follow. One is probably about as accurate as the Snark, but then there is another fine tuner set of lights to get you even closer.

For guitarists, TC Electronic also makes a PolyTune tuner that can assess all your strings at once. It's pretty wild. I have one of those on one of my guitars, but to be honest, I think the UniTune is all that anyone should need.

It's also worth mentioning that I use several of the D'Addario tuners, both the headstock tuners and the violin tuners , the latter of which can straddle the dulcimer fretboard. Both of those have a lower profile than the Snark, Peterson, and UniTune, but they are probably no more accurate than the Snark.  They're just small. You can probably see one next to the nut on most of the videos I've posted.

What a beautiful dulcimer.  I love the contrast of the ebony fretboard overlay and the cedar top.

As others have said, the instrument looks very nice and was likely very well made.

To determine if the instrument is good for a beginner, I would like more information about the action and the VSL (vibrating string length).  If you plan to play in a noter/drone style, those issues may matter little. But if you play to play with your fingers, then the action or height of the strings is very important. And if you plan to play chords, then a shorter VSL will be easier (though anything in the 25"-28" range should be OK).  And as @Nate says, you will likely want to string it as a three course instrument rather than a four course instrument. It is hard to tell from the photo whether the notches exist in the nut and bridge to facilitate that.

It is hard to find a well-built dulcimer for less than $300, so the price seems fair for such a pretty instrument, but if you will be required to spend more on repairs and other modifications, it may not be worth it.

Yes.

FolkRoots dulcimers are well known.  It was an off-shoot of Michael and Howard Rugg's Capritaurus Dulcimers in Felton, CA.  At some point (but later than the 70s, I believe), they sold FolkRoots to Folkcraft, which continues to make a line of dulcimers under that name.

The good news for you is that Howard Rugg is making dulcimers again and is a member of FOTMD!  So if you have any questions, you should go directly to him.

@gerardo1000, it's a good idea to start with the luthier's recommendations about string gauge, as you are doing, but don't feel locked into those gauges.  Follow your own preferences.  And in fact, a difference of 1 or 2 is inconsequential, so I wouldn't fret about the difference between .011 and .012 or .022 and .024.  

There are factors other than VSL to consider, and again, the most important is your own preferences.  One thing to remember is that you want some consistency of tension across the strings.  You might consult a string tension calculator such as this one to ensure that the three courses have similar tension.

FWIW, I prefer slightly heavier strings for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they are louder and also that they provide more resistance, allowing more precision when bending.  There is also a faster response to the flatpick (something enhanced with heavier picks).  On my dulcimers with VSLs in the 25"-26" range, I use .026 on the bass, .016 on the middle, and .013 on the melody.  YMMV, of course.

Strings are cheap. I would suggest buying single strings (not pre-packaged dulcimer sets) and experimenting to find your own personal preferences.

It would have been a nice find anyway, but that label just adds such heartfelt meaning.  I'm sure the dulcimer expresses a father's love for his daughter with every strum.

@lilley-pad, I would suggest first that you join the Four Equidistant Strings Group here at FOTMD.  Peruse what has already been posted, and if you still have questions, start a new discussion there.

Remember that there are several different ways to tune with 4 equidistant strings, so you need to specify the tuning before anyone can answer your question about chords.

The chart shared by @john-petry is for a chromatic instrument, so I don't know how helpful that will be.

A lot of questions there, ShirinSam!

Based on the string gauges, this is not a baritone. I would suggest a wound .024 on the bass, .014 for the middle, and .012 for the melody strings.  You could go up or down 1-2 on any of those and still be OK.

For the wood, I suggest a product called Howard Feed N Wax. You can get it at any home improvement store or Amazon.  Get the smallest bottle available.  A little goes a long way. You just put a dab on a clean rag and rub it in.  If the wood is really dry, it will absorb it. I usually put it on and then wipe any excess off 15 minutes later.  If you're interested in a demo, check out Bing Futch's video on dulcimer maintenance .

I do have a question about the nut. From the one picture, it looks extremely thin, as though someone replaced the original with a piece of a credit card or something. Is that possible?  If so, you might consider replacing it with something more durable.

Nice find! I'm sure your daughter will love it.

Thanks for sharing that sad news with us, Lisa.  The obituary makes it clear what a caring person Judith was.

Kurt Vonnegut in a letter to high school students:

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

You can hear James Earl Jones read the entire letter here.   

That's quite moving, Robin.  Thanks so much for sharing.  Definitely worthy of good headphones.  And a kleenex.

Looks to be in great shape! Nice find!

Sorry you had to deal with that, Nate.  It's a shame that some people are just so filled with hate that it blinds them to how outrageous they are acting.  You'll notice that YouTube removed the "dislike" button.  It just served no socially useful purpose.  

I would think anyone watching your videos would be able to appreciate the simple joy in homemade music and experimentation that permeates your building and playing dulcimers.  I can't imagine anyone being upset at that.  But it's obvious this person did not actually watch your videos, instead assuming you were this other guy, who probably also did nothing other than beat them at a poker game or something.

There is a way to report abusive comments on YouTube. Since this person is harassing you by posting in all your videos and clearly thinks you are someone else, you might consider it.

Amen, brother.

Unfortunately, I'll be traveling this year, but I'll come up with some way to mark the day and share some music.

I have to admit that I'm the opposite: I love changing strings.  New strings look, feel, and sound better than old ones.  On the dulcimer and guitar I use regularly, I change strings about every 3 months.  The other ones might go a year without new strings, but once I pick one up to play and realize how dull-sounding and stiff-feeling they are, I put new strings on right away.  Sometimes I have a little string-changing party and change strings on several instruments at once.

Make sure you have the right equipment: a string winder, a wire cutter, a capo, a tuner.  (If you have one of those scroll heads with the closed back, you might also need some needle-nose plyers.)  It takes 5 minutes to change 3 strings, and then for several months you get to enjoy the bright tone and soft feeling of the new strings.

Strings last longer if you keep your instruments in cases. If you hang them on the wall or on stands, as I tend to do, the oxidization process speeds up. 

Maddie, you will not harm either your baritone dulcimer or your bass amp.  The sound would likely be OK but not great.  Remember that the low string on a standard guitar is lower than the low string on your baritone, so normal guitar amps can handle a baritone dulcimer with no problem.

I am asked this question a lot because I've posted videos over the years using several different dulcimers, many of which I've parted with, usually to help defray the costs of a new instrument.  And I never like to answer because it involves admitting how many instruments I've accumulated.

4 standard dulcimers: McCafferty, Stephens Lutherie (w/nylon-strings), Modern Mountain Dulcimer, Blue Lion 1C

1 baritone dulcimer: Rick Probst (built as a standard, but I've strung it as a baritone for several years)

2 octave dulcimers: David Beede & Ron Ewing

1 "baritone dulcimette" by Ron Ewing

Don't get me started on my guitars, ukulele, mandolin, autoharp . . .

Thanks for the specific recommendations, @skip.  The D'Addario option is similar to my current string (La Bella), but I'll try to locate one of those flatwound strings you mention.  I'd prefer not buy a whole set since I only need one string, but if it will work I'm not opposed to the idea.

@Strumelia, that's good advice, and I already have the specific gauges used by the builder, who, incidentally, is also creating an alternative bridge for me should I choose to string the dulcimer with steel strings.

An "occasional squeak" would not be objectionable. I find it a nice reminder that making music is a tactile experience.  But one of my philosophies of dulcimer playing has been to keep your fingers down as you move from one chord position to another to facilitate a fast and smooth transition.  That strategy is not working on this dulcimer, at least not on the bass string at present. I find myself re-evaluating my technique.

@dwain-wilder, I've already started adjusting my technique by lifting up any finger on the bass string before moving to a new chord position.  It's a challenge, though, for on the dulcimer we slide much more than do classical guitarists who have a greater range of notes in any left-hand position than do we.

Thanks for your comments, @matt-berg. It's a really special instrument.  Bob Stephens has some really innovative design principles.  The instrument sounds incredibly soft and warm and the intonation is spot on. I'm still figuring out what tunes sound best on it.

Thanks, @stumelia and @nate. One issue I have is that were I to move to a non-wound string that was thicker, I'd need to adjust the groove cut in the bridge, something I am not eager to do just yet.

I just received a beautiful new dulcimer by Stephens Lutherie built with nylon strings.  The sound is incredibly gentle, round, and warm, and I am overcome with the desire to play lullabies and other soft music.

However, the bass string is a wound string and squeaks a lot. Because the nylon strings are quieter than steel strings, the squeak is much more noticeable than on steel strings (but even on my other dulcimers I use flat wound strings to reduce the squeak).  Dulcimer playing involves a lot more sliding than does guitar playing, so it is likely that the squeaking is much less of a problem for classical guitar players.

Any remedies?

I do see that there is something called "tape wound" nylon strings.  Does anyone have experience with those?

Additionally, some classical guitar discussions online mention using Fast Fret or Finger Ease to smooth the friction of the strings.  I am not eager to start using such a substance on my instrument, but perhaps I could isolate its use to the base string.

Any thoughts?

That's a funny looking dulcimer, @Nate!

@richard-streib, that's a wonderfully meaningful dulcimer.  Even though Dan made the dulcimer recently, in a sense the dulcimer has been in your family for generations.

I second the suggestion to contact @dwain-wilder.  

That's right, Robin. I forgot about Jean's Homespun lesson.

Happy's widow Jane posted a nice statement on the Homespun homepage.  Apparently Happy died of pancreatic cancer.

To my knowledge he never played the dulcimer, but Happy Traum--along with his brother Artie--was an integral part of the folk music scene in the 1950s and 1960s in both Greenwich Village and Woodstock, NY.  He hung around with Pete Seeger and then Bob Dylan and Brownie McGee and David Ronk and was a member of the interracial folk group, The New World Singers.

I never heard Happy perform, but among his accomplishments was to found Homespun Tapes, where he shared instructional material for people who wanted to learn folk music.  Somewhere in my garage I have a bunch of those original cassettes, including one on fingerpicking like Mississippi John Hurt, singing harmony like Robin and Linda Williams, and two unique to Happy: one on hot acoustic licks and another on chords that taught moveable triads all over the fretboard.

Among the instructional videos Happy produced is David Schnaufer's Learning Mountain Dulcimer , still available on DVD or digital download. 

After several years of concentrating on the dulcimer, I decided to go back to playing the guitar a few years ago and now have a bookmarked page on my computer for my Homespun Music's "library" of lessons.  Some of the best are by Happy's kid Adam, who has continued the tradition of mastering folk music and passing on the lessons to others.

Less known than other folk musicians who achieved commercial notoriety for their recordings, Happy was nonetheless an important part of the folk music scene for about 70 years, even to those of us who never met him or heard him play in person.  I learned so much from him.

Here is the Rolling Stone obituary .

That's really clever, Ken.  A dulcimer built right into its case!

@razyn, I appreciate your visions here and think of all the suggestions so far, @ken-hulme's is probably the best, though it will entail some work.

Have you thought about using a slatwall kit instead?  Pegboard would work as well, though it doesn't look as nice.  You could easily get hardware to fit the slatwall to hold your dulcimers at different angles.  And none of it would be permanent, so you could change the display if you added new pieces to the collection or to highlight different kinds of comparisons among the instruments. Some slatwall looks downright elegant.

You can see my lazy approach to hanging dulcimers here:

FWIW, I tabbed out the basic melody with chords in Em.  But it is hard to capture that free and open feeling of the guitar version because in Em, we can't use that many open strings.

When I get some time, I'm going to revisit the tune and arrange it with a capo at the first fret, which will allow more open strings.  I might also try to transpose it to Bm.

If you're interested in the tab I created so far, sent me a personal message with your email.

I believe that's an "h" at the end of the first word rather than an "n."  According to The Session, it is an alternate title to Terry Teehan's .  If that's the same tune, the sheet music is offered in Em, but there is no C natural, so it would be playable in that key on the dulcimer.

The Stephen Wake arrangement is very pretty and makes use of the 6-string DADGAD tuning very well. It would be hard to re-create that fluid and open feel on a 3-string dulcimer.  I may try to tab this out, but it will be a while before I could get a really nice arrangement.

Hi Lilley-Pad,

My favorite dulcimer is one made by Terry McCafferty. It came with a K & K twin spot pickup.  The twin spot has has two heads, and although I don't know how Terry positioned them, the fact that there are two means that you get a more balanced sound.  I can tell you that the dulcimer sounds great amplified, and I also know that Terry worked with Stephen Seifert for a long time testing different pickup possibilities before they decided on the K & K.  Just plugging directly into an amp or DAW provides a very clean, acoustic sound.  I have some other dulcimers with pickups, none of which seem as clean as the K&K, but in some cases I don't even know what they are, so I can't say for sure any of them have an LR Baggs. 

John, I'm so glad you're back home and healing. I hope you're feeling stronger every day and I look forward to hearing more of your music.

Glad it all worked out for you.  And you probably have the only Roosebeck with a bone bridge!

AG, it is clear that you have an instrument that needs some adjustment to be playable.  That is not surprising. I've seen some Roosebeck dulcimers that were perfectly fine and others with serious design flaws.  I think they move their factories around eastern Europe and Asia, so quality varies tremendously.

This discussion settled on the "glue it down" solution, which is the correct one, I think.   Gluing the bridge and nut in their slots will stop this movement.

HOWEVER, you have now raised the issue of string spacing, and you may want to have a new nut and a new bridge made with the string spacing you prefer.  First, be aware that many traditional dulcimers had string spacing in which the melody strings were set apart from the drone strings.  And the spacing of the melody strings from each other can also be wider than you might think if the intent was for the instrument to be played with a noter rather than fingers.

So there is not necessarily anything "wrong" with the string spacing on your instrument. But if you want--at least some of the time--to play across all the strings and want to use your fingers to fret strings, you might want to ensure that the melody strings are close together and the middle string is equidistant between the base and melody.  If you are happy with the action, you might be able to just put new grooves in the existing nut and bridge.

Interesting question. I think at the core of the answer is the manner of transmission.  Classical music is taught in schools and conservatories.  Folk music is transmitted informally and orally, within families and communities.  A guitar can be a folk instrument but might also be a classical instrument. Same with violin/fiddle.  French horn?  Definitely not a folk instrument.  But there is no corpus of dulcimer music taught at the New England Conservatory of music.  The music is passed on in dulcimer jams and--until tab became ubiquitous--entirely by listening and observing.

@lorilee and @robin-thompson, Neal is only charging $5 for a download of that Richard Fariña book, but the version of "A Swallow Song" there does not contain tab. It's just the melody in standard music notation and chord names to strum while you sing.  Most of the book is tab, but there are 2-3 songs like this where the melody is not provided in tab.

The first songs I ever knew were from the Pete Seeger children's albums.  The fact that I still love acoustic music so much is certainly due to his influence. 

I have a photo of his banjo up on my dulcimer wall , and across the room are three framed pictures of record album art from Folkways: one by Pete, one by Woody, and one by Leadbelly.

I didn't know about the memorial. I'll have to make a point to get there next time I'm on the east coast.

Thanks for sharing, Ken.