Forum Activity for @gpeden

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Hello! Three months later, I have really enjoyed getting to know this instrument. I used Bradley Laird’s eBook as my first guide and have enjoyed working with it. A few weeks back I noticed to my “horror” that the strings were progressively worse pinging the frets, almost like they worked further into the grooves in the nut. Perhaps it was because of the varied tunings/tensions I was using. I ended up using a couple thicknesses of blister pack plastic to build back maybe half of my original action adjustment and it now seems a lot better. I have been lingering in a minor DAC tuning because I am dwelling at the end of the eBook on a couple of songs in that key as I try to better listen (during and after) to the sound being made. And I really, really have been enjoying this as an almost daily activity, sometimes obsessively 😀

It will not be a surprise to hear that I think I need another one, for any number of excuses that I can dream up😂 But the thing is, I think the one I have has a nice sound, especially if I hit the tuning just nice. I have found that if I tune the bass string the tiniest bit on the flat side, where the tuner still shows it in tune, but it just got there sorta thing, then the other strings are more accurate when tuning to itself. Oh yeah, My wife knows how much I enjoy this and she is quite impressed with my progression (perhaps the thousandth time in a row for the same tune, not so much), so she will likely understand the need for dulci #2 to hold me over when I can find someone well regarded in western Canada that could redo the fret and nut and to whom I can send or bring it. Just last night I pointed out all the dulcimers on Jeff Hame’s wall when I played a video for her🙄 If “sustain” means how long the instrument will sit there for a long period of time with all the strings holding a nice chord, then this thing is pretty good IMHO.

And of course anytime I hit the record button, It doesn’t work out quite as well😀

 

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Thanks Marg:) I am thinking about trying just three strings to see what it is like. I am having a harder time with the melody strings - they seem to bunch together and interfere with each other as I move my finger along the fretboard. 

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

So,,,,, I thought I might be more patient than this while waiting for a reply from Mr. Berg, but since I wanted to start some online tutorials, and figured it would be hard to make things worse at this point, I lowered the nut and bridge today. Of course I was worried about making them too small so I took tiny steps, ridiculously tiny actually😀 Six adjustments to the bridge to shave 0.6 mm and 7 adjustments to the nut to shave 0.8 mm. In some of these steps I did nut and bridge together, so estimate that there were10 different steps where I tightened up and turned each sting before doing the nickels and dime thing.

They could probably go lower, but at this point it seems fine to me for now. I think all I need to do is adjust the slot for the middle string on the nut. It is already a way easier to chord now.

It appears that my friend actually enlarged the the slot for the nut. The surface of the slot floor shows the change in texture. The four thin wedges remained superglued to the dulcimer slot or the plastic, so they were not any trouble to keep reinstalling.

Perhaps not the end of it but now I am enjoying it - starting the basics, did first strumming unfretted exercises, then strumming out a short melody over and over and over. And got better😀

Glen

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Yeah, Ken, I suppose that would only be of interest to me, really😀 I just sent an email to Bill and I‘ll reply with the eventual outcome.

Cheers!

Glen

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Funny thing about my string measurements - I had rounded down the fourth digit of 5 on all of them, but I see that Bill’s vid on restringing shows him using .024 (wound)/.009, .013, .011/.011. If I had rounded up instead, my measurements would have matched the proper string sizes. So this appears to be his stock setup😀

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Thanks for your help folks, and I will make this thing better! It does otherwise seem like a nice instrument IMO, and there’s certain aspects that I like better than a guitar for me - lighter string pressure, quieter, smaller, etc., and it is something new to try. For some silly reason I’ve always preferred the more hourglass shaped ones, but I can get over it😀

Cheers!

Glen

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Hi Ken, thanks for the reply! The nickel & dime info from your article is why there was no doubt in my mind because armed with that info, this one was obvious to me😀 Good thing I asked here about the nut and bridge before I started adjusting the action and changing the strings. I tend to be fussy about stuff like this and try to consider “going with what I was dealt” to compensate. It could have been some sort of traditional craftsman technique for all I knew🙄 

I will contact Bill for his advice/help as you suggest.

I am enjoying getting to know the dulcimer as I try accurate tuning with a Korg CA-1 tuner and the PanoTuner app. The last time I tuned my guitar it was with an “A” tuning fork - times have changed😀 Per chance, could inaccuracy in nut position cause what I have already noticed with all strings: if I tune the string naturally, and as accurately as possible, then any fretted notes are a tad sharp (OK, almost all of them). I was wondering about this before I got here because after tuning the D and then fretting it to use it for tuning the A, I noticed the result was a tad sharp every time. Just a little. For fun I tried nudging the D to be a tad flat in order to make its fretted notes a bit more accurate. Perhaps I am just seeing trivial inaccuracies in this instrument with these accurate meters.

Cheers!

Glen

 

updated by @gpeden: 01/15/20 02:24:57AM

New to me, Q’s on nut/bridge fit and strings.

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

Hi folks, I inherited an older friend’s 5-string Berg dulcimer via his widow asking me if I would ever want to play it. And 5 or 6 years later I have finally pulled out to get acquainted, along with my decades’ ignored guitar. And guess which one fascinates me at this time😀 Ken’s “I just got a dulcimer.....” article was most helpful and has got me off to a good start.

There is no doubt in my mind that the action is too high. There was a wooden dowel with the dulcimer, so I guess my friend was using that to play because it would have otherwise been too tough on his fingers. The nut and bridge are narrower than than the slots provided and they are held in place with outboard wedges that appear to be the same wood as the fret board. I am guessing that this is standard stuff? But are the wedges generally reusable? The nut and bridge lean over towards the middle a bit.

After I am satisfied the with lowering of both the nut and bridge, I will replace the strings. I confess that if this was a 4-string I would have purchased a D’Addario string set on Amazon and been done with it. My friend had apparently only recently purchased this before he passed and I might assume that the string setup would be original, but who knows, eh? The 27.5” (vibrating) string setup diameters and rounded Hz as measured by me are:

D:  .022”  147 Hz

d:  .008“   294 Hz

A:  .012”   220 Hz

d:  .010”   294 Hz

d:  .010”   294 Hz

I was surprised that the one “d” was smaller than the other two. The 4 strings off Amazon.ca are .012, 012, .014, .022 and I am happy to mail order elsewhere.

Also, I notice a slight bow in the fretboard mainly around the 14th fret (model aircraft builder, can’t help it, hehe). Hopefully not significant.

Any advice would be appreciated and yeah, I get somewhat wordy, LOL. Existing string sizes, setup OK? Leaning nut/bridge normal?

Cheers!
Glen

updated by @gpeden: 01/25/20 01:22:57PM