Forum Activity for @pete-staehling

Are there luthiers who will build with your wood?

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

If you manage to have some dried lumber from the tree I might be able to help. Most of my dulcimers are kind of unique in a number of ways, but if they are of interest to you, I would be willing to work with customer supplied lumber that was properly dried. I am used to breaking down larger pieces into pieces suitable for instrument parts.

My instruments are non traditional in a number of ways and most of them are travel oriented. If that interests you you might have a look at:

https://www.facebook.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FeatherDulcimer

Here is my guess...

The person who cut the fret slots screwed up and used a much shorter VSL than the instrument should have had. Then they moved the bridge up to compensate and added a new strum hollow. It looks to me as if the slot is for a nut, there is no zero fret, and fret pattern other than having a stupidly short VSL for the instrument is probably OK but does not have a 6 fret and does have a 6+.

If someone wanted to use it as a project they should probably remove the fret board and start over. Or perhaps just cut it down enough to be below the current frets and then re-fret for a longer VSL and join the two strum hollows. That could be as little as an hour or so of work, but the cracks in the back would still be an issue. It probably wouldn't be worth it other than as a learning experience though.

If it actually had some historical significance or sentimental value, it might be worth saving, but that is not likely to be the case.

"Lap holder" for music....?

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

It could be a possum board accessory. I may tinker with that idea.

Dulcimer use in folk/rock bands

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

Kenny Loggins current group Blue Sky Riders uses a dulcimer, the Rolling Stones song Lady Jane used a dulcimer, and I think Take Me to the Other Side by Aerosmith did as well.

performance play list

General mountain dulcimer or music discussions

I have run across the same alphabetical order weirdness with a local group, so your group isn't the only one. It might only be for practice though, not sure if they will do it at a performance. The reason given was so folks could all find the songs quickly. Seemed pretty weird to me. I figure that the binders don't have the songs in alphabetical order any way and if folks have to arrange the pages they could just as well arrange them in any order. I will just go with the flow on this one though.

As was mentioned some builders do not bother making the zero fret higher, but if you want to make yours higher and don't want to order a piece of larger fret wire, why not just cut a groove and make a bone, delrin, or hardwood nut instead of a zero fret?

Check that the fret isn't loose first. If you press one end down and the other pops up then tapping or filing may not be the answer. That becomes a different problem with a different solution.

My New Dulcimer

Instruments- discuss specific features, luthiers, instrument problems & questions

Do we know that it was only a couple frets that were moved? Based on what I saw I thought it likely they all were moved. Can't tell for sure from the pictures though.

Oh and it looks like there were two melody strings at one time before the nut and bridge were replaced. The groove on the bridge is evidence of that. It looks like you could add one back pretty easily if you wanted to.

Ken Hulme said:

If the bridge was moved, John, all the frets would have re-cuts, not just a couple.